Old Town Print Gallery was created by the professionals at Old Town Editions, an art reproduction and fine art printing company located in Old Town, Alexandria. The bulk of our business is working with artists to digitize and reproduce their artwork in the form of archival, fine art prints on both paper and canvas, but we also offer digital restoration services. We've had the pleasure of digitally restoring countless old family photographs and heirloom documents, bringing new life into these important items.
What is Digital Restoration?
While conservators work with the original photographs and documents, digital restoration involves working with a digital scan of your item. With digital restoration, the first step is taking a high-res digital capture of your photograph. We use the same system for our digital restoration work as we do for art reproduction, so you can be sure we’re getting the best possible file to work from.
Having a high-quality file to work with allows us to get the most out of your photograph, as it allows us to see every little detail in crisp focus. Having a large, high-res file also allows you to make a reproduction print that is larger than your original. How much larger you can print will depend on how sharp the original photograph is, but most of the time there is room to size up at least a small amount.
Once we have the digital file, we will start working on the digital restoration. This work is done with Photoshop, and we’ll remove any dust/cracks/damage, as well as make color and tonal adjustments to correct for any fading or discoloration that has occurred over time. This work is highly specialized, blending creativity with technical skill to repair damage and fill in missing information.
Benefits of digital restoration
There are a number of benefits to choosing digital restoration, rather than attempting to have the original physical photograph restored, which we will cover here. Depending on the condition of your photograph, digital restoration may be the best/only option, as physical restoration/conservation is more limited in what can be done. We often recommend having digital restoration done as a first step before attempting physical restoration. This way, you have a digital record of your photograph and know that you can make as many restored copies as you need before exploring the risks of physical restoration.
Less Risk to Original Photograph
The main benefit of digital restoration is that there is virtually no risk to the safety of your photograph. We are trained in the safe handling of artwork and antique photos and take special care with anything fragile during the digital capture process. Once we’re done with the digital capture, your old photo is placed in an archival storage box where it will be safe while we work on the digital restoration. This means there will be minimal handling of your photograph, minimizing any potential risks.
Having the physical photo restored is a much trickier task, requiring specialized chemicals and processes, and an incredibly well-trained hand. While trained professionals aren’t in the habit of making mistakes, there is always a risk when working on antique/vintage photographs that something could cause unexpected damage. Physical restoration/conservation also just requires much more handling of your photograph, which can be hard on particularly fragile items.
Fewer Limitations
There are limits to what can be restored on a physical photograph, and a conservator would be able to tell you what is and isn’t possible with your photograph. With digital restoration, however, there are far fewer things that can’t be fixed. With the wide range of tools available in our digital toolbox, even severe damage and fading can often be restored to original or near original condition. We are able to fix damage such as cracks, tears, and scuffs, as well as clean up dust and dirt. For color photographs, we're able to correct for dramatic color shift/fading.
What Can’t Be Fixed With Digital Restoration
While digital restoration is much less limited than the restoration of the original photograph, that doesn’t mean it’s a magic process, and there are still certain types of damage that just cannot be fixed. However, the list of what can’t be fixed is much smaller than the list of what can be fixed. The general fading, discoloration, cracks, dust/dirt, and most tears/flakes that are so common with older photographs are no problem at all.
Extreme Fading
Our digital capture system is capable of capturing extremely fine detail, often picking up more than we can see with our eyes. Even if there is very limited tone in certain areas of the photograph, as long as there’s something there, we can at least improve the condition. But if your photograph has faded to the point that certain areas simply don’t have any information anymore, there is nothing we can do to bring that back. We may be able to "fake it" by filling those areas with information from other parts of the photograph, but that is a very case-by-case basis, and depends on the specifics of your image.
Certain Missing Pieces
We’ve worked with countless photographs that have pieces missing, whether a photograph was torn, had a piece crack off or was intentionally altered. Oftentimes these can still be restored, as long as there is information in the rest of the photograph for us to pull from. For example, if there is a chunk missing from a group of trees in the background, we can fill in that space with information taken from the remaining trees.
Where things get trickier is if the missing piece is either very large or is in a very detailed or important area. For example, if part or all of someone’s face is missing, there is very little we can do to accurately recreate their image. What we could do is take different features from others in the photograph to recreate a face, but we of course could not guarantee that the resemblance would match the original person.
Pulling Info From Reference Photos
If there is a piece missing from your photograph that would not be possible to recreate, such as a person’s entire face, but you have another photograph of that person, we can use that to restore the damaged photo. We would take a high-res scan of the reference photo as well, and use that to recreate the missing area. This method is another perk of digital restoration, as something like this would not be possible with physical restoration. If needed, we can combine together parts from any number of different photographs to recreate what's missing.
How to Get Your Old Photos Restored With Us
If you’ve got an antique photo you’d like to have restored, we’d be happy to help you! The best way to handle this will depend on whether you are local to our area or not, but either way we can still work with you.
Local to Northern Virginia
If you’re able to make it to our studio in Alexandria, Virginia, that’s great! You can schedule an appointment to come in with your photograph and we’ll go over what’s possible and what pricing would be like, as our restoration services are priced on a scale depending on the severity of the damage on the photograph. At that point, you can go ahead and put in the job, or take your time to think about it, no rush! We can be reached at 703-684-0005, or by e-mail at info@oldtowneditions.com.
Out of Area
If you aren’t able to get to our studio, we would recommend e-mailing us a simple phone picture of your old photograph so that we can give you an estimate for our services, as well as let you know what’s possible with your photograph and make sure we can meet your expectations. We can't give a 100% firm estimate from an e-mailed image, as we still need to see it in person to make sure there isn't relevant detail/damage that wasn't visible in your e-mail, but we can still give you a very good idea of what to expect in terms of pricing.
If you’d like to move forward with the job, you would need to mail us the photograph. We’d be happy to give suggestions for safe packaging to make sure your photograph arrives to us safely. You can reach us at info@oldtowneditions.com.
Learn More
If you’d like to learn more about Old Town Editions' digital restoration services, click here! We’ve got tons of information and before-and-after examples that you can browse through. If you're local to the area, feel free to reach out and set up an appointment to come by the studio and see samples in person or discuss your restoration project.