Service to restore old photographs?

M

Mauri3205

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Mo
Edit My Images
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I’m looking to have one photograph of my wife and her late father restored. Are there any reliable services I can send it to? I’m no good with photoshop and given how much it means to her I would rather get it done by an expert.

Not sure if this is the right place to post. Mods feel free to move elsewhere more suitable if you feel it necessary.

Thanks!
 
Thank you all and apologies for the late response. Between the heatwave and some unexpected workload I did not have time to scan the photo until now.

Here is the image as a JPEG, scanned at the highest settings available (Canon Pixma 8050). Happy to mail the photo if it helps with the repair and happy to pay for that person's time and expertise.

I feel photos should come with a story so here goes. This was my wife's graduation dinner 20 odd years ago and her father passed away 18 months later. This photo has pride of place at home and is the only one that my son knows of his grandfather. Having been framed and displayed since it was taken, it is quite faded now and I want to surprise my wife with a restored version given how special it is to her.

On a lighter note, this hopefully will lead to a discussion about how lovely the photography community is and I can slip in a hint that I really want the Fuji XF70-300 if she allows me to buy it. :LOL:

OneDrive

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To be honest it is not as bad as I expected it to be. I have had a quick look and there is a lot of dust and some colour smearing that is easy to remove. In addition it can easily be sharpened a bit. A boost to the saturation might help. It should not be too difficult to take out the people in the background.

Before I sit down and work on it is there anything in particular you are hoping for?
 
Thanks @Lllewellyn, just to make the skin tones and dress more vivid like I recall the original photo. I don’t think we can get any detail back from his suit but would be great if possible.

I’m getting antsy thinking about the result!
 
I've made a start, not my area of expertise but a fun project.

full
 
There is no point me duplicating what you have done. I think I can download your photo and go from there. If not I will let you know.
 
Mauri3205 said:
Thank you all and apologies for the late response. Between the heatwave and some unexpected workload I did not have time to scan the photo until now.

Here is the image as a JPEG, scanned at the highest settings available (Canon Pixma 8050). Happy to mail the photo if it helps with the repair and happy to pay for that person's time and expertise.

I feel photos should come with a story so here goes. This was my wife's graduation dinner 20 odd years ago and her father passed away 18 months later. This photo has pride of place at home and is the only one that my son knows of his grandfather. Having been framed and displayed since it was taken, it is quite faded now and I want to surprise my wife with a restored version given how special it is to her.

On a lighter note, this hopefully will lead to a discussion about how lovely the photography community is and I can slip in a hint that I really want the Fuji XF70-300 if she allows me to buy it. :LOL:

OneDrive

1drv.ms 1drv.ms
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Is there any chance you have the negative? Often a better outcome can be achieved from the original negative.

Lovely photo by the way, these kind of memories are priceless.
 
I was up most of the night so thought I would have a go to pass some time I hope you do not mind.

dancing.jpg
 
Full credit to Tim Hughes for his excellent job. I have made only a couple of tweaks to his. I reduced the magenta a little to take away a bit of the ruddy faced look the man has and upped the contrast very slightly. Mauri 3205 now has several versions from which to choose.
 

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Very interesting results so far. Getting skin tones right is clearly a difficult issue. I would echo Morris' comment about better results from a negative, if you have one (although scanning C41 negatives is itself a black art with highly variable outcomes possible). But anyway, it's a bit like the countryman's supposed answer "if I wanna go ter that Lunnon, I wouldna start from yer!". I would guess this came from the sort of "official photographers" who roamed such events taking photos and providing prints for a fee, which would imply no negs. Although weirdly, it looks like a photo taken with a flash that was slightly lower than the lens, if I've interpreted the shadows behind her arm properly? Is that how a pro tog would do it?
 
ChrisR said:
Very interesting results so far. Getting skin tones right is clearly a difficult issue. I would echo Morris' comment about better results from a negative, if you have one (although scanning C41 negatives is itself a black art with highly variable outcomes possible). But anyway, it's a bit like the countryman's supposed answer "if I wanna go ter that Lunnon, I wouldna start from yer!". I would guess this came from the sort of "official photographers" who roamed such events taking photos and providing prints for a fee, which would imply no negs. Although weirdly, it looks like a photo taken with a flash that was slightly lower than the lens, if I've interpreted the shadows behind her arm properly? Is that how a pro tog would do it?
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I had the same question about the flash position and thought maybe it was a compact camera positioned in portrait orientation with the flash at the bottom
 
I'm retired and bored, so I spent a bit of time editing it how I would if it were for myself... a lot of little things (added color to the dress, moved catchlights, removed highlights, changed crop, added background left, etc, etc)...
I'm pretty sure the colors are correct, but I did remove a little red from his face to be more flattering.


Untitled-2.jpg
 
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sk66 said:
I'm retired and bored, so I spent a bit of time editing it how I would if it were for myself... a lot of little things (added color, moved/removed catchlights, moved them right, etc, etc)... I'm pretty sure the colors are correct, but I did remove a little red from his face to be more flattering.


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You win - that’s the best of the lot.
 
I don’t know where to start. This forum is full of genuinely wonderful people. I wasn’t expecting much of a response but to see so many spend their time for this request is touching.

I showed my wife the thread and she went through all of your messages. She asked me to save all edits and is highly appreciative and humbled at the feedback.

Please let me know if the photos shared here are the high resolution ones. If not then I will reach out to you via PM and share my email. Would appreciate you sending that version to me.

In the meantime, I have one last request. If someone can tell me how much this service normally costs, I will donate that amount to Cancer Research UK as a thank you to all on this thread and in honour of my father in law’s memory.

Thank you all once again.
 
sk66 said:
I'm retired and bored, so I spent a bit of time editing it how I would if it were for myself... a lot of little things (added color to the dress, moved catchlights, removed highlights, changed crop, added background left, etc, etc)...
I'm pretty sure the colors are correct, but I did remove a little red from his face to be more flattering.


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I played at this, but my effort was way below yours, and looking at everyone else’s great efforts, you won the thread!

A great edit.
 
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Mauri3205 said:
I don’t know where to start. This forum is full of genuinely wonderful people. I wasn’t expecting much of a response but to see so many spend their time for this request is touching.

I showed my wife the thread and she went through all of your messages. She asked me to save all edits and is highly appreciative and humbled at the feedback.

Please let me know if the photos shared here are the high resolution ones. If not then I will reach out to you via PM and share my email. Would appreciate you sending that version to me.

In the meantime, I have one last request. If someone can tell me how much this service normally costs, I will donate that amount to Cancer Research UK as a thank you to all on this thread and in honour of my father in law’s memory.

Thank you all once again.
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I'm pretty sure uploading here causes the image to be resized to 1024. My full resolution edit of the provided file can be downloaded HERE. If you need higher resolution I do have Gigapixel AI.

These days you could expect to pay as little $35-50 (US) for a restoration; not that long ago as much as $250 would not have been that unusual.
 
Mauri3205 said:
I don’t know where to start. This forum is full of genuinely wonderful people. I wasn’t expecting much of a response but to see so many spend their time for this request is touching.

I showed my wife the thread and she went through all of your messages. She asked me to save all edits and is highly appreciative and humbled at the feedback.

Please let me know if the photos shared here are the high resolution ones. If not then I will reach out to you via PM and share my email. Would appreciate you sending that version to me.

In the meantime, I have one last request. If someone can tell me how much this service normally costs, I will donate that amount to Cancer Research UK as a thank you to all on this thread and in honour of my father in law’s memory.

Thank you all once again.
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I am not sure if when you download the pictures on here you will get full res so can I suggest you drop PM’s with your email address to everyone. I am sure they will send you the best res they have.

Very generous offer of the gift to charity.

it was a pleasure helping you.
 
Just realised I did not respond to all posts. @ChrisR @moggi1964 On the negative front, this was taken by a professional photographer at the event, close to impossible to track now.

I’m getting another wild idea to create a small album out of this for our wedding anniversary in August. I’ll post pictures of the end result as I finalise over the coming few weeks. @gerards artzone you had a lengthy message now deleted, wanted to thank you for your offer there, if you have played around with it I would like to include whatever you have done in the album!

sphexx said:
You could also buy TP a cuppa if you were feeling extra generous:

www.buymeacoffee.com

talkphotography is the UK's premier Photography forum

If you enjoy TalkPhotography please buy us a cuppa, thanks.
www.buymeacoffee.com www.buymeacoffee.com
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Absolutely! Done. Will also post details of the main donation later tonight.
 
Screenshot of the donation confirmation. For reason behind donation, in addition to father in law I added that this is to thank the talkphotography.co.uk community.

I will reach out individually as suggested to get hi res pictures once I get home. Thank you all for your kind help!
 

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Mauri3205 said:
Screenshot of the donation confirmation. For reason behind donation, in addition to father in law I added that this is to thank the talkphotography.co.uk community.

I will reach out individually as suggested to get hi res pictures once I get home. Thank you all for your kind help!
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That is very generous of you. I think I speak for everyone in sending you our sincere appreciation for such a large donation.
 
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