Restoration of old photographs
Most of us have some cherished old photographs that have suffered badly from the passage of time. But, thanks to modern technology, these can now be restored to bring back your history to life.
I have the technical know-how and the professional tools to carry out repairs and
improvements such as:
Removing creases, scratches, stains and other blemishes
Restoring contrast to faded photographs
Recreating missing corners
Removing background distractions or unwanted objects
Cropping and vignetting
Colour adjustment to faded polychrome originals
Adding toning effects (such as sepia) to B&W originals
Using a high resolution scanner, I can work from any type of original – B&W and colour prints, slides and negatives of any size, including glass plates.
The complexity of the work involved can vary widely but this can be broken down into three main categories:
Above: dating from 1898, the original is a rather blurred
photo retouched with pencil on a yellowed 26-cm piece of
card, cut in an irregular oval and... broken in two! After
retouching, I added a pretty (virtual) frame that would have
been much to the taste of the photo’s subject - my
grandmother.
Light restoration
This includes the correction of minor fading or discoloration, simple dust and scratch removal, sharpening and cropping.
Medium restoration
This includes the correction of minor fading or discoloration, simple dust and scratch removal, sharpening and cropping.
Major restoration
This includes reconstructive work where some areas of the image are missing, and/or there are bad scratches over faces, hands or finely detailed areas(provided the image retains enough information for reconstruction).
The original of this picture of my grandfather is a 15x10cm glass plate negative with some scratches and light stains. The scratches run across the face but were reasonably easy to eliminate thanks to the large size of the original.
The original of this picture taken in the trenches during WWI is a very faded ID-size print. Contrast was restored as far as possible and slight blemishes removed. A little reconstruction was necessary on the face of the man on the right.
Taken in 1890, this picture of my grandmother is a fragile 5 x 4 cm daguerreotype (the polaroid of the times, as there was no negative to make copies from!). After extensive cleaning and reconstruction, I produced a 15x10cm print of this image - which means a lot to me, because when I was little I wore this same Alsatian costume, of which I still have the dress...