Page 7 of 8

52 Ancestors, No. 1: Russell Hawkins

January 6, 2014 / tim / 0 Comments

I’m going to try out the 52 Ancestor Challenge, of which I first caught wind from my inspirations at NoStoryTooSmall.com. I’d like to attempt a restoration for each entry. I may not actually have that many damaged photos of ancestors to restore, and I won’t wreck photos just to fix ’em, so many entries may just have cool stories. It should be fun either way. Let’s get started.

I can’t think of a better way to ring in the new year then with the rags-to-riches story of Russell Hawkins, who was my first cousin, four times removed. Specifically, he was the nephew of my paternal grandmother’s great-grandfather. Continue reading

Moderate Restoration: Creases, Cracking, and Tape

November 26, 2013 / tim

This is a picture of the client’s mother and uncles in Virginia in 1942. The original was small, only about 3¾ inches tall. Don’t let that deceive you. It was more work as my previous moderate restoration because I had to clean a lot those little cracks out of intricate places, like the care and the baby’s white outfit.

Moderate Restoration: General Cleaning and Repair

November 23, 2013 / tim

The original image of this young gentleman did not look quite so bad, but getting up close and personal with a scanner at 600dpi revealed an accumulation of dinge to wash away, the byproduct of many loving hands over many years. The cleanup was not so difficult against the solid background, and the result was worth the effort. This image took about an hour to restore.

Moderate Restoration: Replacing Small Features

November 14, 2013 / tim

I had thought this restoration might be a challenge because the young man’s nose was missing, but before I knew it, I had free-handed him a new one with little trouble. The restoration took one hour to complete.

Moderate Restoration: Cracked Ceramic

November 8, 2013 / tim

The cracked ceramic is a much more straightforward restoration that the weathered ceramic. As before, the original ceramic photograph was presumably attached to the gravestone of this gentleman upon his death in 1927.I took a close-up photo of the image with a handheld digital camera.The restoration clocked in at about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Major Restoration: Weathered Ceramic

October 27, 2013 / tim

This ceramic photograph was affixed to a gravestone, presumably upon the death of the woman in 1924, and left open to the elements for decades. These are often the only photos of some people that survive, so restoration attempts are in order. I took a close-up photo of it with a handheld digital camera. The most difficult part for me was the dress, believe it or not, and I haven’t yet made any changes to the necklace. I might try some further experiments on it, but I am proud of the result, overall. It was another 10+ hour job. I’d like to attempt a restoration like this for you, although your mileage may vary.

Light Restoration: Creases

July 14, 2013 / tim

Although I’ve taken a year-long hiatus from promoting this site, I am still here and available for your photo restoration needs. I did this one yesterday. It wasn’t complicated because the creases missed all of the vital parts of the picture. Compare to this job from last year, in which the crease went right across the gentleman’s face. The gentleman’s photo was trickier because I had to be careful around his nose and ears. Although this woman’s picture had more creases, they were generally easier to repair. I spent about a half-hour on it.

Major Restoration: New Challenges; Pervasive Cracking

April 25, 2012 / tim

This Polaroid will alter the way I think about pricing my work. It is the most extensive restoration I’ve done to date. Until now, the most extensive restoration I had done was this three-hour job, so I used three hours as my benchmark for this request. These cracks seemed a little more faint, as if they might wipe away a little easier. I also wanted the work, so I gave a quote of two hours at $21 and hour–a $42 job. Oh, how wrong I was. Continue reading

Major Restoration: Missing Pieces

April 18, 2012 / tim

I recreated the left side of this gentleman’s hat entirely from what remained of the right side, although a hat could just as easily have been copied from a similar photo. The latter method might have been preferable had I needed to replace a detailed insignia, but the method I chose ensured similar colors, lighting, etc.

Touch-Ups: Color Enhancement

March 26, 2012 / tim

This soldier is in the thick of his basic training for Vietnam.

Adding color where there is none is a trick, but teasing out colors that are there and hiding is not too difficult. Playing with a few sliders and trying on a few automatic color enhancers can quickly produce striking results. In this instance, I bartered a little extra work for permission to post the picture here. Creases and negative dust specks have been removed.