Most of us have a library of black and white photographs, especially some wedding photographs of our parents or grandparents that we would like to restore and enhance in order to make them look better and also preserve them for future generations to see. Enhancing black and white wedding photographs does not imply only colorization techniques. There are various ways in which the old pictures can be elevated in order to get them back to near new condition! Some of the possible ways are:
Using Photoshop: There are numerous tools in Photoshop that enable you to improve the quality of old black and white pictures. Scan the picture to your computer and make sure to select a grayscale with a scan resolution of a minimum of 600dpi. You can try using the Auto Contrast and Auto Levels tool to correct problems related to exposure. You can make use of the Sharpen filter to negate issues related to lighting or improper camera focus. Similarly, you can also remove all dust and scratches by choosing “Filter”, then “Noise” and finally “Dust and Scratches”. The Clone Stamp Tool can be used to remove stains and blemishes that may be present in the black and white wedding photo.
Using Colored Filters: The usual problem with old black and white wedding pictures is that some colors tend to look very similar to each other when they are in grayscale. This might cause the photo to look flat and lifeless. Making use of colored filters will help overcome this problem as this will impact the way colors are portrayed in black and white. There are 5 filters that can be used: red, orange, yellow, green and blue. Each of these filters when used will allow it’s own color to go through but block all other colors. This way, you can assured that the objects in the black and white picture are well separated and precisely defined. The black and white wedding photo will now have a brighter image as the objects will appear as lighter or darker as the shades of grey!
Apart from the above two methods, the most commonly used enhancing technique is colorization. There are different varieties of software that you can purchase online or at stores to add color to old black and white wedding photographs such as Recolored, BlackMagic, Photoshop, etc.., Thus, it has now become possible to enhance your old black and white wedding photographs from the comfort of your home!
