Understanding the photo restoration workflow and its practical application

Tool knowledge without workflow awareness is worthless – it is similar to a carpenter knowing how to wield a hammer but not having enough knowledge of carpentry to build a workbench with it. So, in this section, we are going to be starting with workflows – or the bigger picture of how to use a hammer to build your actual project.

For this application, we will be working with a photo of my grandparents that I have included in the downloads for this section (see Original image file inside the Photo restoration project folder). As you can see, it has seen better days. The reason I chose this photo is that it displays many of the common issues with photos we commonly get asked to enhance and restore. These include the following:

• Specks and flecks in the image
• Washed-out dynamics
• Wrinkles and folds

The workflow I have found most useful for photo retouching or restoration will...