Opinions for old photos

[sherelm]

That are on thicker photo paper. These are I'm guessing maybe 4x4 in size but printed on linen portrait professional type paper. And they are really not so great pix of the ocean and boardwalks along New Jersey beaches, but great memories just the same.

My question is if you were me, would you scan and reprint, which will lower the quality, or is there a way to flatten these, does anyone know? They are curling from being 50 years old.

[CarrieG]

I have tacked some down and taken a high resolution photo of them and then had them printed....they turn out pretty good.

[Yankeegirl]

I have scanned old photos with very good results, as long as the original print is in good condition.  Any cracks will stand out like a sore thumb.  I often scan and print in B&W or sepia, which seems to look better to me.  I also use high quality photo printer paper.

[Art_Teacher]

What Kathy said, although the linen may give you some troubles.  I put a towel over my scanner so no light can get in from the sides and reflect on any texture.  If you want to try to flatten them, I would scan them first, in case it doesn't work well, but I have had luck with flattening artwork that is curling by laying it face down on a smooth, clean surface, then using a lightly damp sponge on the back and stacking books on them to let them dry over a few days.  If the paper is thick enough, this should work, but if it is thin, the moisture will soak through to the front and might make them stick to the surface.  KWIM?  At any rate, I would take the books off after a few days and let them lay there to dry all the way through before turning them back over.

[shoorn]

I agree with Kathy. I have scanned old vintage photos. I will use PSE to clean up crack or scratches before I print (usually in B&W or sepia).

[pawprints]

I have scanned many old photos with great results. I also have retouched tears and scratches in Photoshop and even enlarged pics. I did a whole album for my mom about my grandmother and had a whole lot of old pics to deal with. The pic of my mom as a little girl in this layout (the left side of a two pager) is a perfect example.



This is the original pic that I had to work with. It's from the 1930s.


This is the pic after I got rid of all the cracks and tears in Photoshop. I also scanned it at a very high resolution so I could blow it up a little.


Then I gave it a sepia tint.


The old saying "garbage in/garbage out" is not always true!

The only problem is when you have a photo that is on a textured paper like from a photo studio. Depending on your scanner, many can "see" the texture and interpret it as dots. Those are tough to deal with.