How do we repair photographs?

Not so long ago getting your old damaged photographs repaired was no deed for the faint hearted! Photographs would have to be worked on literally in order to correct damage. A very difficult and specialised job that would be with very limited results. It was also not without risk and either way, you could be sure that that precious photographic print would never be the same again!

Not surprisingly today many people are still concerned about having their precious photographs repaired or altered believing that the process could ruin them forever! Needless to say photograph repair and alterations are done very differently these days. Your original photographs no longer need to be altered whatsoever. Instead a high-resolution scan of the original print is made and the resulting image is stored on a computer. The original print can now be kept in a safe place and returned as needed.

As restorers we will now have a digital copy of your damaged photograph on our computer. It will be accurate to the original in every detail and we will be able to enlarge it on our monitors to see further detail that would not have been possible otherwise. A combination of skilful manipulation and digital imaging software will now take over enabling us to create a brand new photograph available for printing.

How can we replace sections of photographs that no longer exist?

Some photographs are so badly damaged that whole sections may be missing or stained out of existence and yet you still seem able to restore these sections even though they are sometimes part of someone's clothing or house or garden, or even part of someone's face! How is this possible? Well quite simply if something is missing altogether then it would not be possible for us to recreate it exactly as it was as we would not have that information available to us. Instead we have to use a lot of educated guesswork and skill in replacing the missing sections manually. Of course we do have some very clever software at our disposal that enables us to use cloning techniques to recreate those missing sections using existing sections of the remaining photograph.

The end result of a major restoration project is often greeted with disbelief! People are often amazed when they see the results of what used to be a barely recognisable piece of badly damaged memorabilia! Consider what I said earlier that photographs are no longer actually repaired as such, instead new photographs are made to replace them. With this approach the sky is the limit, and yes miracles can be made!

How do we manage to turn old black and white photographs into nice new colourful ones?

Colouration is again a technique made possible by the use of modern day digital imaging software, it also demands a fair amount of skill and patience to achieve a satisfying result. Nevertheless, the results again can be nothing less than remarkable! Selecting the right colours for the right areas is probably where experience matters most since a black and white photograph does not usually leave many clues as to original colour themes! Once the right colour has been selected for a particular area it is applied using an airbrush or similar and the use of a lot of transparency.

Transparency is where the new colour that we are applying does not completely mask the underlying image, but instead allows the different monotone shades and detail of the photograph to remain visible. Getting the transparency right is as much a skill as selecting the appropriate colours. In order to ensure that the end result is of a realistic appearance, we would also have to take into account the fact that the photograph may also be very old and having bright modern day colours on an old style photograph might look out of place, so a certain amount of artistic ageing would need to be done to make the photograph look natural.

How do we remove people and objects from photographs so convincingly?

As mentioned earlier, cloning is a new technique made possible by modern day digital imaging software and is essentially the process of copying an area of a photographs image to another part. In order to remove an object or a person for instance from a photograph, we would simply clone part of the existing background image of the photograph over the subject to be removed. If the background is fairly uniform and simple then this is not too difficult. However, it usually involves having to carefully match up background vegetation, buildings or interiors etc. carefully so that there is a continuity of the scene.

How do we add people to a photograph without it looking like a cut and paste job?

Taking people, pets or objects from one photograph and placing them into another require a whole load of different procedures each being executed separately. Again this is the 'magic' of digital imaging, however, the end result is entirely down to a good artistic eye, seeing what looks right and what does not. Essentially though, the process involves digitally cutting around subjects and making them into different layers so that they can be positioned in a convincing way into the new image. Familiarity with the software being used is every bit as important as artistic capabilities if a truly convincing end result is to be achieved! For instance, just placing a person into an image however well executed isn't always going to look right unless the lighting and shadow effects of the new subject are matched correctly with the host photograph.

At Foto Craft we take pride in our work and make sure that each job is given the full attention to detail it deserves. If our customers are not delighted then we are not happy either! Every job is different so every job is given a different approach. We understand how important your photographs are to you, so we take special care not only of your restorations and alterations but also of your original prints.

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