Joelle Steele Enterprises

Olympia, Washington

PHOTORESTORICS

Digital Photo Retouching and Restoration

of Antique, Vintage, and Damaged Photographs

Services to Publishers, Advertising Agencies, Web Site Owners

Museums, Libraries, Historical Societies, Genealogical Societies,

Film-Makers, Television Producers, and Individuals

in the Olympia, Tacoma, and Seattle areas and Worldwide

If you've got great old vintage photographs that have fallen on hard times, they can probably be digitally retouched, repaired, and/or restored. The types of photos that can be digitally repaired include black-and-white, color, hand-tinted, and sepia-toned (silver to sulfide conversion) antique images, such as old studio portraits, snapshots, Polaroids, slides, negatives, and a vast array of antique Daguerreotypes (silver plates), ambrotypes (glass negatives), tintypes (a.k.a. ferrotypes, melainotypes, or iron plates), and gemtypes (miniature tintypes). The types of damage that can be repaired or improved include fading and discoloration; spots (mold and mildew, a.k.a. "foxing") and blotches; tears, scratches and scuffs; creases, cracks, dog-ears, and wrinkles; moisture and water streaking; and unwanted signatures or other writing. When damage is so severe that it covers a part of a face, it is sometimes even possible to reconstruct the missing part.

Below is some background about digital photo restoration and some sample restorations. You can see more before-and-after samples of my work in my sample galleries. You can also read some of my articles about digital photo restoration and antique photography. To get started having your photograph restored, please read my instructions page.

BEFORE & AFTER

Circa 1890s sepia tone photo with spots, scuffing, and creasing, now restored.

Photo of Emma Rosalia Jonasdotter Löfbacka courtesy of Debra Halinen Santelli.

BEFORE & AFTER

Circa 1890s sepia photo with fading and discoloration, now restored, enhanced, and converted to black & white.

Photo of Phoebe Apperson Hearst painting, courtesy of Mila Turlofson

BEFORE & AFTER

1916 black & white photo with discoloration and fading, now restored, converted back to black-and-white, and re-cropped.

Photo of car on 17-mile Drive in Pebble Beach, California, courtesy of Ford Motor Company

BEFORE & AFTER

1960s snapshot with severe discoloration, now color-corrected.

Photo of Elsie and Ted Ness and friends ca. 1960, courtesy of Patricia Ness

Color Toning and Color Correcting

Old sepia tones originally had a very reddish-brown tint, and when they are badly faded they will look pink. Photos that have a yellowish look are just old black-and-whites in which the chemicals have gone bad. Old color photos can turn overly red or blue with age. I can correct the colors in any photo, restoring the original colors or making them into black-and-whites, or tinting them light brown, which is a popular color request for old photos. Above are examples of color correcting and conversions to black-and-white.

BEFORE & AFTER

In the "before" 1849 Daguerreotype, the subject, photography pioneer Louis Daguerre, is covered with hundreds of small white spots that took almost two hours to digitally remove.

Photo of  Louis Daguerre by Jean-Baptiste Sabatier Blot

Repairing Damage to Photos

That antique photo of your great-great-grandmother didn't have all those spots, creases, and discolorations when it was taken. They appeared over many years of mishandling and poor storage. You might not be able to have her original photograph repaired, but thanks to today's technology, you can have it digitally restored to look just like it did the day she sat for it. And, once you receive the digital file of the restored image, you can share it with your whole family!

Most photographs that are damaged or unattractive due to age or injury can be digitally repaired. I've digitally restored thousands of black-and-white, color, hand-tinted, and sepia-toned (silver to sulfide conversion) antique photographs, including old studio portraits, snapshots, Polaroids, slides, negatives, and a vast array of antique Daguerreotypes (silver plates), ambrotypes (glass negatives), tintypes (a.k.a. ferrotypes, melainotypes, or iron plates), and gemtypes (miniature tintypes).

The majority of the images I have digitally restored were severely damaged by problems such as fading and discoloration; spots (mold and mildew, a.k.a. "foxing") and blotches; tears, scratches and scuffs; creases, cracks, dog-ears, and wrinkles; moisture and water streaking; and unwanted signatures or other writing. Most of these types of damage can be completely repaired or they can at least be significantly minimized to greatly improve the photo's appearance.

BEFORE & AFTER

Photo of former slave in New York City holding Georgina Holmes, photographer unidentified

BEFORE & AFTER

Photo of California Native American Boy, ca. 1851, by Isaac Wallace Baker

The two Daguerreotype restorations above turned out very well, but Daguerreotypes of people of color can be very challenging. The process made dark areas appear even darker, and digitally lightening doesn't always improve the clarity.

Reconstruction of Faces

Sometimes damage is so severe that it covers a part of the face, such as an eye or an ear. In the photo below, the acetate film negative was badly cracked and the ear was partially gone as a result. I restored the photo and reconstructed the missing part of the ear. This does not always work out well. I can only do so much, especially if I don't have much to work with or don't have anything to compare it to as I do the reconstruction.

BEFORE & AFTER

A missing part of an ear (above left) can sometimes be reconstructed.

Photo of Eugene Kinckle Jones, courtesy of the Scurlock Collection, Smithsonian Institution

Photos That Can't Be Restored

Sad but true, some photos are just too damaged for complete restoration. There may simply not be enough detail in a photo, so I can't make it look much better. For example, the photo below was not much bigger than a large postage stamp. It was yellowed and creased with spots. I could repair most of the damage, but it still isn't a good photo because the image wasn't good to begin with. The cellulose acetate photo negative that follows is badly distorted and missing information due to severe cracking of the film, and it would take a great deal of effort and expense to repair it completely. And the old Polaroid below is bad photo finishing compounded by the lack of a good lens.

BEFORE & AFTER

A postage stamp-size blurred photo can be restored, even enlarged, but it will always remain blurred.

Photo of Victoria Kazlauskas, courtesy of Vicki Kazlauskas

A negative this badly damaged can be restored but it would be very time-consuming -- and costly.

Photo of Rev. Walter H. Brooks, courtesy of the Scurlock Collection, Smithsonian Institution

BEFORE & AFTER

A badly finished Polaroid can be only moderately improved.

Photo of Mabel Louise Buzzini Martelli Perrino, Joelle's paternal grandmother.

PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHS

Panoramic photos can be as small as 12" wide or as large as 60" wide. If you do not already have a high resolution file of your panoramic photo, I can either photograph it or scan it, depending on its size. If I scan, it must be done in sections which I then digitally piece back together before I do your  restoration.

Thanks for Visiting!

Come Back Soon ... There's Always Something New

Other Joelle Steele Web sites:

www.designeristics.com (design consulting)

www.esotericapublications.com (astrology and new age)

www.felineinsights.com (cat care)

www.graphorensics.com (handwriting analysis)