What is 'Photo Restoration'?

There are actually two types of photo restoration. One type is to clean, repair and preserve the actual original print, negative or plate in order to slow down the inevitable deterioration to which they are subject. This is the sort of restoration that is usually practiced in museums and art galleries and is an extremely specialized and expensive process. It has largely been replaced with digital photo restoration. This involves scanning the original image and adjusting it with special software.

How much does it cost?

That depends on several factors. The regular cost for scanning a photo, making a few adjustments and repairs and creating an archival quality, 5"x7" print is around $45.00 (Canadian dollars). I can always give you a firm quote before we begin the work and doing photos in batches can substantially reduce the cost per photo.

Do you only do photos?

I can restore any image really. If I can't get it onto a scanner I can photograph it and work from the photo. I can also scan any size film that you may have and we often get better results than the original photofinisher.

Can you fix new photos or photos taken with a digital camera?

Certainly I can. Lots of us take snapshots that would look great if only a few things could be corrected.

Can I scan the photo myself and email it to you?

I don't recommend that a scanned photo be sent over the web because I prefer that it be scanned at a very high resolution and the resulting file size is too large to email. You can scan it yourself and put it on a CD or have someone else do that and then mail it to me.

What if the photo is glued into an album or in a frame?

Pictures can usually be taken out of frames and then put back in without harming either the frame or the picture. Sometimes an individual page can be taken out of the album and brought to us or you can just bring the entire album and I will only scan the photos the you wish to have restored.

Can you make contact sheet so that I can show it to other people and let them choose how many prints they want?

I can either print or email you a contact sheet that you can use to conveniently sort out your photos and to show all of them to other people.

How long do the prints last?

That depends on the type of paper finish and whether it is a colour or black & white image. All the prints that we produce will last as well or better than conventional photos.

Can you fix a photo that is out of focus?

I can make a photo appear sharper but I cannot restore focus to a fuzzy picture. Unfortunately, that still only happens in the movies!