Continuing our series on photo restoration, light restoration and medium restoration, our last example is when ‘heavy’ restoration work is required.

Fastframe have been doing photo restoration for many years. Along with our own skills we’ve been excited to see the technology also improve, and it’s amazing what can be done to restore photographs today. Last year we also bought a fantastic wide format photographic printer that allows us complete control of all our customers printing needs. Being able to colour match and print your photographs in the original colours is something that we pride ourselves on; the smallest changes can have a dramatic impact.

Heavy Photo Restoration

Photo restoration can range from a few small ‘tweaks’ to remove minor blemishes, to significant repairs. The photo we have used for this post is a perfect example of what we would categorise as ‘heavy photo restoration’. Clearly the differences between the two photo’s are significant as there has been a considerable amount of work done on the image in general and to specific sections. When you compare the two photo’s the restoration is obvious and extreme, so let’s break it down the process a little so you can see more clearly the steps involved.

Repairing cracked photographs

We have repaired the cracks (most obviously on the right, towards the top). These cracks appear when the image lifts away from the paper; most frequently when a photo has been folded or creased. Always store photographs flat (ideally separated by ‘acid free’ tissue paper). This will also help reduce the likelihood of damage from scratches and creasing.

Restoring faded photographs

We enhanced the faded areas of the photograph. Water, heat or sun exposure causes photographs to fade (in the original image these sections have discoloured to a yellow colour). We’re unsure what caused these yellow sections to occur on this photograph, however as the photo was taken circa 1929, it’s very existence is remarkable and something our customer wanted desperately to ‘preserve’.

Restoring facial features in damaged photo’s

We also restored the facial features on the young boy (standing far right). His face was moderately obscured by cracks, discolouration and general wear and tear. The restoration is multi-layered and the final result is dependant upon each of these elements.

Finally, what pulls all of these changes together is the overall colour of the restored photograph. From looking at the original you’d expect it to have been sepia when printed. However, that’s not the case, it’s the ageing of the photograph that’s changed the ‘white’ area’s to brown. When it was first printed, the photograph was black and white.

An example of the changes made to the picture can be seen in this video.

If you have any photo’s that you would like to have restored you can upload a copy to our site or drop into the store so that we can discuss your needs. We also have a high quality scanner that can convert your photos (of virtually any size) to digital images.

Continuing with our recent series of posts about photo restoration, we have an example of ‘medium’ photo restoration.

All these photo’s were for the same customer and all required varying degrees of restoration. When looked at a group, it is interesting to see how photo’s from the same time period have deteriorated at different rates.

Medium Photo Restoration

Like the ‘light’ restoration example, the main problem with this photo is fading and need for colour correction. In addition, although difficult to see in the small version of this photo there are also significant scratches, white marks, stains and damage to the edges of the photo. For example, see the slight discolouration at the top of the photo and also beside the young girls head and also small scratches and damage on the left side.

We repaired all of the damage, printed the photo in light sepia and then framed a copy of the restored photo for the customer, they were thrilled at the result.

If you have any photo’s that you would like to have restored you can upload a copy to our site or drop into the store so that we can discuss your needs.  We also have a high quality scanner that can convert your photos (of virtually any size) to digital images.

Photo restoration is an exciting part of our work, we’ve posted some examples here. To expand on what’s involved in photo restoration, we will show some examples of ‘light’, ‘medium’ and ‘heavy’ restoration. Today we will start with an example of ‘light’ photo restoration.

Light Photo Restoration

Light photo restoration doesn’t refer to the colour of the photograph, but rather to the amount of work needed to restore the image. In this case, there isn’t much work to be done so it would fall into the category of ‘light’.

To bring the photo back to life we had to restore the original colour, years of exposure to sunlight had faded the image and it looks like there is a fog or a haze over the entire image. By removing the haze we’re able to then restore the original colours and as a result make out people’s facial features.

Of course we also fixed the small imperfections, there are a number of scratches and white spots on the original that we removed from the final print. These all have to be individually touched up.

As you can see the restored photo has an exceptional amount of detail that you’re unable to see in the original scan. All of this was brought back to life via our restoration process. It’s no longer an old photo, the crispness of the image allows for the subjects personalities to shine through. And that is what we like to do, bring your photo’s back to life.

You also have the option to print the restored photo in sepia (a reddish-brown colour associated with monochrome photographs of the 19th and early 20th centuries) or black and white.

If you have any photo’s that you would like to have restored you can upload a copy to our site or drop into the store so that we can discuss your needs. We also have a high quality scanner that can convert your photos (of virtually any size) to digital images.