Photo Restoration

Old Photo Specialists performs all photo restoration and reproduction work in our studio. Original pieces never leave our studio. They are never outsourced to others for restoration services. Large convex photos or flat prints that often resemble charcoal drawings (circa 1920’s) and panoramic photos are some of our favorites. With over 45 years of experience in this field and a guarantee that delivers both satisfaction and time honored longevity of our products, it is no surprise to us that our repeat business and word of mouth referrals account for much of our success.

We routinely restore old and new, faded and damaged photographs — color, B&W, Sepia, and oil-tinted. We have worked on photos (daguerreotypes) dating back to the 1840’s as well as photos taken as recently as last week. Our reproductions as well as additional copies or reprints thereof are always printed on archival giclee’ materials with pigment inks. After a drying period, each print is lacquer finished for additional surface and moisture protection.

It is important to note that we cannot create a fully sharp image from a blurry original. However, there are steps we can take to improve the clarity of the image through our restoration process.

Note: We no longer take severely faded color photos or copies of originals. Please try to find any originals for consideration.

Old Photo Specialist has restored, repaired, and reproduced more than 60,000 photographs and art pieces into silver, sepia, and giclée prints over the last 30 years including the restoration of many original pieces. We have always guaranteed quality work. We now guarantee the longevity of all our prints against fading from intense sunlight. We do not recommend taking quotes for work to be done over the phone. Our services include many facets of repair, reproduction, and printing that other services of this nature simply do not routinely do or are significantly inferior in quality to ours.

Print quality is something that everyone needs to pay attention to. Our in-house printing technology in combination with lacquer finishing guarantees longer lasting products and better color matching than any other printing facility around. We have operated out of our commercial location for over 43 years.

If you are considering our services, please read the following:

We no longer take severely faded color photos or copies of originals. Please try to find any originals for consideration.
OPS needs access to the earliest printing of every photograph for us to do our best work. Making a proper scan (or the use of cameras for larger items and convex pictures) is essential to our photo restoration process since originals contain chemical information that is usually lost once a scan is made that “skips” over that detail. Most shops then make “color copies” that can easily result in the long term destruction of the image once they are exposed to prolonged sunlight. We only make archival giclee’ prints! Usually we do not need to keep the original once the correct scan has been made. Serious genealogists need to store all photographic originals in a safe, dry place and only make archival giclee prints on the most important ones.
OPS does not have separate pricing for stages of our photo restoration processes – one for the scanning process, one computer restoration (known as Photoshop and may be subject to time spent (other studios may get you on this one)), and finally one for the printing (includes lacquer finishing-very important). Instead, we combine all three processes into one price (additional charges for more serious restorations are quoted in advance and do not exceed the quoted amount). All work is done in our shop- never outsourced.
In the case of restoring color prints, it is important to understand that UV light which is a natural component of sunlight is responsible for breaking down the chemical compounds that give selected reflected light, or the color you see, resulting in “fading” or loss of color. The software in many of today’s programs is able to recover much of this loss, the rest is done by us. Prints that are severely damaged, out of focus or have been copied already generally do not restore well.
The older the photo is, the better it is made. Technology, in this industry, for the last 60+ years, industry has focused on more profit for manufactures, not better material quality for consumers. The introduction of giclee’ (or pigment printing) in the mid 2000s has been revolutionary for serious genealogists. There is finally a product that allows both maximum image quality and archival resistance to both water and sunlight. Combined with lacquer finishing, prints can be displayed without glass and without fear of environmental destruction or glare.
Always know where your originals are!
There is so much more we can say about the restoration and re-printing process, but suffice to say that without an understanding on how things are made (which is the state most of us are in), how do you know what will last? We have worked with old photos since the late 1960’s and have worked with a great number of photos over many years and can finally say that under the right circumstances, the preservation and enhancement of all photos has never been better.