Customer Reviews

Digital Restoration from Start to Finish, Second Edition: How to repair old and damaged photographs

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first edition of Digital Restoration has been the essential Bible on this subject. This second edition is a major update that has retained the excellent examples of the first and added to them. The discussion of pertinent software and hardware has been almost completely rewritten to make it relevant to today's state of the art. Links have been added for more information. All in all, I would say that this second edition is twice as useful as the first. One of this book's strongest points is that it does not assume that all readers use Photoshop. He shows what can be done with Photoshop and also shows many examples of what can be done with other methods and tools.

The book has a major value that is not apparent from the title. It explains how to get the best results when scanning photos that do not need to be repaired or restored. Whenever someone in my camera club tells me that they are going scan their old films and ask what they need to know I tell them to buy Ctein's book on restoration.

I am the family genealogist and a fairly-advanced photoshop user. I have spent hundreds of hours over the years restoring old photos (and need hundreds more) dating back to the 1890's and there wasn't an easy one in the lot. I've referred to the first edition of Ctein's wonderful book on photo restoriation (as well as Katrin Eismann's which now needs revision) so often that they are worn to and have so many colored tabs on their pages & so much highlighting that it's hard to find an unmarked spot. I was excited to see that a second edition was coming, and I'm not disappointed.

I have found Ctein's approach to restoration problems to be clever, original, well-explained and professional. His mind and mine are completely different because he comes up with techniques I would never have conceived (and I can be pretty inventive). I have had great successes using his methods and only one notable failure. I cannot seem to achieve the same results he does when restoring photos printed on honeycomb paper, even though I do have all the required software. Maybe my black and white photos require a different treatment than his color example.

SOME THINGS HAVEN'T CHANGED:
This second edition has much of the text and most of the illustrations (if not all) of the previous edition I'm so familiar with. It has been completely restructured from the order of presentation to the chapters and headings. There seem to be additional screen shots and there might be additional text, but since this is a book that you refer to on an as-needed basis, I can't specify exactly what is new. Nothing I've found important appears to be missing. It is as encyclopedic in breadth as the previous one. I think that the reason it has fewer pages is because, to my dismay, it has smaller print.

SOME NECESSARY CHANGES WERE MADE:
----an updating of Photoshop procedures and options to bring it up to CS4 (CS 5 is now out, but it doesn't provide any restoration-specific advances unless you need to make complicated selections or masks. The noise reduction advances are mostly for RAW's so won't really apply to scans.)
----a review of the other programs and plug-ins recommended in the other book to add new ones and remove discontinued ones. (Although Noise Ninja, Digital Roc, and Digital Gem are still listed and they haven't been updated in at least three years, making their ongoing compatibility with newer versions of PS, newer operating systems, and the newer of 64-bit systems a bit doubtful). He apparently doesn't care for others I have found of use in restoration work (like Genuine Fractals, Topaz Denoise, and Nik Dfine).
----an updating of hardware options, as well as revised memory requirements and archiving options. (After all, if I'm going to all this trouble, it's to leave something future generations can access.)
----an added emphasis on working in 16-bit depth.

SOME CHANGES WERE EXTREMELY WELCOME:
----the new symptom tree that follows the Table of Contents is pure genius. Sometimes the user is faced with a problem he doesn't know the name for: how does he look it up in the index? This way, if you see an image thumbnail with a problem that resembles yours, you go to the pages indicated. You don't need to know that the metallic gleam is called "silvering" or that the darkish spotting is "varnishing." You go straight to the pages you need to see.
----highlighted text sections to bring attention to particularly important or relevant information.

SOME REALITIES REMAIN THE SAME:
As before, the recommended approach to tackling a particular problem might not be straight Photoshop or Elements (these still remain the core tools for the most part). Many, many other programs and plug-ins are recommended instead when the author feels they target a particular problem in a more constructive way. I can understand that a professional restorer might be able to afford the expenditure involved in getting all this specialized software, since he will use each on many occasions. A casual restorer can't afford the luxury of buying software which is so issue-specific--but it's still good to know that these options exist.

If you plan on restoring photographs this book is not just recommended, it is required.

I'm a pretty serious amateur photographer who's occasionally been faced with restoring old family pictures. I've bashed my way through, generally making some improvements but taking forever to get done. This very thorough book by Ctein is going to make that job a lot easier. He addresses nearly every phase of the process, from adjusting tone and contrast to repairing damage in the originals. The first portion of the book circles the problem at high altitude, describing the various vintages of photograph and the unique issues that can arise in each form. He discusses the intent of the photograph: does it have historical importance or is it a keepsake? Appropriate mindsets should be adopted, and the needs of any potential customer (even if it's just you) must be understood. For those in a hurry, there's a nice section of pictures before and after, along with pointers to the sections addressing those particular restorations.

Ctein (pronounced 'kuh-TEIN') describes various software packages which he uses, along with favorite plugins. There's also a discussion of monitors and printers. He is sensitive to budgets: you can accomplish a lot with some common basic adjustments. Still it becomes clear that you're going to spend some serious coin on hardware and software if you want to take full advantage of the tips in the book.

Then it's down to brass tacks, with detailed sections on each type of restoration. He discusses how to scan images to capture the most detail. He describes methods for restoring tone and faded colors. There is a very good section on removing damage as well as the ugly look of textured prints. There are some good hints on how to make restored images pop with a life that wasn't even in the originals. Finally, there are sections on printing and backing up your images.

It doesn't end there. Ctein provides a link to downloadable copies of the very images he uses in the book. The reader is free to hone his own skills. He also recommends a number of other books for readers with even more specific needs. My only real complaint is that a few of the printed images in the book don't hold enough detail to make it clear what the author is doing. They're just a bit small to illustrate what's going on.

There's a gold mine of useful information here, and I have no doubt it's going to prove an invaluable reference. Time to toss out my old restorations and do them the right way.

I have to admit ... while I am very competent in most areas of using computers, I have always been a bit intimidated with Photoshop and anything other than the basics of digital photography. This book changed that by making sense out of what had been so confusing to me before. Not a moment too soon, as I am about to begin the process of scanning old photos into my family tree program, some of which date back to the earliest days of photography (tin-types).

Well-written and easy to follow, it explains what all the many adjustments do in Photoshop as well as other programs such as Photoshop Elements and Picture Window Pro, along with information on how to best set up your scanner, what you need to adjust to get a certain effect, etc. It is truly a great resource that will be as useful to the novice like me as it will be to more experienced digital photographers. There are many examples of the effects throughout the book, giving you exactly what you need to make your photos look their best.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in digital photography and photo restoration. You will not be disappointed.

If you have a photo you want to restore and want to just jump in and do it this is a great book!

If you want to learn a holistic approach to restoring photos this is a great book.

In addition to the table of Contents (which is well laid out) there is also a section in the front of the book that has a photographs needing restoration. It is a visual table of contents on which section to refer to if your photo looks like X and you want it to look like Y (this is a great place to start if you want to jump in and fix the photo you have in hand).

The corrections are often general and can be used with a variety of programs (i.e. if you don't have Photoshop you can still use this book)! That being said the book is still very much oriented to those working with Photoshop (as I personally do).

In chapter 4 the author goes into depth on how to best scan your image and other techniques that can be used to digitize an image.

I have purchased another book on digital restoration and got frustrated when I could not easily find the skill needed to restore a particular image. This book is well organized and it was to find the resources I needed to fix a variety of photos.

This book does a great job of describing the use of histograms. What I have learned here not only has helped my restoration skills but also my general corrections skills for my all my digital images.

It's a Photoshop world...unless you are like me and prefer the elegant simplicity (and value) of Photoshop Elements. And it is extremely difficult to find in-depth how to books for Elements--the assumption by publishers is, I assume, that we're little more than a collection of scrapbookers and homeschoolers who don't need much from our software beyond light touch-ups.

Thankfully, the truly comprehensive "Digital Restoration from Start to Finish, Second Edition: How to repair old and damaged photographs" drills deep into the layers (no pun intended) and provides incredibly detailed, thoughtful advice and training on how to fix damaged photos.

If you've ever tried to digitally restore or enhance even one photo, you know how difficult this process can be--and how many unknowns lay in wait. This book is encyclopedic in scope, but avoids the lightweight, scattershot approach so many software "bibles" foist on unsuspecting readers. Instead, "Digital Restoration from Start to Finish, Second Edition: How to repair old and damaged photographs" leads you through a sensible, logical path from tragic damage to shiny perfection.

It's an priceless roadmap through a potentially harrowing maze of uncertainty. Highly recommended.

I've never had or tried to restore an old photo - and don't want to. That being said, Chapters 5, 6 and 7 named 'Restoring Tone', 'Restoring Color' and 'Making Masks' are worth the price of the book alone for the detailed instruction on using tools to correct images. The examples on how some tools are actually used, particularly Curves layers, provide needed instructions that are woefully underexplained elsewhere.


This and Katrin Eismann's book 'Restoration and Retouching' (along with her 'Masking and Compositing' should be essential parts of any photographer's library.

Photos of my family tree started broadening my views of what goes into a picture, and in return the process of what feelings it presents or its motivation. Their perception will forever live on, long after the camera is gone, and the location has been taken over by concrete. Questionably though the qualities may be a tad bit off, and on photos where undesirable staining or scratches have occurred, catastrophe may strike. Simply knowing a majority of them can be restored digitally, directly by yourself, is indeed so liberating. I'd like to introduce you to the book that has taught me to perform such tasks, "Digital Restoration From Start to Finish (Second Edition)".

In a couple hundred pages you'll be taught techniques for photo repairing based on the damage or aging elements that have occurred. Passing lectures and heading straight to the fundamentals of photos, ideals, and the materials used in say the mid-20th century to snap a moment in time, reaching the end of this book might just enlighten you in more ways then just photo restoration.

Kindly placed in the beginning is a list of other books to help one understand the photo editing software often required for more intricate repairs. Who'd guess things like ram could lead to faulty photos? This book also gets one to thinking about the types of computer monitors how tilting some can exaggerate color. Okay, this book has even taught me how to save some old heavily damaged photos and increase their size for better quality.

Quick reference pages make this a much more accessible ride to retrieving information in a hurry on techniques. It's really easy and interesting, the examples are classic cases as well. "If your photograph looks like this..." "And you'd like it to look more like this," "Then try the methods on pages", that's directly from the `Quick Diagnosis Guide to Restoration" pages and it couldn't be easier to locate and inspect.

The guide for each diagnosis is relatively easy going. Problem is using the programs to achieve the desired effect isn't for most. So I strongly recommend this book to those who are familiarized with Photoshop and photo editing software. Also please take the time to locate your scanner you're going to be needing it.

There's little else to be said that hasn't already been said about this book. The ONLY reason I'm reviewing it is because it deserves all the 5-star reviews it can get. Very few of the products we review get 5 stars - they have to be the best of the best, and this is one of the best 5-star items we've ever reviewed. As the title says, just read the other 5-star reviews and you've got your answers. I could only add that my wife is not very computer "literate," has exceptionally little photography experience, and yet she's running circles around me in family restoration projects, with this book only serving to further improve her capabilities to date. Superb!

I especilly liked the way this book starts out with a visual Quick Diagnostic Guide that directs to relevant chapters. Chapter 4 on Scanning and chapter 13 on Archiving and Permanence are worth the price of admission.