How to restore faded photos in 10 seconds?

Sun fading is a common issue when displaying our favourite photos that are exposed to sunlight, over time it will damage the photo. Here is a 4 step guide: How to restore a sun faded photo.

Type 1: Repair with photoshop

1. Equalise the tones

The first step is to equalise the tonal range. Start by adding a black and white adjustment layer and then isolating the faded area with a selection. By viewing the Channels in Photoshop you see the colour separations and where the problem areas lie. Working with one Channel at a time, adjust the levels to equalise the tones to match those outside of the faded area. Now turn off the black and white adjustment layer.

2. Fix the discolouration

Next is to reapply colour tones to make the photo look natural once again. This can be done by adding colour tones to a combination of layers set to ‘Colour’ and ‘Soft Light’. A good tip is to sample the colours outside of the faded area, the aim here is to match the colours as close as you can.

3. Remove the halo effect

With the tonal and colour fading fixed, the last step is to remove the halo effect around the window area. Make a copy of your layer group and merge the copy into a single layer.  Using the Clone Stamp and Healing tools blend out the halo line.

4. Finishing touches

For some finishing touches, you may need to sharpen the overall image and do some Level and Colour Balance adjustments.

Type 2: Smart repair using imgkits

It is recommended to use imgkits to repair faded photos after sun exposure. imgkits has powerful intelligent photo processing technology. It only takes one minute to repair damaged, faded, yellowed, spotted, elongated, blurred, and distorted photos, and restore the original appearance of the photo.

Restoring Faded Color Photos

Type 1: Repair with photoshop

First, I open the image in Photoshop in order to address the color. Start by duplicating the image to a new layer so it’s easy to toggle the repaired layer on and off to check your progress and ultimately to more effectively blend the repaired image with the original if necessary.

I start my color repair with the simplest approach: using the Auto Color option under the Image menu. In my experience, this technique almost always makes a notable improvement, and frequently it’s all but perfect. With the example here, the Auto Color adjustment worked terrifically. For further fine-tuning or if Auto Color simply isn’t cutting it, I suggest using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. This allows you to tweak individual colors, dialing down green for instance, or increasing the saturation in whatever colors need it.

The final step for almost any color adjustment is dialing in the black point. This can be done easily with a Levels adjustment layer.

Click the top eyedropper in the adjustment layer window to activate the Black Point selection tool. Then, click on an area in the image that should be pure black, and watch as the adjustment layer automatically bases the black point on that selection. The middle eyedropper is for setting a gray point, which isn’t as crucial in my experience, but the third eyedropper is. It’s the white point eyedropper. Click this, then click on an area in the scene that should be pure white, and Photoshop will make it so.

Your image will likely have a much more pleasing contrast and saturation at this point, which can be further tweaked by grabbing the black point slider at the left of the histogram in the Levels adjustment layer panel. Here, you can dial the black level down even further or grab the slider at the right end of the histogram to bring down the highlights. You can watch the histogram for clues, too. If either end of the histogram shows a gap between the nearest peak and the edge of the frame, your black and white points are likely off. To repair this, click and drag to manually set new black and white points at the edges of those peaks.

Type 2: Smart repair using imgkits

Compared with using photoshop software manually, imgkits only requires you to upload photos with your fingers. The artificial intelligence system will automatically recognize the wrinkles, spots, missing, color and other defects of the photos, and it can repair and restore old photos in 1 minute.