Need professional TLC for an important old family photo

April 16, 2009 11:09 PM

Can anyone recommend a photo restoration service in Toronto? My wife has a photo of her grandmother as a young woman in the 1920's that I'd like to have restored. I'm only interested in getting the actual photo cleaned up rather than a digital restoration.

At some point in the last 80 years, somebody thought it would be a good idea to "matte" it with lengths of tape and then painted over the tape with silver paint. They had a shakey hand and the border of the image is painted over in a few spots and there are a couple of drips in the middle.

My googling so far seems to mostly be for digital retouching (and I don't much care for the samples I've seen). I just want to preserve the original photo and give it to my wife with a nice frame. I'd really like to take it someplace in Toronto if possible.

posted by bonobothegreat to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Best answer: I would call a local museum or historical society and ask who they recommend. We did this and it was quite expensive but you want it done right.
posted by fshgrl at 11:44 PM on April 16, 2009

Best answer: Ryerson has a MA Photographic Preservation program, so perhaps someone on staff there could recommend the best course of action.
posted by hip_plumber at 2:12 AM on April 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

Best answer: This guy looks interesting! He has a portfolio you can download.
posted by barnone at 6:48 AM on April 17, 2009

Response by poster: Thanks everyone, for the answers and the links. I'll post the before/after when it's done.
posted by bonobothegreat at 12:04 PM on April 17, 2009

Check your mefi mail for a late response.
posted by cpdavy at 5:59 AM on April 23, 2009