Re: [Gimp-user] faded photo

[Steve Kinney <admin pilobilus net>]

On 06/08/2018 03:23 PM, lkl316 wrote:
> I have a kodacolor photo that was totally in color. It was unframed and a
> leaking roof left  it totally washed out. It shows very faint color. I s there
> any technique using Gimp that can restore the color?

Another method for bringing up color (and contrast), is to make a layer
copy of the (scanned?) original, and set its Layer Mode to Overlay.
This alone may not be sufficient; or, if it does /too/ much to increase
color and contrast, dial the new layer's opacity back until if looks
about right.  (I think Akkana Peck posted this method here years ago,
somebody did and I have gotten a LOT of mileage out of it.)

After the above adjustment, do Layer > New From Visible, and do further
work if needed on the new layer.

Some tools to try:

Colors > Hue / Saturation - The saturation and lightness sliders may do
useful things.

Colors > Levels - The default setting will let you drag a curve up and
down where and as needed, to fine tune brightness within specific
ranges.  Play with it, and remember:  Control-z is your friend, just
undo any changes you aren't satisfied with.  Also and maybe more
importantly, the Channel selector will let you work on Red, Green and
Blue independently.

The Colors > Map > Sample Colorize tool may also prove useful,
especially if you want to go as far as combining multiple, masked layers
to recreate the original image.  The Help doc for this tool emphasizes
/removing/ color and creating abstractions, but it can also make very
good guesses in transferring colors from a sample image to the one
you're working on.  Worth a shot, maybe.

http://www.gimphelp.org/official/plug-in-sample-colorize.html

There are SO many ways to go about tweaking color in images...

:o)