Photos for the Photo Restoration Contest

Image #1: War Time

This is a photo of Lowell Duncombe in World War I.  He was a member of the Canadian Cavalry.  The story goes that he received a blessing from God that he would be unharmed if he did nothing to dishonor himself while at war, and he was miraculously protected.

This would be a good photo to work on for the contest if you’re looking for something that doesn’t present too much of a challenge to fix the photo, but offers opportunities for improving the way the names of the soldiers are displayed.  The names were written on just a year or two ago, so the handwriting is not historically significant.  You have the latitude with a photo like this to use your graphic design skills to present the names as you like.

Image #2: Kissing Under the Waterfall

This is a photo of a couple kissing at Bridal Veil Falls in Utah.  The photo was taken in 1940.

In terms of the restoration, this is likely the most challenging of all the photos available for the contest.  There is a large tear in the right, cracking on the bottom-left, and wrinkles at the top and left of the photo.  Additionally, the areas around the wrinkles and tears have uneven fading, which makes it difficult to match up.  Also, the scan for this photo is only 674px by 780px, so there is not much information to work with.

Fortunately, the photo is properly exposed, so the detail can be brought back by someone who has the right touch.

Image #3: Baby Donna Harmer

This is a baby photo taken in 1925.

This picture has a large stain on the baby’s face, lack of detail due to fading or poor print quality of the era, and discoloration.  These are common problems in old photos and will provide excellent practice for the most common photo restoration projects.

This is a very easy project for someone who wants a quick entry into the contest or who is not confident in their editing skills.

 

Image #4: Eldon Willis

This is a photo of Nora and Eldon Willis (for whom Jim gets his middle name).  The photo was taken in 1909 or 1910 in Canada.

This is an excellent photo for anyone who wants to get some practice at removing the most common problems in old photos–nicks, marks, spots, and slight fading.  I have a feeling that anyone who chooses to work on this photo will become good friends with the spot healing brush.  Fortunately, this is one of the higher resolution scans, so you will have ample detail to work with.

Image #5: Fishing Boy

This photo is of a little boy fishing.  The photo was taken sometime around 1930 at a lake in Utah, USA.

This photo will require an intermediate skill level to restore.  The picture itself has some scratches and marks, but also suffers from a lack of sharpness, fading, and overexposure.  This would be a good project for colorization since large portions of the photo are overexposed and a little color could give the appearance of there being more detail in the shot.

Image #6: Canadian Bayonet

This photo was taken of Eldon Willis in 1915.  He was a medic for the Canadian Army during World War I, and according to those who knew him, this fearsome pose was most comical because of his unusually mild temperament.

This photo will require you to make a key decision when editing.  The horizon was tilted dramatically when the photo was taken, so you will need to decide whether to straighten the horizon and draw in the grass and tents in the background, or to leave the titled horizon and restore the photo naturally.  This would be another good project for colorization, or to simply fix the problems in the photo due to age.

Image #7: Wedding Day

This photo was taken some time around 1920 of a couple on their wedding day.

The photo appears to be a scan from a newspaper article, as you can see from the moire pattern on the photo.  Photoshop does include tools made for fixing this problem, but it is challenging to remove the pattern and still maintain detail in the photo.  This is a restoration project for the adventurous photo editors who want a challenge.  Fortunately, this photo is one of the higher resolution scans available for this contest, so there should be sufficient detail to remove the moire.

Image #8: Cameron Brothers

It does not take much study of this photo to see that it is extremely old and was taken in the late 1800s.  The photo provides nearly no detail more than what is necessary to make out the major lines in the face and body of the brothers in the picture.

Other photos in this list are challenging,  but this one is near impossible and should be reserved only for those who eat fear for breakfast, and drink pixels for lunch.