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Photographs Forever SME News UK Enterprise Award Winner – Best Photograph Restoration Specialists 2019

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I was very pleased to be awarded Best Photograph Restoration Specialists for 2019! 

SME News were delighted to present the annual UK Enterprise Awards, proudly encompassing a multitude of exciting and vibrant business industries from across the UK. As a business community, the UK, is renowned for its ability to thrive in diverse conditions and strive through times of economic uncertainly. For this reason, SME News celebrates and showcases some of the triumphs from those among the UK’s strongest and most innovative businesses and business owners within the UK Enterprise Awards each year. We are delighted to award Best Photograph Restoration Specialists 2019 to Photographs Forever for the outstanding quality of their work and efficiency 

Precious Photos Brought Back to Life

 

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This photograph started out as a faded and dull black and white transparency in a cardboard mount.

My customer Lesley was very pleased with the outcome.

She messaged me:

“I have just received the photos and I am totally delighted. You are so clever I can’t thank you enough. I will be sending you more things through once I have moved house. Please let me know where I can leave a review for your business. As I said previously you take such a chance when choosing a service from the internet and I am so glad I chose you.”

Photograph Stuck to Glass? No Problem!

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Photographs Forever

 

This photo belongs to my customer Jeanne.

She said “The photo of my mum was just an ordinary one, but when she passed away five years ago I decided to put it in a frame on my window sill and it’s been there ever since. I noticed it had been faded by the sunlight so decided to ask Photographs Forever and see if it could be restored. I then tried to remove it from the frame, it was well and truly stuck to the glass, when I finally got it out (with the help of a knife) my mum’s face was left on the glass, in a wafer thin layer, totally ruined! I was so upset I threw it in the bin.”

I spoke to Jeanne and told her all was not lost. She fished it out of the bin and sent it to me. Above is what I received and the finished restoration below

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Creating a Photograph of The Happy Couple

My customer Isobel P had a photograph of her mum and dad but there was an extra person between them that she wanted to be removed so she could have a nice photograph of her parents together which she could give as a special present to her dad. I only had a skewiff photograph of the original photograph to work with so had to correct the perspective and then manipulate the image to make a good result. Below is the before and after of the photograph in question followed by the review that Isobel kindly left for me on the Yell.com website

Manipulation to create the photo my customer wanted by Photographs Forever

From distorted three person photo to a corrected portrait of the happy couple

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YOU CAN CHECK OUT ALL MY OTHER YELL.COM REVIEWS HERE

Examples of Colourising Faded or Black and White Photographs

I am increasingly asked to either correct really badly faded colour photographs, or add colour to black and white photographs.

Here are some recent examples of work I’ve done.

This first one is one I did for customer Marianne M, see her story below 

Example of colourising a black and white by Photographs Forever

“My uncle now 91 was Captain of St Mary’s Golf Club on St Mary’s and used to play with Harold Wilson and other members where he could have a round of golf without being followed by the press and simply trusted all of the members not to gossip. He knew all of the members and any strange faces he was quite wary of although apparently always very polite. The photo was taken just outside the club and the beautiful uninhabited Island of Samson is in the background . There are beautiful views all over the course. By the way my uncle is still the best player and at the age of 91 only 3 months ago got another “hole in one” So it’s great to have this photo as it most likely appeared years ago.  The photo is fabulous, I am sure my Uncle will be delighted with it”

Here are some more examples 

Example of colourising a black and white by Photographs Forever

A very old and badly defaced and damaged print restored and colourised

Example of colourising a black and white by Photographs Forever

A badly faded photograph thought by my customer to be beyond repair.

Example of colourising a black and white by Photographs Forever

A faded photograph that had lost it’s sparkle brought back to life

 

Example of colourising a black and white by Photographs Forever

This customer knew the original colours of the photograph taken in black and white at the time

Example of colourising a black and white by Photographs Forever

A very old black and white photograph restored and colourised

Example of colourising a faded colour photograph by Photographs Forever

A badly faded poster restored

Example of retouching a colour photograph by Photographs Forever

Removing the unsightly shadow

Example of colourising a black and white by Photographs Forever

Restoring both photographs and then making a montage so the couple are in the same photograph, then colourising

Example of colourising a black and white by Photographs Forever

A very old black and white photograph brought back to life by restoring and colourising

Example of adding colour to a photograph

A badly faded colour photograph restored and printed on archive paper to prevent the same fate occurring in the future

 

Two Recent Photograph Restorations

Here are two restorations I completed recently.

A distracting background changed for a more appropriate one 

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….and a very small, badly damaged oval photograph that’s now been printed 12″ x 9″

Here’s what my customer Sheila B said “Thank you Richard for restoring the very old and battered photo of my mum you made a beautiful job of it I’m so thrilled forever grateful”

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Combining Photos to Create a New Photograph

My customer had two photographs of the subject in different uniforms, taken by flash with the camera set to the wrong shutter speed so half of each photo was black.
 
I removed just the subject from each photo, restored the images and then replaced the background in order for the finished article to look more suitable.
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Make Your Favourite Photos Great!

Here are a couple of examples of photographs we altered recently to make special photographs even more special.

The photo below was taken in a ski resort but with a fence as a background, I added the ski resort.

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Below are the two original photographs, with favourite photos both with portaloos in the background!

So I took the best portrait of each person and put them together on a background of the favourite walk they used to take together.

A lovely reminder of good times.

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Here’s a Different Photograph Idea

I recently restored and manipulated an image of Cookie the Pekingese at Crufts so that he could continue to have a presence. 

Here’s the original photograph and the finished version

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Here’s owner Pauline’s story:

Back in January of this year, the day I feared most came along and I had to say goodbye to Cookie after the most amazing 14 years.  Although small in actual size, his presence was huge and the kitchen, despite having other Pekingese around, felt so empty.  I wanted a picture of my boy in his prime, here he is in the show ring at Crufts in 2009 where he was awarded a 2nd place in a very strong class. 

The original photograph had to be cropped a great deal and did not have the resolution I needed for the splash-back project, but with Richard’s magic, he got us there. 

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Now Cookie (or Corges Mr Cocky – his KC Show name) is back in the kitchen, with the vantage point he always wanted, he can see what is cooking!!

 

12 Ways To Make The Most of Your Photos

I don’t know about you, but I love this time of year. Longer days, sunny mornings, colour reappearing in the garden. And then there is the spring cleaning of course…   

 

You’d be surprised (or perhaps not) at how often this leads to new conversations around old photos; a box recovered from the back of a dusty cupboard or the damp corner of a loft often leads to the rediscovery of old pictures and memories. With spring being all about new starts and rejuvenation, what better time to breathe new life into something so valuable?   


This is why I’ve created a new brochure to share with you. It’s a light read – with photographs designed to show you not only how your pictures can be saved; but what we can do to enhance them or turn them into new forms of enjoyment, such as our new seamless lay-flat Photobooks or large sized canvasses.

 

                                  Click here to look at, or download the new brochure

I’d love to hear what you think of the brochure and invite you to get in touch if you need help with saving your precious photographs. The brochure covers a lot but not all of what we can do, so feel free to give me a call anytime even if it is simply for some advice.   

Here’s to spring (and not so much cleaning)