Digitally restored photos from Fountain Studio - Tucson, AZ

BEFORE & AFTER PHOTO RESTORATION EXAMPLES

BASIC RESTORATION EXAMPLES
COST TO RESTORE - $15 to $30
Colored photos can be damaged by lots of things - UV light, heat, contact with acidic papers, etc. But the most common reason colored photos turn yellow, then red and then disappear altogether is TIME. Dyes used for colored photos are not permanent and will fade even if stored out of the light.

This photo was discolored, but didn't have any other severe damage, so it was just a matter of getting more natural color back into the image.

This is a BASIC RESTORATION, and cost $15 to restore and print.
This is another example of a very faded photo that was otherwise in pretty good condition. The photo had been cut to a rough shape to fit in an oval mat, and the mat had slightly discolored the edges of the photo, but other than that, there were no major problems with the image other than loss of color, which I fixed. I also created a more precise oval crop around the image, with a clean white border.

This is a BASIC RESTORATION, and cost $30 to restore and print.
MODERATE RESTORATION EXAMPLES
COST TO RESTORE - $40 to $90
This photo had quite a few cracks and scratches on the surface, but none of them were through the middle of critical features (eyes, lower nose, mouth). The client also wanted the image digitally expanded so that it would fit a standard 8x10 frame. That required me to add to the man's shirt sleeve on the left, and complete his hand on the right, and also extend the overall background where needed. A little contrast adjustment and sharpening and the photo was good as new.

This is a MODERATE RESTORATION, and cost $90 to restore and print.
It was not uncommon in the early 20th century to hand color a photo, mount it to a board, varnish and frame it. These works allowed the middle class to have what looked like an oil painting, but didn't cost nearly as much. The best of these could fool all but an expert, but the worst of them looked quite amateurish.

This particular image was faded, and had some surface scratches as well. Also, the client wanted to be able to frame it in a standard rectangular frame rather than an oval, so the background and his suit had to be extended into the rectangular format. Some color and value adjustment, and a general cleaning up of the image brought it back to life.

This is a MODERATE RESTORATION and cost $90 to restore and print.
MAJOR RESTORATION EXAMPLES
COST TO RESTORE - $95 and UP
The original had major damage from two different sized oval non-archival mats coming in contact with the photo. There were also mold and mildew spots all over the image. The client wanted a more traditional sepia toned image, with just the suggestion of an oval while maintaining a rectangular format so that he would have more framing options for the print. 

Restoration involved two different scans, one to bring out what detail was left in the woman's dress, and working on the image at a very high magnification to get rid of the mold and mildew spots.

This is a MAJOR RESTORATION and cost $120 to restore and print.
This client brought me two original photos. She liked the picture of herself best on the dark pony, but wanted the entire horse to show in the final image. I took the pinto horse's head from the photo above and married it to the dark horse for the final image, filling in torn places and doing general cleanup as well. I also extended the image, borrowing landscape features as needed, to create a finished standard 4x6 black and white image - a permanent reminder of a childhood memory for the client.

This is a MAJOR RESTORATION and cost $95 to restore and print.
Additional Samples (click any choice to view):

All photos on this site are copyright Fountain Studio - Tucson, AZ on behalf of clients