The damage we repair
Eight kinds of damage, each with its own page, its own before and afters, and an honest account of what is genuinely recovered and what is filled in for you.
Most damaged photographs have more than one thing wrong with them, and you do not need to work out which page yours belongs on. The repair looks at the whole photograph; saying what is wrong only tells us what to lead with.
If none of these is quite it, send it anyway. The default repairs whatever is damaged and changes nothing else.
By kind of damage
Torn photographs
A tear across the middle, a split along an old fold, a corner pulled away.
Water damage
Tide lines, blooms, violet staining, and prints that dried stuck together.
Faded photographs
Color that drifted orange, black-and-white that went the color of tea.
Mold and foxing
Speckling, rust-colored spots and the fibrous bloom of a damp cupboard.
Stuck to glass
A framed print that bonded to its glass, and what to do before forcing it.
Creases and folds
The fold from a wallet, the crease from a drawer, the cracked line along both.
Scratches and silvering
Hairline scratches, embedded dust, and the mirrored sheen of old silver.
Missing pieces
Corners gone, edges chewed, a section torn out and never found.
Looking after the print itself
Four guides about the object rather than the file — how to scan it, how to handle it when it has gone brittle, what a hand restorer can do that we cannot, and where negatives survive.
- Scanning old photographs
What DPI is enough, what file to save, and when a phone will do.
- Handling brittle photographs
How to move a print that is dry, curled, cracked or already in pieces.
- What a hand restorer does
The work a bench conservator does that no software can, and what it costs.
- Storing negatives and slides
Where film actually survives, and the plastics that quietly destroy it.
Before you decide
How this compares with a studio, with the free tools, and with doing it yourself. Written to be useful when the answer is not us.
- Restoration services compared
Mail-in studios, hand retouchers and pack-priced repair, side by side.
- Free restoration tools
What the free tools do well, where they fail, and why the failure is the point.
- Doing it yourself
What it actually takes to repair a photograph by hand, and when it is worth it.
Not sure which yours is?
Send it and find out for nothing. One photograph, repaired, no card, and you will know in a few minutes.
What fills a gap in a damaged photograph is our best guess, not what was there.
Repair one photograph, free