I have a very old photograph that my great grandfather kept since he was a teenager of his brother and their friends camping back around the turn of 1900 or so, still horse and buggy times. Everyone wearing their fancy clothes/hats. All the corners are turn off, there is a hole near the top middle from a thumb tack I'm sure and the B/W coloring is off. I have it as a JPG, but can rescan as a high resolution TIFF.

Can anyone recommend a company or person who can EXPERTLY repair the damage and restore the photograph to its original glory? I honestly don't care about the cost, I just want it done right. For a deliverable, I want a digital file (TIFF) in return. Not a print.

I have many similar old photos. Have you tried to repair it yourself?

Start with a very hi resolution scan using a dedicated photo scanner. You'll have a better scan than from an all-in-one printer/scanner. Scan to a TIFF not a jpg or other compressed format. A great scan is mandatory.

I've used the Photos program on my iMac with very good results. The fade and color shift can be corrected quite well. The pinhole can be repaired using the redeye or similar correction tool. A true pro with an expensive software suite could do better, but probably not hugely better. For a book or even new photographic prints the image is very good. The pro would be able to adjust isolated areas of the image, so that would be an advantage with paying a pro.

quote:

Originally posted by Fly-Sig:
I have many similar old photos. Have you tried to repair it yourself?

No, the amount of physical damage is way beyond my skill set. I have an Epson V600 Photo scanner that I use for scanning of all of my ancestry photos. I have them stored as JPG by default because of the shear volume and time to get a high end TIFF is just too time consuming for over 1,000 photos not to mention the massive amount of space it would burn up. I have a 1 Tb drive now and 479Gb of high resolution JPG. The TIFF images are at least 4X that size. I tried a few when I first started scanning as using TIFF was much preferred, but I don't have the computer horsepower/space.

Sent you an email.

There is AI that can do that for you. Google "ai photo restoration"

quote:

Originally posted by jcsabolt2:

quote:

Originally posted by Fly-Sig:
I have many similar old photos. Have you tried to repair it yourself?

No, the amount of physical damage is way beyond my skill set. I have an Epson V600 Photo scanner that I use for scanning of all of my ancestry photos. I have them stored as JPG by default because of the shear volume and time to get a high end TIFF is just too time consuming for over 1,000 photos not to mention the massive amount of space it would burn up. I have a 1 Tb drive now and 479Gb of high resolution JPG. The TIFF images are at least 4X that size. I tried a few when I first started scanning as using TIFF was much preferred, but I don't have the computer horsepower/space.

That's the same scanner we have. I use external SSD drives to store the scans, plus I get true photo prints of some and also do Mixbook printed books for family history.

You might try local photographers to find someone who can repair your photo. We had a family portrait this year with all the kids and grandkids, and the photographer very expertly used Photoshop to fix defects. She removed a tattoo, corrected the sky, and even head-swapped so that each person was the best version from the several photos she took.

The point being that you might find a local photographer with the skills you need.