Repair and Restoration

Digital Photo Restoration

Even under the best conditions time and elements take a toll on our favorite pictures, fading, yellowing, and color shifts will occur from exposure to sunlight and continuing chemical processes in the photographic emulsion. They can be marred by dust and scratches, cracks, tears, stains, and mold. Even the albums we put our favorite pictures in to be safe can sometimes damage our photographs.

Restoration is like a new finish on a car. Same car only looking much better.

With our increased awareness of genealogy comes the desire to find pictures of our ancestors. These pictures can often be over 100 years old and in poor condition. Suffering from any or all defects listed above.

Once the image has been scanned, the colors can be restored to their original hues. Contrast and brightness of faded or underexposed photos can be enhanced to make them look like new once again. It is even possible to reconstruct severely damaged or missing areas.

Almost the whole range of digital photo restoration can be done for our flat fee of $30.00 per image.
This flat fee will include a 4" x 6" print of the restored photo or a print at the original size up to 8" x 10" and a digital copy of the restored image on CD.

Restorations applied to the photo include; General clean-up of an image; contrast enhancement and sharpening; red eye correction; removal of color shifts; repair of scratches, cracks, and stains; and repair of minor damage to the image.

More extensive repairs will require more work, thus a higher fee. If this should be the case with your photo upon examination, we will provide an estimate for your approval prior to work.

Please note that some limitations to restoration exist. We can't unblur a blurred photo. We can't recover many details from very dark or very light (underexposed, overexposed) areas. Very small pictures do not always enlarge well.

In other words; the better the original is, the better the finished product will be.

There is a point at which restoration becomes manipulation. This usually happens when you would like the composition to be improved or distracting elements removed. Not a problem for us, but your choice.

We can't reproduce someone else's copyrighted photos unless you obtain and send written permission from the copyright holder. Now is a good time to mention that YOU are the copyright holder to YOUR photos and we will not use them in any way without your express permission.

If you are unsure of what can be done to save your photo, send it to us and we will let you know. Having something is almost always better than having nothing.