Tag: Genealogy

Another Photo Restoration Time lapse

The Restoration

Its Friday again. YAY! This means we have another time lapse video for you to enjoy. this was just one restoration out of 11 that I did for this customer to create a wonderful historic display. This was a challenging restoration of an old black and white photo. It was very small and very dirty. The quality of the photo means there is a shortage of details. Which makes the restoration a little difficult when trying to retain as much detail as possible whilst removing as much dirt and blemishes from the image. But the final result i think is very nice and a big improvement on the original.

Before and After

Black and White Photo Restoration
Black and White Photo Restoration

YouTube

The restoration took a few hours but with the wonders of modern technology we are able to bring that to you in just a few minutes. Please like and subscribe to my YouTube channel here http://www.youtube.com/c/PixelFIXconz  and I hope to be able to bring you more of these time lapse videos each week. Share the videos on Facebook as well and help to spread the word.

 

Covid-19 Level 1

Update

As of Tuesday the 9th of June, we are now at Covid-19 Level 1. This means life is back to normal with the exception of international travel. You are welcome to drop off your photo for restoration during normal business hours. Which I have listed below. We no longer have to wear masks or sanitise our hands every 2 minutes.   Which is all great news. Lets hope we can get New Zealand moving again in the right direction. Please support your local businesses as they are the backbone of the New Zealand economy.

Time-lapse

To celebrate the end of the severe lock down measures. I have put together my latest time-lapse movie for you. This was a restoration of a nice family portrait that had definitely seen better days. With a few hours work though, we had the photo looking very nice and it is going to be framed and displayed again. If you would like to learn more about our photo restoration services please click here. Please enjoy and let me know what you think of this latest time-lapse video. Also please 'subscribe', 'like' and share the video please.

 

Waitangi Day

Thursday is Waitangi Day and we we will be closed for the day. But please, still send us your emails and photos for restoration. We will respond to you as soon as possible on Friday. We hope you all enjoy your own Waitangi day and celebrate our unique New Zealand heritage. Thank you for your patience.

 

 

Christmas Time Again.

It's Christmas Again!

Christmas is a time for giving. Why not give something a little bit special. Give someone a memory of time gone by. Or turn a memory into something new and fantastic. Such as colourizing an old black and white photo of a loved one for Christmas. Like the example below.

Frame it and wrap it, put it under the tree and wait for the smiles! These gifts are special for everyone. We can offer the full package from restoration to colourizing, printing  and framing. Now is the time to get your orders in because time is limited and Christmas is coming!!

 

Scanning For Restoration

Mike had borrowed this large aerial photo of his old property and wanted to get this duplicated and restored for various members of his family. The photo is a large 20" x 30" print. Very typical of this type of photography. The age and sun had done their work and rendered the image with a strong red colour cast. The colour required restoration and a wide disbursement of small blemishes that always come with photos of this size needed to be removed.

One of the main difficulties with photo this size is digitising the image so it can be worked on the computer in Photoshop. Scanning such a large image requires either a VERY large flat bed scanner. They don't exist. Not that can be afforded. Or a series of smaller scans that are then stitched together in Photoshop to complete the whole picture. A third option is to photograph the entire image using a high resolution camera. This time we used lots of smaller scans to make up the whole photo. eight scans in total were used.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

Hi Richard,

Thanks for that, it looks great.

Mike - Auckland

BEFORE AND AFTER

Click to enlarge and see if you can spot the joints.

Colour Photo Restoration
Medium level restoration $130 plus prints

Old Soldiers Should Never Fade Away

Amy sent me this very badly faded old photo by Courier Post. When it arrived it was virtually gone, it was barley visible. But I did a scan and using a variety of Multiple Layers and some heavy burn and dodging I was able to bring this old soldier back. But when the image became visible again. So did the hundreds of small cracks that covered the surface of the photo paper. You see this was not the original photo it was a copy that had been made at some time using a 'dye sublimation printer'. They are very commonplace and will most likely find them in your local pharmacy where they use them for passport photos or to provide prints from a Kodak kiosk. the problem is they don't last!! and this is how they end up... faded and cracked!

A few hours of extra work was needed to remove the cracks and finish off the restoration. To the delight of Amy who was over the moon. So much so she gave us a 5 star review on Google.

We had a photo which had almost disappeared due to sun damage and had been told it was not possible to save. Luckily I decided to have 1 last try and Richard did an amazing job giving a beautifully clear photo. Thanks.

Amy - Dunedin

Before and After

Faded Photo Restoration
Medium Restoration $150 Plus Prints

Close Up Example

Photo restoration close up

A Colourful Wedding

Susan from the corromandel sent me this badly faded wedding photo. Unfortunately all the colour had been bleached away by exposure to the sun. On top of that problem this photo was also taken in the seventies. So guess what. Yes. Honeycomb textured paper!! This always makes thing more tricky and adds to the workload. But we have good success removing this normally and the results once the fading had been restored looked good. Adding back the colour then made the photo complete again. We tweaked the colours to match Susan's request and the wedding photo is now being enjoyed again.

Before and After

Colour Photo Restoration
Medium Restoration $180 plus prints

How Do You Restore This?

Removing surface damage, including cracks and creases is an everyday occurrence in photo restoration. This is the most common damage to old photos. The damage is most often because of people folding the photographs. This cracks the photographic emulsion surface and reveals the paper underside of the photo. 

To repair this kind of damage we must use the magic of Photoshop. A few different  tools are used for this kind of restoration. but to restore the cracked areas and surface damage I use the 'healing brush' and the 'spot healing brush'. With the healing brush you can select which area you want to copy the pixels from and then select where to paste them. As you paste the copied pixels, Photoshop analysis the surrounding pixels and adjusts the colour of pasted pixels to closely match those of the surrounding area. The Spot Healing Brush automatically selects the best area to copy from and matches to the surround pixels. This is a much quicker one step process as apposed to the Healing Brush 2 steps. But it can be less useful in very detailed areas. 

Before and After

photo restoration
Light - Medium Restoration $80

Colourize and make your photo travel through time!

Old black and white photos are wonderful. They show a time that was long ago. But when you add colour you bring them forward in time so to speak they look real they have a more life to them. It is as though they were taken yesterday. It becomes an amazing transformation. 

The process to do this colourizing magic is not all science. In fact most of it is down to artistic flair and skill. Once the original black and white image is restored and looking like new again, the re-colourizing process can begin.  The process all takes place in Photoshop but the colours are painted in by hand using a 'digital brush'.  The colours are all chosen by the artist too. We do not know from the black and white photo which shade of grey is which colour. So researching the period and other information including feedback from the client is all very important to the final result.

The photo restoration colourizing example below is a fine example how colour can really make a an big impact.

Before and After

photo restoration colourize
Medium Restoration $140 plus prints

A Wedding To Remember

Faa brought us this very old wedding photo that he wanted to put back up on display again. The original was cut out with a pair of scissors and glued to some heavy board material. Because the couple in the photo were both wearing wight it was very difficult to find any details. And so, using Photoshop, I had to paint in by hand the shading and outlines. We also added a bench for the couple to sit on. Replaced the background and sharpened up the image to make this photo come back to life. Faa was very happy with the results. 

Before and After

Photo Restoration
Medium Photo Restoration $120 plus prints

This is what to do If this happens

Carol brought in 2 photos in there frames with broken glass. The photos had stuck to the glass and the glass had been broken when trying to remove them. This happens... a lot. If this happens to you. Please don't do anything further once you discover that the photo is struck to the glass. Bring it straight into me at Pixelfix Restoration and I can scan it through the glass before anything gets broken and things are made worse. Carol was lucky and we were able to restore the damaged areas and fix up the cracks in the glass. 

Restored Photo

Poto restoration Colour
Medium restoration $150 plus prints

Genealogy – Happy Families

Happy Families

Ian is updating his families genealogy files and he brought me a bunch of these very badly faded old black and white photos to be restored. The fading was not uniform and was quite bad in places. This type of old photo is very small and was not very sharp. The other blemishes and marks were also removed and the final restored photo was a big improvement on the originals.

Genealogy;

Genealogy also known as family history, is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives.

From Wikipedia.

 

Photo Restoration
Medium Restoration 3+ Hours $120 plus prints
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