Old photo restoration

Call me Al

I have a photo from 1920s or 30s of a relative that we would like to have restored. It's really quite faded so will need a bit of work and attention. I don't have a clue where to find a professional who might be able to take a look and do some work on it.
Does anyone know who we could approach about this?
Thanks

Homer

All you need here....

sheesh

most photographers would be able to do photo restoration for you as most of them will be using photoshop if you had a scanner and had used PS before you could try it yourself. Try and get recommendations of people that do it regularly otherwise they might just scan it and up the levels and let you off. But remember they won't be doing anything that regular scanner couldn't do. It is unlikely that they will be using alternative light sources like you see with the dead sea scrolls

When you say faded what do you mean.

Call me Al

sheesh wrote: »

most photographers would be able to do photo restoration for you as most of them will be using photoshop if you had a scanner and had used PS before you could try it yourself. Try and get recommendations of people that do it regularly otherwise they might just scan it and up the levels and let you off. But remember they won't be doing anything that regular scanner couldn't do. It is unlikely that they will be using alternative light sources like you see with the dead sea scrolls

When you say faded what do you mean.

Thanks sheesh,
Its a very old photo. Maybe 1920s? Or earlier. It's gone beyond yellowing in certain spots at this stage, and there is a white streak of colouring over his face extending in from the edge of the photo. You can barely discern features, but there are shadows and very faded features to enhance. It needs a lot of work. And I'd prefer to give it to somebody who would know what they're doing. I'm not too optimistic that it can be done to be honest though.
A friend of a friend (who knew a bit about photography - more than me) tried it and it came out an odd shade of blue!
I want to get it done properly. But I don't know where to start. Nobody I know has ever restored photos before.

Heebie

You say it's quite faded. The most important thing is a good scan by someone who knows how to get as much data as possible out of the image... and has a scanner both worthy of such skills, and large enough to scan the picture all at once.
How big is it?
I used to do digital restoration from scan to finished product, and can scan up to A4.

Call me Al

Heebie wrote: »

You say it's quite faded. The most important thing is a good scan by someone who knows how to get as much data as possible out of the image... and has a scanner both worthy of such skills, and large enough to scan the picture all at once.
How big is it?
I used to do digital restoration from scan to finished product, and can scan up to A4.

It's a very small photo. Maybe 8cm×5, but the bottom half is completely faded to white with no shading/pigments left at all.
And that's why I think it's a job for somebody who really knows what they're doing.

Heebie

Call me Al wrote:

It's a very small photo. Maybe 8cm×5, but the bottom half is completely faded to white with no shading/pigments left at all. And that's why I think it's a job for somebody who really knows what they're doing.

Sounds like the unevenness of the fade might make it difficult to get the entire image. You might be surprised how much can be retrieved if it's an old-fashioned print where light was shone through the a negative onto photo paper.

The bottom half probably had sunlight on it regularly for a long time.

How close to Dublin City centre are you?

Call me Al

Heebie wrote: »

Sounds like the unevenness of the fade might make it difficult to get the entire image. You might be surprised how much can be retrieved if it's an old-fashioned print where light was shone through the a negative onto photo paper.

The bottom half probably had sunlight on it regularly for a long time.

How close to Dublin City centre are you?

Just outside the m50 so close enough. I was looking at the Edmund R0ss website last night. They seem to have some specialisation. But nothing they did was as bad as our photo.

Heebie

Call me Al wrote:

Just outside the m50 so close enough. I was looking at the Edmund R0ss website last night. They seem to have some specialisation. But nothing they did was as bad as our photo.

It's probably worth letting them take a look at it.
Without actually doing some initial scans, it would be difficult to gauge just how much scanning might be necessary, and until the scanning is done, it would be difficult to estimate how much Photoshop work it would need.
It depends a lot on whether the fade is gradual from top to bottom, or of there is a fairly clean line between faded and not-faded.
You could take a photo of it with your phone to give an idea as to how bad it is.
I'm actually curious myself.