How Far Can We Push the Digital Restoration of Film?

During a walk with my wife over winter in our neighbourhood, we came across what looked like a box of Kodak Kodachrome KL 200 Slides. No box though, just slides everywhere.

When the snow melted I noticed there were a few left. For fun I thought I’d pocket a them and bring them home to see what I could do. They looked like vacation shots from a trip to London.

Here’s my initial scan of one of them.

Initial Scan

As you can see there’s significant scratches, a lot of dirt, and even a piece missing. On top of that the colour has been significantly damaged from being covered in snow, and then exposed to the elements of a back alley.

To save time in Lightroom and Photoshop I decided to physically clean the surface. I used water to soften the dirt, an antistatic glove to wipe it away and compressed air to dry it off. At this point I also pealed the paper slide away to I could take the slide out and get the edges.

After Cleaning the Slide

This time when I scanned my image I made extensive adjustments to levels, curves, and made individual colour corrections. Just to ensure I had a good eye, I put a scan through on auto colour correction. As I had hoped I did a better job adjusting for colour damage than the computer (thank god).

Proper Scan with Levels, Curves and Colour Corrections

In Lightroom I paid special attention to my colours, trying to bring out the red and blues of the uniform. I did this with the HSL panel and the Camera Calibration panel.

After Lightroom Adjustments

I went into Photoshop CS5 and got to work removing as much of the damage and left over gunk as I could. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get it all, and to be honest I didn’t want to. I think it’s very easy to make film look fake and overdone. I’ve seen photos restored and because too much was done, the essence was lost. The photo may as well have been stencilled and redrawn.

Anyway, the final result isn’t perfect, but it came a long way from a lonely slide, laying in snow and gravel!

Final Result, after Photoshop

In Photoshop CS5 I used the patch tool, spot healing brush, the clone stamp tool, smart sharpen, and a layer mask adding a little multiply to our man in uniform with about 40% opacity.

Before & After

I appreciate any and all feedback.