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Archive for Photo Retouching

Photographs Forever – Where Memories Meet Artistry

We would like to share more about our collective passion for the arts and how this love for art shapes every restoration we do.

Richard’s passion for photography began at age 10 with his first Brownie 127 camera, marking him as the family photographer. By 1974, he was capturing candid images of the prog rock band Genesis – photos that have been featured in various media outlets, most recently in the October edition of Record Collector magazine. You can see more Genesis image HERE

 

His lifelong love for photography led him to establish Photographs Forever, where customer care and exceptional quality are at the heart of every restoration we do.

It’s no surprise then that daughter Amy has shared a love and appreciation for photography for as long as she can remember. Today, her love of the arts has found its purpose in the restoration work she does every day. With a keen eye for detail, she’s dedicated to bringing a new lease of life to photos while carefully preserving the authenticity that makes each one truly special.

Digital photo restoration is truly an art. It requires skill, patience, and dedication –  there’s no rushing the process. We take the time needed to bring each photo back to its absolute best, with care in every detail.

Photographs Forever – Truly a Family Business

It has occurred to us you might not know that we are a family team at Photographs Forever. So, we thought we would take a moment to re-introduce ourselves and remind you of the true value of a family business.

I began Photographs Forever in 2009 and, since 2021, I have been lucky enough to have my daughter Amy working alongside me.

Amy and Richard – Don’t panic, this photo of us is from 1999!

As a father and daughter team we truly span the generations, offering a great wealth of experience and a first-hand understanding of just how important our photos are.  Being a small team allows us to act with empathy and common sense at all times – your photos are unique to you and we understand that this means our process needs to be unique as well.

Building relationships and trust with our customers is at the heart of what we do. We have developed so many amazing connections over the years and we love hearing all of the wonderful stories behind your photos – we have been lucky enough to restore some amazing historical images!

As a family business, we know personally just how essential photos are in keeping us connected to our past, for now and generations to come, and we are always here to help or offer advice whenever you need it.

Today, Amy’s partner Luca works alongside us too, heading up our in-house design projects and ensuring we continue to thrive together as a family business.

All you need to do is take the time to sort out those special photographs, and you can leave the rest to us!

Norman Wisdom Memorabilia Exhibit

We recently restored several images of Norman Wisdom for his son Nick. These were to form part of an exhibition that Nick is mounting.

We restored these two photographs so they could be printed the appropriate size for the framed exhibit of Norman’s suit dating back to 1952.

Nick says:

“As the Norman Wisdom Exhibition reaches its capacity of circa eighty frames, it’s fair to say that the best has been saved to last. A five foot high frame (below) features Norman’s long tailed suit first worn in the theatre in 1952. As ever, thanks must go to the experts who I have come to rely on. Gerald Fleuss, master calligrapher and Richard Haines of Photographs Forever who can resurrect and adapt any form of photography to great effect.”

Reigate & Banstead Mayors Have Been Restored!

We were asked by Reigate & Banstead Borough Council to restore 49 faded framed portraits of their Mayors going back many years. This involved removing the existing photographs from their frames, scanning and digitally restoring each one as well as reintroducing all the red and gold elements of many.  Here is just one of the worse ones showing before and after our restoration.

Photographs Forever Before and After

When all 49 were fully restored we printed them all on archive grade paper (so the fading will no longer be an issue going forward) and replaced them in their original frames.  Here they are safely reinstalled and being regularly enjoyed by all visitors the the Town Hall.

Photographs Forever

Removing All The Unwanted Parts…

Our customer is creating a gallery of his grandchildren’s’ sports photos and this photo had lots of unneccesary elements he wanted removed.

He was very pleased with the two 16″ x 12″ canvases he ordered of the final image

 

Glass Cooker Splashback Project

Brenda C sent us this message to ask if we could help:

I am having new kitchen worktops and was going to have a glass splashback across the cooker wall. I have decided to use two landscape photos placed somehow in the glass splashbacks but details have to be obviously pretty exact.

Would you be interested in creating the photo panorama for the glass manufacturers. It would consist of one landscape view, one central portrait view above the cooker and another landscape view. The photos to be used are of The Solent looking across to the IOW with sailing club yachts. Blue sky with few clouds, blue sea and the yachts have their dark blue spinnaker sails open. Obviously, sky, sea etc have to be in alignment with one another.

We have done this kind of bespoke project before and told Brenda we would be very happy to help. Brenda’s  photos above show the original photographs we were supplied with and the finished result. We increased the proportions to allow for the exact placing of the power point positions which meant more sea was required.

Brenda was very happy with the finished result achieved by us and the glass manufacturing company, and sent us this feedback on the final splashback:

Everyone has loved the splashback with not one negative comment. Most comments are ‘Wow’. I love it and every time I go into the kitchen, it looks so clean and bright. I am also pleased that the upstand removes enough of the sea to balance the yachts being so high. Now you have added my splashback on your new website, I have sent the web page link to many friends.

I don’t know how you did it but it was exactly how I wanted it. I have been trying to find each of the yachts from my photos but have given up trying to find them now!

 

Torn photo restored

As you can see this photo was in a bad way having been sent to us in four pieces. Turned out OK in the end though!

Grenadier Guards Photo Saved!

At some point someone obviously thought it would be a good idea to give some of these characters beards and glasses.

That’s where we were able to be helpful to a very grateful customer.

Here’s the before and after

Luca Joins The Photographs Forever Team

We are very pleased to let you know that Luca Quasimodo has joined Photographs Forever on a full-time basis. He will be creating our photobooks as well as carrying out many other duties so that we can be as efficient with customer photographs and photograph restoration.  Luca has been working for us part time until now. He has a Design Degree from Brighton University.
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We Can Sharpen Face Detail in Your Photographs

We now have the ability to sharpen up those out of focus faces that many old photographs suffer from. Sharpening face detail restores lost detail and brings back the true skin tones and all aspects of face detail

Here’s the difference

sharpen face detail