I find restoring a damaged photograph to its original splendor satisfying work. I’ve been using ArcSoft PhotoStudio 5 which came bundled with my Canon Pixma color printer. There is a newer version PhotoStudio 6 for US$80. Click here for details. It’s not as professional or advanced as Adobe Photoshop but it’s easy to use and does the trick.
You can have someone else restore your photos if you’re not a “Do-It-Yourselfer”. I’ve assembled a partial list of companies that provide those services. I haven’t tried any of them so I can’t vouch for their quality. Prices vary depending on the amount of work required. If you use a restoration company and are pleased with their work, let me know in the comment box below.
For those of you who are serious about doing your own restoration, I’ve listed two online courses and a couple of books to get you started.
Photo Restoration Services
- Legacy Multimedia Price: $70 to $150. Contact for a detailed quote.
- Arestov Digital Expressions. No pricing but free quotes
- SmileDogProductions. Price: $45 to $60 [Reviewed in The Wall Street Journal]
- wowApic.com Price: $5 to $30
- Onlinephotofix.com Price: $65 [Reviewed in The Wall Street Journal]
- ScanCafe Price: $7 to $40 and up
- PicFix Provide price quotes within 24 hrs.
- Best Photo Repair Price: $13 to $55
- FixUpPix.com Price: $66
- Just Black & White Price: $25 to $125
- The Photo Medic Price $50 to $120
- phojoe.com Price: $40 and up [Reviewed in The Wall Street Journal]
- Image-Restore Price £5 to £31
Photo Restoration Courses
- Photo restoration basics: preserve your family photos. Free, online classes, from HP available 24/7. “Would you like to restore your old, faded photos, edit new photos or learn how to safely store and display your current ones? Learn why photos deteriorate, and how you can rescue them by scanning and making quick fixes using Microsoft® Windows Live Photo Gallery, Snapfish and touchscreen printers. You’ll also learn advanced retouching techniques in Adobe Photoshop Elements and get tips for printing, displaying and backing up your photos.”
- Lynda.com “Helping you learn, master, and apply digital tools and techniques.” Photoshop CS4 One-on-One: Fundamentals Author: Deke McClelland
Photo Restoration Books
- Adobe Photoshop Restoration & Retouching (3rd Edition). “Whether you’re a professional photographer or the family shutterbug, you can’t afford to miss the third edition of the now classic Photoshop Restoration & Retouching. Katrin Eismann and co-author Wayne Palmer have reviewed, updated, and revised every single technique to address the most important features in Adobe Photoshop CS2.”
- Digital Restoration from Start to Finish, Second Edition: How to repair old and damaged photographs. “This thorough compendium of digital photo-restoration techniques, by PT contributing editor Ctein, explains almost anything you could need to know about repairing aged or damaged photographs using a scanner and Photoshop ( with occasional help from some additional software.)-Photo Techniques, Mar-Apr 2007″
Photo by Mike Richardson
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Hello,
just wondering if you can add my website to your list please….that would be tops!
Cheers
@Photo Restoration Guru. Be happy to add you to my list.
Its always a good idea to check out the company reviews of a website before plunging in regardless of the cheap price. Better to be safe than sorry or jump the gun before deciding on a photo restoration company. Try adding “photo restoration company reviews” to Google and pick a company with many strong reviews! I hope this helps.
@Photo Restoration. Thank you for your comments. Your point is well taken.
Just saw your blog and decided to jump in with my two cents worth.
just because a company has a lot of reviews does not make it a good fit for you, because as we know, the internet can very easily be manipulated to a great extent!
Reviews help but there really is nothing out there that beats personal experience.
Take the time to get to know your local companies, I think that would be best.
I think that most of what we need can very easily be taken care of by people in our own area, we just need to take the time to get to know their abilities.
I also think that it is very difficult to set a price for any image manipulation without first seeing what you are going to work on, what you may consider a small job, may take a long time to execute.
Anyway that’s my two cents worth!
And I would really appreciate it if you did include my site on your list!