Joelle Steele Enterprises

Olympia, Washington

DIGITAL PHOTO

RETOUCHING AND RESTORATION

Before & After Gallery

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Here are samples of my digital restorations. While some people may object to digitally restoring old photos, please remember that these images did not have all this damage when they were first photographed. Digitally restoring them allows us to see what people and places really looked like. It also enables us to reveal details that were present in the original images, but were either faded or obscured due to the restrictions of the cameras and the photographic methods used at the time.

When a photo has such severe damage that I can't even tell what is under it all, I usually just crop out that portion. Likewise, I also crop out excess background. Some of these photos are merely retouched to eliminate very minor damage and to bring out the contrast and details, while others took hours of painstaking work to repair their extensive damage.

BEFORE & AFTER

1942 silver tone photo with severe tearing, spotting, holes, and stains,  now restored, enhanced, and custom tinted.

Photo of Carlos Espindola Pino courtesy of Alexandra Espindola.

BEFORE & AFTER

1890s sepia tone photo with severe fading, discoloration, and spots, now restored, enhanced, and custom tinted.

Photo of Albina Mallows, courtesy of Linda Lee Schulz Anderson

BEFORE & AFTER

1958 snapshot with scuffs, scratches, folds, and graininess, now restored.

Photo of Elvis Presley and a girlfriend in Germany, courtesy of Victoria Kazlauskas

BEFORE & AFTER

1948 acetate film negative with severe damage due to cracking, now restored.

Photo of Hazel P. Otey, courtesy of the Scurlock Collection, Smithsonian Institution

BEFORE & AFTER

1960s color transparency (slide) with discoloration, now color corrected.

Photo of Martin Luther King, courtesy of the Scurlock Collection, Smithsonian Institution

BEFORE & AFTER

1947 snapshot with spots, sun flash, and scuffs, now restored with the sun flash reduced

Photo of John Buzzini and Mary Franzoni, Joelle Steele's paternal great-grandfather and lady friend

BEFORE & AFTER

1875 carte de visite with damage across face and on lapels, now restored.

Photo of Cornelius Vanderbilt by Howell

BEFORE & AFTER

1920s studio portrait with cracks, scratches, spots, and overexposure, now restored.

Photo of Victoria Kazlauskas and her sister, courtesy of Vicki Kazlauskas

BEFORE & AFTER

1890s studio portrait with scuffs, scratches, folds, and spots, now restored.

Photo of Emma Rosalia Smedjebacka courtesy of Debbie Halinen Santelli.

BEFORE & AFTER

1890s sepia tone with scuffs, spots, and fading, now restored and tinted light  brown

Photo of Bill Mallows' father courtesy of Linda Lee Schulz Anderson

BEFORE & AFTER

1858 Daguerreotype with  spotting and streaking, now restored

Photo of Kate Chase Norcross, photographer unidentified

BEFORE & AFTER

Ca. 1840s Daguerreotype with fading and spots, now restored

Photo of Gilpin Bennett, photographer unidentified

MORE BEFORE & AFTER PHOTOS ...