The August 9, 2009 meeting of the PGSA in the PRCUA Social Hall featured Mr. Eric Basir of Photo Grafix which is located in Evanston, IL. Many of us know him from his articles in the Rodziny or from his appearances at conferences. He is a professional photographer and spoke on "Repairing our Photographs" using Photoshop type software.

He invited members to bring in photos so he could demonstrate some common repair techniques. He told us to wear cotton gloves to protect photos from fingerprints during handling. During scanning use 300 dpi color settings even for black and white photographs. Small photos should be scanned near the center of the scanner bed for best results. Over sized photos may need to be scanned in sections and then use the Photoshop software to "stitch" it back together. Or you could use a digital camera to take a picture of the photo. From sample photographs members supplied, he picked some feature of the photo that needed to be repaired and showed how to start the process.

Mr. Basir's presentations are well received as some decide "that's too complicated for me, so I'll just hire him to do the job" and those like me who enjoy trying to apply what we have learned to our own photographs.

In the photo to the left, Eric shows the photo he is about to scan. Notice the cotton glove on his right hand when handling the photo. The photo on the right shows Eric using a tablet with his right hand instead of a mouse to make changes in the photo. FYI, he had a multimedia projector to display what was showing on his computer to the audience.
Summary and photos by James J. Czuchra