I received an enquiry from Debbie Summers of Acorn Framing in Bognor Regis asking if I could restore a very poor computer print photograph of a soldier she has been asked to frame with the soldier’s medals as a tribute for their family history.
Here is the before and after
Debbie then suggested that her customer added a nameplate with the details and also a genuine cap badge to go into the frame too. This was agreed and Debbie supplied these.
Here is the finished article
I don’t know about you, but I love this time of year. Longer days, sunny mornings, colour reappearing in the garden. And then there is the spring cleaning of course…
You’d be surprised (or perhaps not) at how often this leads to new conversations around old photos; a box recovered from the back of a dusty cupboard or the damp corner of a loft often leads to the rediscovery of old pictures and memories. With spring being all about new starts and rejuvenation, what better time to breathe new life into something so valuable?
This is why I’ve created a new brochure to share with you. It’s a light read – with photographs designed to show you not only how your pictures can be saved; but what we can do to enhance them or turn them into new forms of enjoyment, such as our new seamless lay-flat Photobooks or large sized canvasses.
Click here to look at, or download the new brochure
I’d love to hear what you think of the brochure and invite you to get in touch if you need help with saving your precious photographs. The brochure covers a lot but not all of what we can do, so feel free to give me a call anytime even if it is simply for some advice.
Here’s to spring (and not so much cleaning)
With Christmas now on the horizon here are some ideas for a unique gift that’s ideal for those who can be tricky to find something a bit different.
Here just a few examples of the many ways I can transform your photographs….
If you have a photograph that has faded in its frame, it can be restored and re-coloured.
Two or more photographs can be combined and you can choose the people you want in the finished photo
Family groups can be ‘adjusted’ to include or exclude people!
Couples can finally be together in the same photograph.
Snapshots of pets can be made into portraits or montages
Treasured photographs that have suffered years of damage can be restored to their original state.
Combine a favourite photograph with a more interesting background.
Create a family montage from a selection of favourite photographs
Not sure which photos to use but can see the potential?
A Photographs Forever Gift Voucher of any value could be the answer.
Photograph restoration is very popular, although you may be interested to know that I also scan and restore many other things
For example I restored a drawing that, over the years had become torn, dog eared and generally in very poor condition. I restored the artwork and made an enlargement on archive paper and mounted this in a plain black wooden frame.
Here’s the before and after:
Do you have precious unique documents such as Birth Certificates, School Reports, Qualification Certificates, Death Certificates, Wills or any other documents that should be digitally preserved and restored shared with other members of the family? If you are creating your family album or your family tree, you could add images of important documents.
What about the children’s artwork? Their wonderful creative drawings and paintings are nearly always done on the cheapest paper, the paint fades, they get crumpled up and torn. Save them now. I will scan them and then you’ll images you can print, put into photo books and share with the family
Do you have negatives of possibly precious photographs and lost the prints?
Do you have a collection of negatives and you’ve no idea what the images on them are of?
I can scan your negatives whether they are 35mm or 127, 126, 120 roll film or even the really old glass negatives and provide you with positive images as data files, which I can then restore if necessary or just print or enlarge your favourites.
You may have a large number of 35mm or 6cm slides from the 70’s and 80’s but no longer have a projector that works. Let me scan and improve them so you can enjoy them again. They are often really high quality and make great enlargements.
So don’t delay, wherever you are, whatever town, city or county, look out those precious documents, drawings, artwork, negatives, slides and of course those fantastic old family photographs and let me restore them, repair them, retouch them so you and your family and friends can enjoy them forever.
We all have old photographs that we treasure, whether they are old family photographs passed on from previous generations, or historic photographs of the homes and towns we live in.
Photographs are the best tool we have to relive our cherished memories and remember loved ones who are no longer with us. Unfortunately photographs don’t age well and over time their quality diminishes.
Because photos are printed on paper things such as handling, light, moisture, dust, and scratches often affect them. Regrettably, these things can ruin our photos and prevent them from lasting through the generations.
Most of the photo papers and inks used up until recently have not been archival quality, and as a result, many photo prints show signs of fading and colour shifts after only a few years.
Poor storage practices such as keeping photos in attics or basements or allowing photos to be exposed to sunlight, have also contributed to the poor condition of most photo collections.
People don’t realize there is a problem until they take a look at their photo collection after many years of storage. Our precious photo collections are in fact fading away and in time many will be beyond recovery. There is also the possibility of their demise in the case of fire or flood.
It is a good idea to restore your special photographs or even entire photo collection in order to stop the unavoidable destruction that will take place no matter how carefully the photos are stored. Once restored, the photos can be copied to CD or DVD for long-term storage and safekeeping. Once you have digital copies you needn’t worry about further damage because digital images do not change at all. You can use these digital images to make a set of prints on archival paper, which will last over 100 years in an album with no signs of degradation or twenty years exposed to daylight for framed prints. Additional prints can be made at any time in the future should disaster strike. You can also share the images with other members of your family and friends.
During the restoration process it is also possible to improve the quality of the original photograph – for example removal of spots, stains, marks, tears as well as improving contrast, brightness, colour balance and enhance detail, focus and sharpness.
It is also possible to add colour to black and white photographs, as well as being able to make quality enlargements for framing.
Here is an interesting order I completed recently. Not only to combine two photographs that were in very poor condition but also to add the woman from the first photograph – minus baby! – to the second photograph while turning her around so she was facing the right way rather than turning her back on her husband!
This was the email I received from my customer…
“Well you’ve done it again, this time with knobs on and I am not referring to the door knob in one the photos! What an absolutely fantastic result. I appreciate the time and effort you must have put in to get the images of individuals in one photo transferred and included in another. The results to include the clean up and restoration are really brilliant, my great grandmother has literally “rejoined” her family – Fantastic. I can’t wait to present the final prints to members of my family.” John P
Here is a photograph I was asked to digitally restore. The original photograph is about a metre and a half wide and the photograph is absolutely fascinating as it contains so much detail. It’s a photograph of Robertson and Ginnetts Gigantic Circus at the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley Stadium in 1925 featuring my customer’s great grandfather who is the ringmaster!
Here is the whole photograph before restoration, after restoration and then a single detail followed by a detail of that detail! There are literally hundreds of recognisable faces.
Here are some other close-up sections going along the front row from left to right
My customer’s Great Grandfather is the ringmaster on the left with the top hat
The following is an extract from Anne Clendinning, “On The British Empire Exhibition, 1924-25″
The British Empire Exhibition, held in 1924 and 1925, assembled the member nations of the empire to develop imperial trade connections and to cultivate closer political ties between Britain and her territories.
The British Empire Exhibition opened for a second season in May 1925, but only after considerable debate. Despite the enthusiastic press reports and the self-congratulatory comments of the exhibition organizers, the 1924 exhibition was a financial disaster. Executive director Sir William Travers Clark blamed the cold, rainy summer. Although 17 million people had passed through the turnstiles, that figure was much lower than the anticipated 30 million visitors that had been the basis for 1924’s projected returns. If only to try and recoup its investment, the British government agreed to re-open Wembley in 1925.
More recently, the British Empire Exhibition appears in the 2010 film about the Duke of York’s stammer wherein Prince Bertie delivers a painful public address at the exhibition’s closing ceremony in October 1925.
There is another interesting article of the British Empire Exhibition here
Here is an interesting story from Graham Jones who has carried out a massive amount of research on his family history with great results to show for his hard work. Here it is in his own words:
“Recently I have been working with Richard to create a set of some 20 framed photographs that now form a complete record of my family back to 1850. The initial idea came from a very battered, postcard size photograph dated 1895 that showed my great-grandparents and their eight children. I asked Richard to scan, restore, enlarge to A3 size, title and frame the photograph. The result caused so much interest in my family that apart from ordering a further three copies, the wider project was born. Collectively, the family has pooled our best photographs of parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and even two great great grandparents. Apart from normal restoration and enlargement, Richard has also prepared several composites to splice together the various groupings that we requested. The complete set now forms its own “gallery” in my home and the whole family is delighted with the result”
Here are some of the photographs in question and the gallery Graham has created
Photograph Restoration/Montage
Photograph Restoration/Montage
Restored Photograph Gallery
Shirley T brought a small but high quality print to me and asked for it to be scanned and enlarged. The original print is about 8cm (3 inches) square. The final enlargement I supplied was 76cm (30 inches) square. Here is the before, after and the close up of a detail of the tree.
The Speich family formed a significant presence in the Sernf Valley of Switzerland in the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th Centuries but during the latter part of the period economic depression and repeated plagues drastically reduced the population and of course the Speichs.
The difference between the format used by the professional company that compiled the Speich Tree and that found in this Country is that it starts at the centre with the latest members of the family and expands outwards to include the earliest members of the family that could be traced including, where possible, their dates of birth and death, their occupations and their coats of arms.
Shirley’s dad’s uncle commissioned the work which is all hand painted we think about 70 years ago. The tree detail goes back to 14th century!
