An estimate?
We believe that an estimate for restoration is of benefit to you, the customer.
Some restorations can be surprisingly quick to do. Some can literally take days, while others are simply not possible.
We cannot know what kind of work may be involved to correct the issues a photograph may have without seeing it first. Equally, until we have evaluated your photograph, you won’t know how much we are likely to charge.
Making customer aware of how much their photo is likely to cost to fix, gives them every opportunity to decide for themselves whether or not to go ahead.
Perhaps most important to bear in mind, you are under no obligation at this point. You have only uploaded a file.
What are we looking for when creating the estimate for restoration?
We are looking for the following:
Fading
This is where the colours or tones have become weaker, which can be down to age, light, atmospherics or all three. Most often, the colours and tones can be brought back, but sometimes, the fading of the colours or tones can leave the image too washed out. When this happens, the fading can result in other details disappearing too.
Blemishes and stains
This includes foxing and water damage. This is where dark, brownish-coloured marks begin appearing on the paper which can affect the image. It could be due to being exposed to moisture. Water or any other liquid damage. This can be for any reason. Possibly, the photo got dropped into a puddle or perhaps something got spilt on it.
Scuffs and scratches
These tend to appear most often on photographs that are not kept in an album. When they are taken out of whatever they are kept, or replaced there, they rub across other photographs, thereby causing the surface to become scratched. These scratches begin as slight scuffs that are hardly visible, but become bigger and more noticeable each time they are removed from their packaging. Random marks in general that will need to be removed.
Folds and creases
These happen a lot. Sometimes it’s simply a dog-eared corner, but other times the photo can be folded for any number of reasons including accidentally. The marks resulting from the folding can be removed, but the level of difficulty can often depend upon what the crease runs through and what details are compromised as a result.
Tears
These are not difficult to fix if the pieces are all there. They only become a problem when they are stuck together with adhesive tape. Adhesive tape can appear to be a miraculous cure until it begins to age. The tape becomes brittle, the adhesive dries out and the tape falls away, leaving a nasty yellow stain over the image. This can be nigh-on impossible to rectify entirely.
Voids
Some photographs have areas where the image is missing. This can be through tears or other damage. We have had numerous photographs that have areas where part of the image is missing. Sometimes these are easy to fix. It all depends what has been lost in terms of details. In the case of facial features, this can be dependent upon what is actually missing as to whether we can repair the damage and still retain the likeness of the person.
We will email you the following
Every photograph is different, which is why we provide the estimate for restoration. The process is wholly dependent on the photograph and its condition when provided.
- We will tell you whether we feel we will be able to bring your photo back like new, whether we we will only be able to improve its condition, or whether it’s beyond our scope.
- We will let you know what we think it will cost to restore your photo.
