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Archive for Photograph Restoration – Page 10

What To Do When Your Favourite Photograph Is Lost or Damaged

This is Jennifer and Frank’s Story as told by Jennifer

“I first contacted Richard at Photographs Forever to see if there was anything he could do with a photograph that had huge sentimental value to my partner Frank as it was the only one he had of his two daughters at that age. The photograph had accidentally been very badly damaged by falling from a car window in the rain and being repeatedly run over by several cars, here’s the photograph in question.

Richard said that unfortunately there was nothing he could do as the photograph was too badly damaged to restore.
I knew there was one other photograph of the two girls that was one of those tiny photographs in a key ring fob.

So I sent this to Richard to restore and also to ask if there was anything he could do to recreate the original photograph of the two girls with hi-vis waistcoats and hard hats. This is the resulting photograph that Richard created and sent to me

Richard sent this photo of the girls, to be signed for, and as I am at work, I missed the postie, got a card through the door to pick it up from the sorting office in West Bromwich. I did not know where it was so I asked Frank to take me. (I have not lived in West Bromwich very long). When I collected it he could see it was photos by the packaging, I told him that I had got you to do “something” to the picture of his girls but I would not tell him what because it was to be a surprise for his birthday, he seemed quite uninterested.  He has since told me that he thought you had just made the photo bigger and made it oval, why he thought that I will never know! ANYWAY, when we got back home I opened it, I got goose pimples!
I said “You have got to see this, I cannot wait for your birthday”
He replied “No, put it away somewhere and I will have it for my birthday”.
I pulled it out the envelope again and said “No I cannot do it, you have to see this”.
When he saw it, well……………….. He is SO HAPPY, his bottom lip started to quiver and I have never seen him like that, he was astounded.  I was afraid that he may not like it as it has been manipulated, it is not actually a memory, as photos normally are but no  – he LOVES IT! We cannot believe the attention to detail, I thought that the girls were wearing hi-vis COATS on the original photo but they were not, they were actually waistcoat hi-vis’s, and the hard hats -on the original  – the oldest girl has a blue hat and the youngest a white one, Richard is SO GOOD. AND the pen in the hi-vis on the youngest, AMAZING. WHAT MORE CAN I SAY……….. WE ARE SPEECHLESS, totally, I cannot thank Richard enough, he has made Frank’s day, his year, his birthday! I told Frank I would buy him a frame for it for his birthday, he said “No way, we are getting a frame on Saturday”.

Any ideas what I can get him for his birthday now please Richard??????????????????”

Photographs Forever Featured in Newspaper

Last week I sent out an email to my customers and this was seen by Sam Satchell of the East Grinstead Courier and he thought the story of Lucy Dixon’s photographs was a very interesting one and consequently called me for more details.  The full page article was published today!

EG-Courier-Article

Photograph Restoration Montage – A Special Gift

I recently competed an interesting request to combine two photographs in order to include and exclude all the right people.

Here are the two photographs beside the finished photograph montage . My customer’s touching story is below

Photographs Forever Montage

Photograph Restoration Montage

“Earlier this year my husband and I made the decision to put our house on the market. It wasn’t just any old house. It had belonged to my grandparents since 1957 and we bought it from my mum and her brothers after Grampy passed away in 2008. Over the last few years we renovated the house and garden, but with a growing family we felt it was time for a change.

When we told my parents the news they were so upset at the thought of saying goodbye to the house, that they decided to sell up themselves and buy (back!) number 10!

My husband remembered an old photo of mum and dad outside the house and we thought it could make a wonderful housewarming gift. We trawled through album and eventually we found it! Only it wasn’t quite how we’d pictured it. There were 2 photos of the whole family, neither was perfect and we really only wanted mum, dad and my grandparents in the frame. Enter Photographs Forever! Richard restored one of the photos to it’s original condition and colours, removed the other family members and pets, took Grampy from the other photo and popped him right in behind nanny as if he’d always been there. He even gave him a body! My parents loved their gift, they couldn’t believe that it wasn’t an original photo. It now takes pride of place on their mantle piece. Thank you Richard!”      Lucy D.

60 Year Old Wedding Photograph Restored

This charming photograph was taken on this couple’s wedding day 60 years ago this year. The restored version can now be printed and enlarged to virtually any size whilst keeping the colouring and feel of the original. David M and his wife were very pleased with the result and he emailed to say “Thank you so much for your patience – so pleased with your excellent service and will be more than happy to recommend you”

Restored Wedding Photograph - Photographs Forever

Restored Wedding Photograph – Photographs Forever

 

 

 

Historic Photographs Restored for Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club

A couple of months ago I was asked by the Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club to restore some very old deteriorating photographs which the club wanted to use to feature in their refurbishment program. Last week I got the opportunity to take some photographs of the finished project.

Ashdown Golf Montage 650Senior member of the Golf Club is Colin Strachan and this is the story behind these original old photographs:

“I began collecting old photographs to include in my book Fair Ways in Ashdown Forest  to celebrate the 125 years of Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club 3 years ago.These came from albums of the 1890s and the image resolutions were not up to the standard the layout designer requested.

I searched online for help and was pleasantly surprised to find that the site which appeared to offer the best service for enhancement and photographic restoration was Photographs Forever at nearby Chelwood Gate.

In June 2014 Richard Haines of Photographs Forever was asked to restore a further sepia 30 images which now grace the walls of the Clubhouse.

The largest of these is 1.8 m across.They look superb and the members of the Club have been fulsome in their praise of the new hangings.

Meanwhile the book and its many old photographs has won the coveted Murdoch Medal for the best contribution to the Heritage of Golf in 2014”

 

How To Make The Most Of Your Photographs

Flyer Photo Drop small

I have just put together a small brochure “How To Make The Most Of Your Photographs”. If you would like me to email you a copy please email me at Richard@PhotographsForever.co.uk

 

New Photograph Restoration Video

Colourise-1

 

Take a look at the new 1 minute video showing some examples of photograph restoration and how to make the most of your precious photographs

CLICK HERE

Special Photograph Created From The Only Photograph of 1935 Couple

I recently received a photograph from Bridie F asking if I could remove the extra person from the photograph of her Mum and Dad. This I did and created her Mum’s right arm at the same time! When this was done Bridie asked if I could gently colourise it in a way similar to those hand coloured at the time of the original photograph. Here is the original photograph, the  manipulated version, the colourised version and finally the framed print in situ.

Photographs Forever - Photograph Restoration Example

Photographs Forever – Photograph Restoration Example

Here’s Bridie’s story of the photograph:

“This photograph taken in rural Ireland on a sunny afternoon in 1935 shows a happy, smiling young couple, full of the joy of young love and the happiness of youth.  In this photo Richard has created the picture of my parents that I have always wished existed, and that now holds pride of place in my sideboard family gallery.

The original, taken by my mother’s sister on an outing as a foursome, also has another young man standing beside my mother.   Within weeks of the outing my aunt had sailed off to America to begin a new life, like so many Irish before her, and her young man went on to marry another local girl.  The blossoming romance between my mother and father was forbidden on the grounds that she, as the daughter of a respectable but peasant farmer, was an unsuitable match for this young man from a well to do land owning family.  Their relationship continued punctuated by meetings at the local dances and later by clandestine meetings in neighbouring towns for a few short hours at a time.  It was to be eleven long years before they were eventually to marry in May 1946, and even then it was against his family’s wishes and without their blessing.  Only my mother’s father, her friend and my father’s friend who had driven them over to the next town attended the ceremony.  After a few days in Dublin by way of a honeymoon, my mother returned home and her new husband, unable to return to his family, travelled to England and began to build a new life for them both.  He quickly saved enough to put a deposit on a small run down cottage, where they were reunited and spent the next fifty years together making a home and raising five daughters.  Only the death of my mother was to separate them again in all those years, and even then only for a short time.

Virtually no photographic evidence of this period of their lives exists, and although I am happy to have the original photo to record the day it is impossible to express how wonderful it is to have this lovely gently coloured picture showing a time in their romance that I have only been able to imagine.  This has only been made possible by Richards’s patience and skill for which I shall be forever grateful.”   

“My Only Photograph of Dad”

I received a letter from Jackie, her letter said

“Please find enclosed a photo of my dad, which I hope you can restore. My dad died in May 1947 and I was born a month after in June 1947, this photo is all I have of him.”

Here’s the photo I received

Before-Photograph-Restoration

 Here’s the photograph after restoration followed by Jackie’s email to me when she had received the enlargement

After-Photograph-Restoration

“Dear Richard, Thank you so much for what you did to dads photo, I never knew a photo in that condition could be restored perfectly. I can now get a proper image of what my dad looked like, as I never had the pleasure of knowing him.  I have one remaining sister and she was only 7 when he died, she only remembers bits n pieces about dad, it may sound strange but this photo will bring me that much closer to dad, n you have managed to do that for me, n I thank you for that…” Jackie

14th Century Family Tree Artwork

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.

Family Tree Artwork

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!