Digital Photography Restoration || Making Faded Memories Vibrant Again

Clients come to me with faded, ripped, distressed and cracked photographs that to them have sentimental value and they ask me to breathe life into them again.

faded by the sun / color correction

Color Correction:

This is the most common adjustment. Every photograph is different and in dire situations I may need reference(s) from the client on color choice. Most of the time I can manipulate levels and use hue tools to correctly identify the faded colors. The photograph above is a decent example of a severely sun faded picture.

small photo with many cracks / sampling & color correction

Worst Case Scenario:

To this day, I haven't seen another photograph with quite the same imperfections as the one shown above. I almost turned this picture away because the size of the physical photograph was 1.2 x 1.6 inches. The small size instantly makes the outcome difficult...when the scan comes through it shows imperfections that may not be seen by the naked eye. The scan of this photograph in particular really enhanced the thickness of each crack. I ultimately choose to take this project on because the nice lady (Allison) had told me it was her only picture featuring her, her twin sister and their dad at that young age.....and her dad had just died. She wanted me to enlarge it as big as I possibly could, which I somehow pushed to 8 x 10.

ripped up / pieced together & color correction

This one was fun because the guy showed up with 8 separate pieces of a photograph. The story was the relationship didn't end well and he ripped the photograph apart. He later wished that he could rewind his actions and have the original photograph intact. I told him there would be no issue with taping these pieces back together and getting him another original.

classic or average photo restoration / simple clean-up & color correction