Mending Memories
My father asked me one day if I could do anything with a photo he had of his late father that had become badly damaged over time. I repaired it for him in Photoshop and he was amazed at what was could be done to rescue an old photograph. That experience made me realise that this is a valuable thing to be able to offer someone, and I have taken a fair few commissions now as a result.
It makes a great and unusual gift idea – for an anniversary, Christmas, birthday – or whatever the occassion. It makes a lovely family heirloom too, perhaps mounted in a deep frame along with any personal effects (war medals or a needlework sampler for example).
Once the photograph has been digitally restored, you will have an emailable version so everyone in your family and friends can own their own copy.
I have also retouched and rescued a series of about 10 photographs for a friends' 40th birthday, all the big events in her life from her first car to her charity skydive, which I montaged together and we had printed into placemats for her 40th birthday dinner celebration. It was such a success, and a brilliant conversation starter when everyone sat down to eat. Many of the guests hadn't met before and it was a great ice-breaker... at her expense.. oh those 80's hair styles! With a bit of imagination, old photographs can be made into an array of wonderful and very personal gifts.... even the ones you think are beyond repair.
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Hover your mouse over the photos to see the restoration.
If you have a photograph that needs some rescuing please email me on this site or at saskia_arts@me.com and I'll be happy to discuss. On the following page is a guide to how to scan it, what constitutes a small repair and examples of something that is more work intensive.
I price the restoration depending on how work-intensive the original photo is going to be, and how many hours it will take – ranging from the straight forward slightly damaged to having to recreate whole parts of the image which are missing.
Every image presents its own set of challenges and is priced accordingly. The final look is a personal choice it can be black and white, as the example here, or can be treated to give it back the vintage/old sepia feeling. A step further would be to colourise it... you can find examples of my colourising here to see if that's something you'd like to consider.
