Other resources for repairing your own damaged photos

There are lots of other avenues and resources out there if you would like to repair or restore your own photographs.  Consider these options:
Your Local Community College

The best way to learn Photoshop is to look up your local Community College and take a beginner's course in Photoshop for a term. Many Community Colleges conveniently offer courses in the evenings and often have the latest computers and software. Many will let you come in off-hours to practice on their equipment.
Personal Instruction

The second best approach may be to have a friend experienced in Photoshop sit down with you and give you a series of one-on-one lessons. This works best if you have two computers. Be patient: and schedule about 6 hours of instruction to start. And practice!

Industry Standard: Adobe Photoshop
Most professionals use Adobe Photoshop to restore, repair and retouch images. If you have seen the samples of photo restoration and repair on this site then you have seen what it can do. So, if you are serious then you will need to learn a little about this industry-leading software. Keep in mind though that it is expensive: $999.00 for "Photoshop CS6 Extended"; or you can rent the “Creative Cloud” version for around $119.88 per year.

A viable and free alternative to Photoshop is GIMP. We wrote about GIMP in detail last year, showed people how to download it and how to use it to fix photos. The name of that article (and click to see it) is: DIY Photo Repair and Photo Restoration (And Best Free Software).

Other photo repair learning options...

Video Tutorials

Some people search the internet for video tutorials on photo repair or photo restoration - to great success. There really is some great stuff out there for free. The downside is that the material is usually not structured. You might learn to do one thing then struggle to do some other thing.

It is always best to learn from first principles. Ideally, you first learn about the interface, preference settings, layers, masks and so on.

Linda.com is probably the biggest online video instruction company in the graphic arts. They offer complete courses – covering basic Photoshop as well as photo repair and retouching. They also offer a video course on digital scanning. And, last time we checked, they have generous “free trial” offers that allow you to really spend some time – and learn a great deal – before you subscribe.
 Photoshop Seminars

Some people like to attend traveling video seminars in Photoshop that hit town and last two or three days – usually highlighting what is new in the latest iteration of the software. There is always lots to learn – but unless they indicate they are for beginners (and if that is you) then best to get oriented some other way.

Books (remember them?)

There are billions of books on Photoshop, and even some which cover the topic of photo restoration and retouching. If you can only afford one, then consider “Photoshop Restoration and Retouching” by Katrin Eismann. Unfortunately it is only available in its 2006 third edition (and never to be updated according to the author) but it should have solutions to the most common problems that photographs are heir to. Or check the usual book sites and pick up something more recent.
Web Advice
There is a host of other advice about photo repair, photo editing and photo manipulation around the web. Some recent articles we have written include:

Restoring Historical Photos
Memorial Video: Fixing Photographs and
Instagram your Photos (Without Instagram)

If you just have a question, give us a call. Depending on what we have on (we might be racing to finish a big project!) we would be glad to point you in the right direction. And welcome to the endlessly fascinating and totally absorbing world of photo restoration!