Genealogy Archives | PixelFIX - Photo Restoration

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 P hotoshop 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

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

How Do You Restore This?

April 27, 2018
by richard

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

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

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.

Mon-Fri	10am - 5pm
Sat	By Appointment
Sun	Closed