Traditional color pictures are made with just three primary colors blended in such a way as to create the colors we see. Over time and depending on storage conditions, some of the dyes may oxidize and fade away. The color shift you see is the blend of what remains.
In this example, a single primary has uniformly faded away. As a result the color correction was a relatively straight forward process of adding the correct amount of the faded primary color.
In this example, two primary colors have uniformly faded away. The restoration was an iterative process selectively adjusting the color balance for each primary until good facial tones were achieved.
In this example, a single primary has uniformly faded away. As a result the color correction was a relatively straight forward process of adding the correct amount of the faded primary color.
In addition, a new complementary background was created for this picture.
This example is a 1950s era hand colored black and white photograph. Some of the color dyes have faded resulting in a yellow haze. In addition, there appears to be some water streaks on the forehead. The correction is to restore the facial tones by reducing the overall yellow content.
