When I first set out to teach myself to digitally restore photographs almost a decade ago, my family kindly donated hundreds of images for me to ‘practice on’. I did restore many of them and learnt a great deal from doing so. Some of those early images are still featured in the restoration gallery […]
In the past few weeks I have had some very difficult images to restore. There were even times when I doubted my own ability as a restorer but I persisted and would love to share this particular image with you.
The original image appears to have been water damaged and at one time stuck behind glass. […]
Top Tips for Restoring Photographs
I love my job as a photo restorer. It is such gratifying work. It can also however be very time consuming and sometimes even a little stressful. Following are just a few useful tips to guide you with your photo restoration tasks.
1. Begin with the best […]
Last week I shared a document restoration. Continuing on the theme of image restoration (not just photos), I thought I would share this restoration of a watercolour painting with you.
The original image is dated 1856 and is believed to be a painting of an early dwelling in Gipps Street, Richmond.
It has obviously seen better days; […]
When it comes to restoring documents, I treat them just as I do photographs. This certificate had seen better days; torn in two, sections missing and water damage. The owner wanted a restored copy for display.
I began by scanning each piece individually then stitching them together. This was the easy part.
Next came the restoration. I […]
To look at this photograph you would not think it would rate as one of the most challenging images I have ever had to restore. It doesn’t have large sections missing and it isn’t so faded it it barely visible. It is however covered in tiny spots and stains. In fact, when I fist saw […]
It’s amazing how much information can be found in images, faded by time. This photograph was presented to me recently; the owner fully aware of how faded it had become and appreciative of any attempt to restore it. My comments to her when I first scanned it were something along the lines of, “great news! […]
I prefer to scan my images for restoration where possible but with this one, it simply wasn’t an option…..for two reasons;
The image was presented to me while on holidays. I didn’t have access to my scanner or computer and even if I did it would have involved removing the image from the deeply matted frame […]
Polaroid photos have never been noted for their superior quality and the one taken of my son today at the MCG by organisers of the cricket clinic he attended with the Victorian Bushrangers is no exception. In fact, it’s pretty horrible. The composition and lighting are fine and it’s a great memento of my son […]
I use this image in my Photo Restoration courses. It is badly stained and on first glance, looks like it would take hours to restore. And had I scanned it as a greyscale image it probably would.
But I never scan photographic images in greyscale. I’m a big fan of RGB (red, green blue). Let me […]
The way we restore photographs today is quite different to the way images were restored before computers, but the concept remains the same. Some restorations are purely objective; the image has obvious damage with an obvious restoration solution. Spots, tears and scratches are repaired, mould and stains removed and sometimes, the ‘jigsaw’ is pieced back […]
