Using PSP 7's Histogram Tool To Fix Faded Photos

Screenshots show PSP 7's version of the Histogram Tool.  PSP 8 and 9 look similar.

This procedure assumes that your monitor has been calibrated (Jasc's website has instructions on how to calibrate your monitor).

Note that this technique is for photos that are faded evenly.  For photos that are faded in splotches, either use this technique with a feathered selection or use masks or adjustment layers (more advanced techniques that I may deal with in another tutorial).

This tutorial uses the photo of Mrs. Bishop from the Miscellaneous Individuals from Ohio page of my "Antique Store People" section.  For best results, use this .png file (837k).  If that's a little too large for your connection to download in a decent amount of time, you can use this .jpg (38k) file, but be aware that enhancing the photo will also "enhance" all the JPG compression artifacts.

Note that this technique will work just as well with dark murky photos (like the tintypes of "Uncle Will" and his wife on the KEMP page of the "Antique Store People") as it will on photos like this one of Mrs. Bishop that have faded too light.

1.  Mrs. Bishop has probably been kept out on display somewhere that she was exposed to light regularly and has faded quite a bit as a result.

   
   

2.  Since Mrs. Bishop was a bit crooked in the scanner, the first thing I did was straighten her out.  I first applied a grid to the image (menu itemView > Grid) so that I could tell whether the edges of the photo were straight.  I then rotated her to the right 0.5 degrees (menu item Image > Rotate, ).  Pay careful attention to how the edges of the image (NOT the frame) line up with the grid.  This may take some trial and error and rotation settings will probably be slightly different for every photo you do this to.  When the photo looks as straight as you can get it, remove the grid by going to menu item View > Grid again.

   
   

3.  Use the selection tool to select only the photo.  If you include the frame, the histogram reading will be inaccurate.  This technique assumes that you're using a rectangular photograph.  There is a way to make selections for irregularly shaped photos like ellipses (ovals) or arches, but I will deal with that in another tutorial since it involves a bit of vector shape editing.

   
   

4. Go to menu item Colors > Histogram Functions > Histogram Adjustment.  Notice in the screenshot below that the histogram is "flatlined" on the left and right sides, with just a spike near the right side.  This means that the image has no true black (left side of the graph) or white (right side of the graph) values and most of the information is concentrated in the light grey area of the graph.
   

   
    This is a histogram reading of a normal photo for comparison.  The photo used for this histogram is not faded and has a fairly normal range of tones from black almost all the way to white.  There is a slight "flatline" on the right side of the histogram, but this is barely noticeable in the actual photo.

   
   

5. Move the black arrow just to the left edge of the data spike where it starts to rise above the "flatline".  Move the white arrow just to the right edge of the spike.   These may not be exact for every photo - use the "flatlines" as a starting point and nudge the arrows until the result looks good to you.  One way to do this is to find a dark or shadow area of the photo that you think should be black (the shadows at the corners of Mrs. Bishop's eyes or her collar just under her chin) and nudge the black arrow until it is.  Find a highlight area of the photo that should ideally be white (maybe the sparkles on her pin or the blank area of the photo near the edges) and nudge the white arrow until it looks right.  Don't be afraid to use the zoom controls between the preview windows to zoom in on the photo if you need to check the detail in eyes, lips, hair, etc.  Click "OK" when you have Mrs. Bishop looks the way you think she should.
   

   
   

6.  Mrs. Bishop is looking much better than she was earlier.  Just deselect (menu item Selections > Select None) and save her photo.  Here's the final image in .png format (795k) or .jpg format (46k).

   
   

•    Don't forget the reset button.  If think you've messed up the histogram settings and want to reset them all so you can start over again, click this button.

• The gray center arrow in the Histogram screen is used to adjust gamma (medium tones).  In photos like this, it is usually best used to adjust skin tones, foliage, or any other areas that should look medium gray in a black and white photo.  Move it to the left to darken the midtones.  Move it to the right to lighten them.  If Mrs. Bishop's face still looks a bit dark to you after moving the black and white arrows, try nudging the gray arrow to the right slightly.

•  These arrows just under the Histogram screen are "zoom controls" for the graph.  If you're having trouble seeing where the "flatline" ends and the photo data begins, click the left hand arrow (the one pointing up) until the data spike is enlarged enough to see the difference clearly.  The center button labled "1:1" will reset this graph.  The arrow on the right is for "zooming out", which we don't need for Mrs. Bishop's simple photo correction.

•  Contrast may be adjusted by use of the "Midtones Compress" slider on the right of the Histogram screen.  Increase contrast by lowering the slider.  Lower contrast by raising the slider.  A little goes an awfully long way, so only nudge the slider a little bit.

• The drop-down "Edit" menu defaults to "Luminosity" and may safely be left there unless you're trying to color correct a color photograph.  The other options are to individually edit the red, green, or blue color channels.  This is a more advanced technique and I'm still playing around with it.

•  The "Output" slider controls on the left side of the window appear to be used as follows (I'm still playing around with this control to see what it does):  If the black arrow is all the way to the left and your shadows or dark tones are still too dark, try bumping the "Min" control up a bit.  Similarly, if the white arrow is all the way to the right and your highlights or light tones are still too bright, bump the "Max" control down a bit.  As with the contrast slider, a little goes a very long way with these adjustments.

• The "Help" button for this feature can be very helpful too, although you may need to read through what it says a couple of times before it starts to sink in.