The Picture on the Wall (pt. 1)

(Authors Note: My New Years resolution is to try and keep my tutorials a bit shorter. I’ve started off quite well,if I say so myself, but I feel I must warn you: My New Year resolutions usually last approximately 3.7 days, so please don’t get your hope’s up, too high…)

Many times, those of us who partake in a bit of the genealogy will find that we acquire new relatives on a somewhat regular basis. We also, if we’re lucky, find that these new cousins have photographs of family members that we don’t have and they are, if we’re even luckier, willing to share.

Sometimes, however, the photographs are actually in frames, hanging on walls. While keeping originals of old photos in frames hanging on walls is up there on the top ten list of worse things to do with your old photos, it would rank even higher on the list to take them out of their original frames, so about the only thing to do is to take a picture of the picture.

Now, unless it’s done the right way, right camera, right lighting, right filters, different shots taken at different angles to combine into one… a photographer who knows what they’re doing wouldn’t be remiss, here, you’re probably going to have a bit of a problem with things like perspective and glass glare. So how do we go about fixing these little problems when they occur? As with anything in Photoshop, there are a multitude of ways to fix any one problem. Here’s just one:

Problem #1: Taking The Perspective Out

Begin by duplicating your background layer. Go to Edit > Transform and choose Warp. Now use your mouse in the warp area to line the outside of the frame of with the edge of the document.

Align all four sides of the frame with the edges of the document and hit enter. With that layer still active, select the rectangular selection tool. Select the area inside the frame and the mat if there’s one present.

Go to Select > Inverse. Hit delete or Ctrl+X to delete.

Go to Edit > Transform. Keeping a finger on the shift key to keep the proper perspective ratio, transform the selection to fit the document size as best as you can.

Now your photo is properly aligned and in perspective and ready for the rest of the restoration process!

You can find more from Janine on her website and on Twitter

Janine Smith is an award winning photo restoration artist, professional genealogist, writer, lecturer, and the owner of a genealogical services company, Landailyn Research & Restoration, in Fort Worth Texas.

Janine Smith

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Tags: Janine Smith, Perspective, Photoshop, Restoration, Tutorial, Warp