Quite a few years ago, I decided that I ought to build a soft copy library of old family pics. That was in the days when I thought of family as a unit. Anyway, I knew most pictures were spread out among siblings and so on among my parents’ generation and no one would let theirs go for fear they’d never see them again. So I persuaded them one by one to give me the pics so I could scan them and then return the originals to the respectful owners, along with a CD of all the pictures. On getting those pics I realized how badly some of them had been damaged. Seemed like everyone wanted a piece of the pie but didn’t know better than to leave the pie out on the ledge where the ants could get to them. In this case of course, it was silverfish that did most of the damage. So I had to learn photoshopping to try and repair the photographs. Only, I was too impatient to go through a book. I still think I did a good job. This one is of my maternal grandparents, taken in the Belgrade where my mother’s dad worked in the Foreign service.
This is the original
And this is after I worked at it.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
About hbhatnagar
I need to fill this up with much better content than I had populated it with earlier. Why I write a blog maybe? I started blogging in 2009 or thereabouts. I was a newly turned atheist and wanted to converse with others of the same persuasion. We're not exactly a big population group in India! It didn't go very well and I sort of lost interest, posting a few things now and then.
I got a lot more regular over the last few months and have been posting almost daily since February '15. There were many reasons why I gradually became more regular in posting, but one way or the other, here I am! So this blog has taken shape, being at different points in time my showcase, my comedy club, my art gallery, my book club, my therapist, my close friend, my innermost self....but always my little corner of the world. You are all welcome to visit and I hope you stay awhile!
A few points about me because I don't want to lead anyone on(and trust me this does become an issue more often than I'd care to admit).
I'm Indian, the brown-skinned variety; if race, ethnicity or skin colour is an issue, you don't have to get to know me any more than what you see on my blog.
I'm 40, so if age is an issue, please be informed accordingly.
I was a doctor, an ophthalmic surgeon for 10 years before I quit practice.
hbhatnagar 
You did fantastic with this image 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by Himali Shah | 17/07/2015, 7:21 PMThank you Himali!
LikeLike
Posted by hbhatnagar | 17/07/2015, 7:42 PMWelcome 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by Himali Shah | 17/07/2015, 7:58 PMHB you’re multi talented. Photo shop Is quite complicated I guess !
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by Himali Shah | 17/07/2015, 7:21 PMThanks! It is complicated but not too much. Not the basic stuff at least.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by hbhatnagar | 17/07/2015, 7:42 PMI too wanna learn. But I am terrible at these softwares
LikeLike
Posted by Himali Shah | 17/07/2015, 7:59 PMTry fiddling with it. Don’t be scared of getting it wrong. GIMP is a good free alternative to photoshop.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by hbhatnagar | 17/07/2015, 8:59 PMOhhh, nice 🙂 I will try it then 🙂 thanks HB
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by Himali Shah | 17/07/2015, 9:02 PMAny time
LikeLike
Posted by hbhatnagar | 17/07/2015, 9:04 PMYou did a great job
LikeLike
Posted by izza ifzaal | 12/07/2015, 8:59 PMThanks Izza!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by hbhatnagar | 12/07/2015, 9:11 PM☺☺☺
LikeLike
Posted by izza ifzaal | 12/07/2015, 9:22 PMBeautifully done! Thank you for sharing this precious photo with us, Dr. Hb. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by Amy | 12/07/2015, 6:50 PMThank you Amy! 🙂
LikeLike
Posted by hbhatnagar | 12/07/2015, 7:19 PMYou did an incredible job restoring the photo!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by mangosarenottheonlyfruit | 12/07/2015, 1:16 PMThank you!
LikeLike
Posted by hbhatnagar | 12/07/2015, 1:18 PMThat’s neat. (y) Well done.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by ANooP | 12/07/2015, 1:06 PMThanks Anoop!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by hbhatnagar | 12/07/2015, 1:17 PMGreat job!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by Tessa | 12/07/2015, 11:14 AMThank you Tessa!
LikeLike
Posted by hbhatnagar | 12/07/2015, 1:17 PMWow H . This is really neat and we’ll put together . Take a bow !
Please share a few tips .am sure many of us could use a few tricks to salvage old memories .
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by priyankamoraes | 12/07/2015, 10:15 AMI honestly couldn’t give tips. I’m self taught so I never learned a proper order to do things. I just took one photo and went with it till it was where I wanted it to be. 🙂
Clone stamp is important though, that much I remember.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Posted by hbhatnagar | 12/07/2015, 10:46 AMOk I will give it a shot sometime . Hope your eye is better.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by priyankamoraes | 12/07/2015, 10:47 AMIt’s much better, thank you for asking. 🙂
LikeLike
Posted by hbhatnagar | 12/07/2015, 1:17 PMYou did it so neatly and the picture looks beautiful.
The same happened with me while asking for mom’s childhood photographs. Guess, we are all the same.
How did you learn? I always wanted to, but could never 😦
Teach me?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Posted by Kritika Vashist | 12/07/2015, 10:07 AMI learned by trial and error. Just went through menus and tried what made sense. Tinkering with things has always been a passion. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by hbhatnagar | 12/07/2015, 10:44 AMGreat work. This really puts support to the quote “Old is Gold”. I did a similar personal project where I constructed a family tree going back as many generations I could. As I did, I learned quite a bit about the values of my family and why they do the things they do. It was shocking to me that I even found a wedding invitation card of my grandfather and grandmother. I was surprised at how well it was preserved. Nothing torn apart and perfect ink. It taught me how these old moments will be as good as we can preserve it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Posted by Gaurav Luthra | 12/07/2015, 10:05 AMYou said it! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by hbhatnagar | 12/07/2015, 10:43 AMWell done!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Posted by Victo Dolore | 12/07/2015, 9:49 AMThanks Victo!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by hbhatnagar | 12/07/2015, 10:43 AM