Hi. New member to the forum. Hoping this is not an FAQ. If so, please point me to the answer.

I have some old photos whose dyes have faded terribly...especially the cyan. People's blue jeans look green. Color levelling helps some, but you can't boost a color that just isn't there.

I also have some much lower-resolution scans of these same photos that I did many years ago. The image scale is bad, but the color balance is good. You can probably see where I'm going with this.

What I'd like to do is somehow merge the hi-resolution scans I'm doing now with the colors from the older images. Any thoughts on how this could be done? I assume layer blending of some kind will be involved, but I'm not seeing that blend mode in GIMP.

Also, I anticipate getting the two scans completely in register could be something of a challenge. Any tricks on that would also be helpful.

TIA,
Bruce

After 5 posts you will be able to attach a sample image, so that GC users can experiment and suggest actions.

Okay, here you go. Hoping this actually works.

The "old.jpg" file is a low-resolution scan of a Halloween party print from 1983. It was scanned in 2000 or so. Its color balance is far from optimal (way too saturated, if nothing else); but it's something I can work with.

This "new.jpg" scan was made earlier this week at a much higher resolution. Its color balance is terrible, as there is virtually no blue/cyan remaining in the original print. What you see is as close as I can get to "natural-looking," but it's still just wrong...the keg tub should be dark blue, as in the first image.

What I'm thinking:
I probably need to get the two images in register as two layers. At that point I'm hoping I can blend the colors of the old image into the luminance of the new without having to meticulously paint it all in. I'm told this can be done in Photoshop using its "color" blend mode. I am not seeing a comparable blend mode in GIMP.

Thanks in advance,
Bruce

Bruce

I should quickly add by way of explanation that I've already upscaled the "old" image and applied a slight blur to it so they're roughly the same size and its colors are not pixelated. Still need to get them in register and transfer colors...somehow.

Bruce

Here using Wavelet-Decompose over the old.jpg.
I applied the residual layer over the new.jpg with the Grain Merge mode, and voilà.


Using curves it is possible to adjust the colors. Here the "Keg tub" turned to a stronger blue.

Long time ago I found some restore plugins somewhere. Can't remember where they are from, but they give amazing results sometimes.
I'll attach them here, they go to your personal plug-ins folder and show in GIMP under Restore

Thanks to all who replied to my post. Using a combination of ideas I've been able to restore most of the photos to satisfactory condition.

Generally, my original plan to overlay the old with the new and "transfer colors" never did work very well. Getting the two in register is a pain and for the most part I lost most of the resolution I was hoping to gain by rescanning them.

I have a new question that I'll ask in a new thread. Thanks again!

Bruce