In a perfect world, photographic images would last forever and look as good today as when they were taken. In reality, time, light, atmospheric pollutants, poor processing, or water damage can all add up to severely degrade the quality of antique, or even modern, photographs.



In the past, photographs such as the one above could be restored by first making a film negative of the image, then making modern prints from the negative, fixing the defects in the image using retouching dyes and pencils, making another negative from the restored print, and finally printing out the new, restored print. This process was time consuming, labour intensive, and very expensive. Good restoration artists are true artists whose talents are worth every penny.

In the past few years, digital imaging and printing technology has added another dimension to the realm of photographic restoration. Now it is possible to digitally image a damaged or faded photograph, do all the necessary restorations and corrections using imaging software, and print the final product out on modern photographic paper - essentially restoring the print to "new". This modern process saves a few steps and can save significant time over classical restoration methods.

Alterations to images can also be done using this method. Individuals from different portraits can be merged into one, individuals or groups can be placed against different backgrounds, backgrounds can be cleaned up or modified, or subjects can be removed from images altogether.

Restorations and alterations can be done on any image - from the seemingly irrepairable to the simple removal of a distracting element.



Pricing for a restoration or alteration is done on a quotation basis only and is based on the amount of time it will take to restore or alter the image. Prices for prints are covered under the standard pricing schedule for custom colour prints with a minumum size of 5x7.

If you have an image that you would like restored, feel free to e-mail a small (<100kb) jpeg copy of the image to us here along with a short note as to what you would like done to the image and we will put together a free estimate for a restoration or alteration.