Category: digital

digital

Scanning For Restoration

Mike had borrowed this large aerial photo of his old property and wanted to get this duplicated and restored for various members of his family. The photo is a large 20" x 30" print. Very typical of this type of photography. The age and sun had done their work and rendered the image with a strong red colour cast. The colour required restoration and a wide disbursement of small blemishes that always come with photos of this size needed to be removed.

Scanning For Restoration

One of the main difficulties with photo this size is digitising the image so it can be worked on the computer in Photoshop. Scanning such a large image requires either a VERY large flat bed scanner. They don't exist. Not that can be afforded. Or a series of smaller scans that are then stitched together in Photoshop to complete the whole picture. A third option is to photograph the entire image using a high resolution camera. This time we used lots of smaller scans to make up the whole photo. eight scans in total were used.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

Hi Richard,

Thanks for that, it looks great.

Mike - Auckland

BEFORE AND AFTER

Click to enlarge and see if you can spot the joints.

Colour Photo Restoration Scanning For Restoration
Medium level restoration $130 plus prints

Old Soldiers Should Never Fade Away

Amy sent me this very badly faded old photo by Courier Post. When it arrived it was virtually gone, it was barley visible. But I did a scan and using a variety of Multiple Layers and some heavy burn and dodging I was able to bring this old soldier back. But when the image became visible again.

Old Soldiers Should Never Fade Away

So did the hundreds of small cracks that covered the surface of the photo paper. You see this was not the original photo it was a copy that had been made at some time using a 'dye sublimation printer'. They are very commonplace and will most likely find them in your local pharmacy where they use them for passport photos or to provide prints from a Kodak kiosk. the problem is they don't last!! and this is how they end up... faded and cracked!

A few hours of extra work was needed to remove the cracks and finish off the restoration. To the delight of Amy who was over the moon. So much so she gave us a 5 star review on Google.

We had a photo which had almost disappeared due to sun damage and had been told it was not possible to save. Luckily I decided to have 1 last try and Richard did an amazing job giving a beautifully clear photo. Thanks.

Amy - Dunedin

Before and After Old Soldiers Should Never Fade Away

Faded Photo Restoration
Medium Restoration $150 Plus Prints

Close Up Example

Old Soldiers Should Never Fade Away
Photo restoration close up

How to remove mould

Todd sent me this very old and tired photo for restoration. It had suffered some severe mould damage and needed a good cleanup in Photoshop . The mould shows itself as light and dark patches. But because there are so many we can't use the spot removal or the healing brush in the normal way.

How to remove mould?

If you do then the light and dark patches are 'merged' and they become neither, ending up is a mid-tone grey. What was needed was to pick an area and decide if the surrounding blotches needed to be made lighter or darker to match the good areas.

Then using the healing tool set to either 'lighten' or 'darken' mode I was able to match the damaged area with good areas, without merging the two and making everything muddy and grey. The results are very good and the faces became much more visible and the whole photo looks very presentable.

Google Review

Richard at Pixelfix did the impossible by taking an old family photo from the late 1800s that was suffering from significant mould damage and fading. I didn't think he would be able to do much with it, but I was wrong. Thanks Richard for breathing new life into a cherished family portrait.

- Todd

 

Before & After

Photo Restoration B&W - How to remove mould
Medium Restoration 4+hours - $160 plus prints

How Do You Restore This?

Removing surface damage, including cracks and creases is an everyday occurrence in photo restoration. This is the most common damage to old photos. The damage is most often because of people folding the photographs. This cracks the photographic emulsion surface and reveals the paper underside of the photo.

How Do You Restore This?

To repair this kind of damage we must use the magic of Photoshop. A few different  tools are used for this kind of restoration. but to restore the cracked areas and surface damage I use the 'healing brush' and the 'spot healing brush'. With the healing brush you can select which area you want to copy the pixels from and then select where to paste them.

As you paste the copied pixels, Photoshop analysis the surrounding pixels and adjusts the colour of pasted pixels to closely match those of the surrounding area. The Spot Healing Brush automatically selects the best area to copy from and matches to the surround pixels. This is a much quicker one step process as apposed to the Healing Brush 2 steps. But it can be less useful in very detailed areas.

Before and After

photo restoration
Light - Medium Restoration $80

Something for the weekend!

Colourizing old black and white photos is an art. It is amazing what can be achieved with this method of adding colour to old black and white photos. History can come alive. This old portrait of Queen Victoria was completely transformed when I added colour to it. I did this one just for fun. But I do like these results and thought I would share them with you.

If you would like to restore and add colour to your old black and white photos then please send us your photos. I'm sure you will also be amazed at the difference it can make.

Colourizing old black and white photos Before & After

colourized photo restoration - Colourizing old black and white photos
Colourized Photo restoration

Add colour and make your photo time travel!

Old black and white photos are wonderful. They show a time that was long ago. But when you add colour to a black and white photo. You bring them forward in time so to speak. Therefore they look real and they have more life to them. It is as though they were taken yesterday. It becomes an amazing transformation.

Add Colour

The process to do this colourizing magic is not all science. In fact most of it is down to artistic flair and skill. Once the original black and white image is restored and looking like new again, the re-colourizing process can begin.  The process all takes place in Photoshop but the colours are painted in by hand using a 'digital brush'.  The colours are all chosen by the artist too. We do not know from the black and white photo which shade of grey is which colour. So researching the period and other information including feedback from the client is all very important to the final result.

The photo restoration colourizing example below is a fine example how colour can really make a an big impact.

Before and After

Add colour to Black and white photo
Medium Restoration $140 plus prints

Let There Be Light!

Let there be light!

When Julia brought in this wonderful family photo for restoration. It was dark and had been laminated. A common practice with photos from the islands. But we were able to use the magic of Photoshop to bring back the brightness and also the colour. The difference is amazing and Julia was very pleased with the results.

Julia-

Hi Richard
Thankyou it looks great!

Before & After

colour photo restoration
Light Colour Restoration $60 plus prints

A Wedding To Remember

A Wedding To Remember

Faa brought us this very old wedding photo that he wanted to put back up on display again. The original was cut out with a pair of scissors and glued to some heavy board material.

Because the couple in the photo were both wearing wight it was very difficult to find any details. And so, using Photoshop, I had to paint in by hand the shading and outlines. We also added a bench for the couple to sit on. Replaced the background and sharpened up the image to make this photo come back to life. Faa was very happy with the results.

Before and After

Photo Restoration - A Wedding To Remember
Medium Photo Restoration $120 plus prints

This is what to do If this happens

Pixelfix Restoration

Carol brought in 2 photos in there frames with broken glass. The photos had stuck to the glass and the glass had been broken when trying to remove them. This happens... a lot.

If this happens to you. Please don't do anything further once you discover that the photo is struck to the glass. Bring it straight into me at Pixelfix Restoration and I can scan it through the glass before anything gets broken and things are made worse. Carol was lucky and we were able to restore the damaged areas and fix up the cracks in the glass.

Restored Photo

Poto restoration Colour
Medium restoration $150 plus prints

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