Restore faded photos

Talk about Pixelmator Pro, share tips & tricks, tutorials, and other resources.
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2021-10-15 01:11:13

What is the most effective way way in Pixelmator Pro to restore old and faded colour photos? Can the method be applied to a batch of photos? My main aim is to restore colour, not necessarily to repair damaged images.
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2021-10-15 13:14:12

Heya Greg. You can batch process images using different Pixelmator Pro automation actions in macOS Automator, AppleScript, Shortcuts (coming soon) but you'll still need to manually touch up at least one photo first. The particular color improvements you'll want to make will depend on the fade type of a photo. As photos are printed using red, yellow, and blue dye, when fading, they will usually lean more towards one of these colors. Auto Color adjustment in the or Levels or Curves adjustments will usually do a good job balancing that out.

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After you've used Auto Color as a base, you can then continue working on additional changes (if needed), like adding more contrast, making certain colors stand out more, or toning down the others. You can use the Selective Color or Color Balance adjustments for that. Essentially, there's no one universal recipe that fits all images, but with a bit of trial and error, you can definitely create some adjustments that will work for your images. :)
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2021-10-16 00:03:23

Thanks Aurelija. Your reply is of great help. I had fiddled with some of the adjustments myself but the Auto Color in Levels has set me on the right track. I first bought Pixelmator in 2008 but have not used it much to date. However, I have a number of older photos which need 'fixing' and Pixelmator will be my app of choice.
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2021-10-18 15:29:05

Glad that helped. Have fun bringing your photos back to life! :)
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2021-11-23 15:23:25

I would start by off by increasing vibrance and saturation. optionally also tweak temperature and/or hue in order to make the colors look natural. (self-taught amateur graphic designer here. I've never even used a manual. but it works for me.)
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2021-11-23 20:28:55

Nowadays software can reconstruct colors from black&white stills and videos via AI. Partially made it into PS to my knowledge.
Looking weird at a first glance when confronted with colored footage material of the early 20 century. Imaging Josephine Baker in color. This sentence is already weird. :scream: