color in older photos

[twirlerzmom]

I am trying to scrap a bunch of older photos that I took back in the 80's (pre digital camera days) and they are all very muddy in color. No vibrancy, more brown, reddish-brown in overall hue, etc. How would I go about bringing them back to life? I've tried working in LR but the auto color makes them too purple or bluish. I tried manually adjusting each color and then I get drab. It's like I get one extreme or the other. Any help would be appreciated! (The 1st photo is before, the 2nd is after I played around with it.)

[katrinak]

In Lightroom I would suggest you work in the HSL (Hue Saturation Luminance) window. CLick the little icon on the right hand side. It will then let you click and slide the indicators on each color in the photo. It will be much more precise and allow you to change colors throughout the photo rather than overall.

I hope this helps. Let us know how it goes!

[Cassie Jones (1gr8muggle)]

In LR, you can set the white balance by using the eyedropper by that setting in the Develop module. Then you can click on what you see as the most "white" area of the image to adjust the colors that way. It often gets me on the right path pretty quickly.

Just a note . . . it's not always a bad thing to leave the image as it is. That is representative of the period in which the photo was taken. Sometimes it helps give a page some extra charm.

ETA: Katrina and I were replying at the same time. Go with Katrina's idea first. She's used the software much more than I.

[twirlerzmom]

Thank you ladies. Cassie, I didn't know how the eye dropper worked. I want to upgrade to LR3 so I'm holding off buying any books to help me understand LR until then. I'm kinda self-teaching myself! lol

After thinking about it a bit more I found a quick easy solution to my problem though. I scanned those photos with my old scanner. I have since bought an Epson V600. I'm rescanning them with color restoration and Digital Ice turned on. That at least gives me a much better jumping off point to work with now.

[katrinak]

Great minds Cassie She's right about working with white balance too. I'd offer a minor alternative to it as well, one I'm loving lately.

Rather than clicking on the white in your photo, click on a neutral color with the eye dropper. When you see the little window pop open you will see the RGB numbers at the bottom, they change as you drag the dropper around the photo. Look for a grey or black color where your RGB's are almost identical #s. You'll be stunned at the difference. Doesn't matter if the numbers are big or small, just try to get them as close to the same as possible. Pupils, irises and jean edges are some of my favorite spots to use.

[Cassie Jones (1gr8muggle)]

ooooooh . . . I'm subscribing to this thread so I don't forget that tip!

[twirlerzmom]

Wow, thanks for that tip Katrina. I'm going to make sure I write that one down and post it next to my monitor!

[esther_a]

Jan, I'm so glad you asked this question! I have often spent hours trying to fix photos.If everything else fails you could try some black and white conversions.
These old photos are so precious, aren't they?!
So funny that we often use LightRoom presets and Photoshop Actions to reduce color or give a vintage look on new photos!!

[anke]

Wow, I am with Cassie, I need to subscribe to it also, this is some awesome info!!! Thanks so much!!!