Help me restore an old photo.

March 9, 2007 10:04 AM

What online digital photo restoration sites do you have experience with? Would recommend?

My dad recently recovered a black and white photo from his childhood, and its kinda worn and faded, and I wanted to restore it as much as I could as a present for him.

Does anyone have any experience with this, and can help me out?

posted by anonymous to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

I don't know where you are located, but my roommate does this kind of thing. He's pretty good at it. As long as it was carefully packaged, the photo could be mailed, if you are not local to Atlanta.

I'm not sure if that kind of promotion is allowed, but my e-mail is in my profile if you want his web address and such. It has examples of his work.

As a general idea, he scans the original photo at a relatively high DPI and adjusts the contrast and/or color (or converts it to grayscale, for some old black and white photos that have yellowed). Then, he removes any scratches or imperfections, including adding back in missing pieces as best he can with what information exists in the photo. It takes a little time (something for him to do when he can't sleep!), but the results are amazing. And, from talking with some photographer friends, what he charges is very reasonable. He has an excellent printer and only uses acid-free photo paper or can have it professionally printed in sizes larger than 8x10, if needed.
posted by hankbear at 11:04 AM on March 9, 2007

I had my in-laws' 1960s-era, faded wedding picture re-touched/re-colored by a local professional photo lab. You may want to check in the yellow pages to see if something exists locally so that you don't have to worry about shipping it somewhere. The cost was about $130 and took about 5 hours for the restoration/re-coloring. The price included an electronic copy on gold CD-ROM and an archival-quality 8x10.

(BTW, the picture turned out fantastic, and had the added benefit of being able to bring my parents to the lab for a preview. This isn't your concern, but my parents were able to make adjustments to the subtle colors (my dad's tie, for instance, and my mom's lipstick to make sure they were just right.)
posted by parilous at 11:52 AM on March 9, 2007

Scan it and let the geeks at Worth1000 take a shot at it.

http://www.worth1000.com/popup.asp?faq=265

They'll likely do a better job than a commercial service, you can set your own price, and you can pick amongst the different responders.
posted by srt19170 at 11:55 AM on March 9, 2007