Paul Le Chien

Photographs are the best tool we have to relive our cherished memories and remember loved ones who are no longer with us. Unfortunately photographs don?t age well and over time their quality diminishes. Because photos are printed on paper they are often affected by things such as handling, light, moisture, dust, and scratches. Regrettably, these things can ruin our photos and prevent them from lasting through the generations.

Unfortunately many people have been faced with the question of what to do with photographs that are torn or have been ruined by moisture. Do you simply toss them in the trash and risk losing the memories they hold or do you spend loads of money to have the photo restored? Fortunately you don?t have to do either. You can use photo editing software to restore the photos to their original condition.

The first step to restoring your cherished photos is to create a digital image of them so you can then edit them using your computer. Converting them to a digital image is as easy as scanning them into your computer. Once you have scanned your photo you can then begin the photo editing process.

Once you have opened your photograph inside your photo editing program I recommend that you create a copy by clicking on the file menu and selecting save as to rename your photograph. I recommend this so that you have a backup image on the off chance that you make a mistake. Once you have done this vital step you can begin to edit your photo using a few of the tools available. The tools I will talk about are the ones in Adobe Elements.

Now restoring your photos when using Adobe Elements is quite simple and it does not need any skilled training, all the tools in the elements software are very simple and easy to use. The most common tools you will use when restoring photos will be the smudge, blur and sharpen tool, these are the tools you definitely will need to get to grips with.

I want to give you a breakdown of each of the tools and tell you how you can use them to restore your photographs. Let?s start with the smudge tool. This tool is helpful when you want to eliminate any scratches or tears that are on the original photo. This tool can also be used to eliminate any objects in the background you wish to get rid of as well as correct photos that were not properly focused.

The next tool you can use is the blur tool. The blur tool allows you to add tone to photos that have been lightened by the sun; in essence you are making them darker. Using the blur tool you are adding color to retrieve the brightness of the original photo.

The sharpen tool is the last, most commonly used tool in photo restoration. If any parts of the photo are blurred, whether it is in the original photo or from scanning it in, this tool will fix those bits.

Keep your cherished memories alive and well, restore them using Adobe Elements.