Digital photo restoration is nothing short of the work of true artists with a love for old photographs. When the art of restoration first appeared, it was a marvel. Specialty shops, for a rather hefty price, could sharpen borders, replace missing edges, and brighten the color.

Today, photos can be scanned and emailed to any photography shop in the world that retouches old photos, and the finished product can be emailed back to the customer fairly quickly and for much cheaper than before. Photo restoration today doesnt stop with the edges and borders of a photograph; missing chunks of pictures, even in the middle of the photo, can be replaced. In addition, artists can add people and furniture to a photo that were not in the original one. It is easy for a customer to submit any photos, slides, or negatives to a company for this service. In addition to emailing the picture file, it is very convenient, easy, and safe to upload the picture to the company.

The traditional way is to bring the original photograph in hand to a shop that specializes in this type of work. Of course, photos can be mailed to artists as well. Digital photo restoration is safe, inexpensive, and easy to use for the customer.

Photo Restoration: How It Works

The first thing that restoration artists do when they receive an old or damaged picture is to evaluate the damage. Rips, folds, and color issues are addressed, and an estimate of what it will cost to repair the issues is relayed to the customer. One of the greatest things about digital restoration is that the original photograph is NEVER altered. The only thing that is tinkered with is the scanned copy. This is especially important for those who bring their photos into a shop as opposed to emailing or uploading them. The customer then is given the estimate for the work, and the fun begins. Usually within a day or two, thanks to incredible technology today, the customer is shown an initial test version of the picture, restored.

If needed, the client can express their need for any further changes to the photo. If additional changes are requested, the customer will receive another test version for review. Once the customer is satisfied with the restored, fresh looking photo, orders for prints, reprints, and other special services can be ordered and filled.

Digital Restoration: The Benefits

The most obvious benefit to restoring old photos digitally is that the end result is much more suitable for framing and displaying to family and friends. A more colorful, uninterrupted image is much more aesthetically pleasing than a torn, worn, and shorn one. Another great reason to get an old photo retouched is renewability. People can rest easy knowing that there are 50 copies of Great Aunt Louises picture in existence, as opposed to Uncle Hebert having the only copy on the planet.

Retouched or repaired photographs make excellent additions to family trees, histories, and family Bibles, too. People always say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and digital photo restoration is the perfect way to make sure that no matter how many years those words have been around, they will never go unheard.

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You’re finally ready to get that old photo of grandma repaired. You know the one that’s been in that shoebox on the kitchen counter for the last 3 months? Somewhere 20 years ago someone spilled a Tab on it and it has a crease from where someone tried to fold it in half. Either way, it looks rough. You’ve scoured the internet and phone book looking for a photo restoration service, but there are so many choices, you just aren’t sure what you’re looking for.

There are a lot of great photo restoration companies out there that can help you out, all promising various services like free prints, free color correction, tone adjustments, etc. But here are the 5 things you MUST know before choosing someone to restore your image.

1. Those other free services they include? Worthless.

You want your photo restored because it’s damaged. But look! This company also offers free “tone correction” with each order. While you may be enticed by all the free “extra’s” many companies include, be advised that most photo editing software, like Adobe Photoshop, has built-in automatic tools that auto-correct things like contrast and color. Unfortunatly, many companies just press those buttons and send the image out. These adjustments should be done by hand, as the automatic settings often leave the photo looking worse than before

2. That company down the road you hired? They may send your photo to India
Sad but true. Like any service these days, your retouching work may be farmed out to some remote little office building in India or the Philippines. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, as you will probably get a great result. However if you have special requirements for your photo restoration job, they may not be translated very well and could cause your photo to need additional work when you see the proof. Simply ask the photo retouching company if they sub out work before you commit to anything.

3. Many of the services you might pay for, you can get for free

So you’d have the perfect wedding photo, if it weren’t for the red-eye and zit on your niece. You may be tempted to take this to a photo restoration company to have retouched. Don’t. Just download Picassa from Google (it’s free) and let it help you automatically correct this and other little photo enhancements. Leave the big problems for the restoration experts.

4. The inclusion of a “free print” should not be a deciding factor

Many companies offer a “free print” with your photo restoration job. Usually, these are printed on standard cheap photo paper on a home printer. If you really want the print, just use Walgreens or Walmart.com and pay the .11 to get one, or ask the company EXACTLY what you are getting.

5. Always get your photo scanned yourself

This one makes a bit more work for you, but don’t trust any company to include the scanning. Most will either overcharge you or will scan at a lower resolution. You can take the photo to Kinkos or any other similar store and have it scanned at 600dpi and send the company a digital copy via email. Also, if you have issues with the retoucher, they will only have a digital version and you won’t have to wait days or weeks for them to return your original photo before you can move on to another vendor.

This is a photo of my grandmother . The photo is the only one we have of her at this age . So I did a restore on the photo and increased the photo res from a very small , wallet size to a full 8×10 . This was done in Adobe Photoshop cs3 . The final picture took about 6 hours of touch up and finish work . I just wanted to show the bulk of the initial work for this vid . When I restore vintage photos or just do touch ups,they can be very time consuming . The music bed or backing track used in this photoshop cs3 example is Aerosmith Dream On acoustic version . This photo was in extreme decay and bad shape . If you would like more information about Digital Design House , please visit our website www.digitaldesignhouse.com