photo repair | Photographs Forever

Here are two restorations I completed recently.

A distracting background changed for a more appropriate one

….and a very small, badly damaged oval photograph that’s now been printed 12″ x 9″

Here’s what my customer Sheila B said “Thank you Richard for restoring the very old and battered photo of my mum you made a beautiful job of it I’m so thrilled forever grateful”

My customer had two photographs of the subject in different uniforms, taken by flash with the camera set to the wrong shutter speed so half of each photo was black.

I removed just the subject from each photo, restored the images and then replaced the background in order for the finished article to look more suitable.

A photo tells a 1000 words….

A much faded photo in an old album of photographs of a child born in April 1918 shows that little girl, Hylda, clutching a much loved toy monkey
called Jacko.
Hylda gazed at the photo and recalled that as a small child she listened to the minister of her church in Kingkerswell urging all the children to give a treasured toy as a present to children who would otherwise not receive a Christmas toy. Full of good intentions Hylda gave Jacko away.

Her feelings of good will and self sacrifice lasted a day after which she spent many hours in tears for the loss of her beloved Jacko! Imagine her delight when the beautifully restored photo of Hylda and Jacko came as a special birthday card celebrating her 100th birthday…

Hylda enjoyed wonderful celebrations with her family, and friends and the story of Jacko was once again shared! The photo and the many others now restored remain as memories for
both Hylda and her family

This fantastic photograph of a Victor V Bomber refueling English Electric Lightnings over the Niagara Falls is one that I had the pleasure to restore and colourise recently. I found the correct colouring of all the aircraft from technical drawings I found on Google Images.

I received this photograph as four photographs stuck together and folded as that was the best way with the technology of the time. When it was restored I printed a 40inch wide print.

Here’s the story….

“The Cuillins is a range of rocky mountains located on the Isle of Skye, we spent many happy family holidays on Skye when I was a child and my Dad, George Smith who was a very talented amateur photographer, spent years perfecting his panorama of “the Cuillins” as we used to call them, he unfortunately passed away in 2015 and we recently went through some of the many images he had painstakingly crafted over the years, including this one which was in fairly bad condition having been folded up & stored in a box in a damp sitting room in a French Farmhouse for the last 10 years; I love this image as it brings back so many wonderful memories of my Dad and the fun we used to have on Skye in the shadow of the Cuillin, I am so grateful to Richard for the amazing restoration and for enabling such a precious memory to be recovered and displayed once again in its full glory.”

My customer Karen E tells the story of this (now restored) photograph

“This photograph was taken on a day when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Poplar during the Blitz. My father as a boy is standing in the right upper window with his mum on his right and his best friend beside him.

My father remained in Poplar throughout the war with his father who was a stevedore in the docks and his mother who was a seamstress. Their house suffered damage in the war when an incendiary device came through the roof and landed on his parent’s bed, luckily it did not ignite and they managed to wrap it in the bedding and throw it out of the window!”

Here’s the original photograph I received:

I recently received this photograph which had been kept in a photo frame and the entire top surface of the photo had come away from its paper backing and so the image consisted of a large number of very frail flakes that would have blown away in the slightest draught!

It was an important photo and so I was able to digitally painstakingly put it back together and with the help of two other photographs from the same customer I as able to use the persons eyes and add a complete dog!

Here’s the finished photo:

Merry Christmas to everyone – before and after! Here’s looking forward to 2017 being a great year.

I recently received an order from Iain Anderson from Renfrewshire as he wanted me to produce a montage on canvas of some his photographs taken when he was in various dramatic stage roles.

During our conversations I found that Iain has his own radio show on BBC Scotland and he plays some really great music, much of which you may not have heard before and is well worth hearing, which you can hear again on the BBC iPlayer.

Click on his photograph below for the link to listen