Last week I sent out an email to my customers and this was seen by Sam Satchell of the East Grinstead Courier and he thought the story of Lucy Dixon’s photographs was a very interesting one and consequently called me for more details. The full page article was published today!
I recently competed an interesting request to combine two photographs in order to include and exclude all the right people.
Here are the two photographs beside the finished photograph montage . My customer’s touching story is below
Photograph Restoration Montage
“Earlier this year my husband and I made the decision to put our house on the market. It wasn’t just any old house. It had belonged to my grandparents since 1957 and we bought it from my mum and her brothers after Grampy passed away in 2008. Over the last few years we renovated the house and garden, but with a growing family we felt it was time for a change.
When we told my parents the news they were so upset at the thought of saying goodbye to the house, that they decided to sell up themselves and buy (back!) number 10!
My husband remembered an old photo of mum and dad outside the house and we thought it could make a wonderful housewarming gift. We trawled through album and eventually we found it! Only it wasn’t quite how we’d pictured it. There were 2 photos of the whole family, neither was perfect and we really only wanted mum, dad and my grandparents in the frame. Enter Photographs Forever! Richard restored one of the photos to it’s original condition and colours, removed the other family members and pets, took Grampy from the other photo and popped him right in behind nanny as if he’d always been there. He even gave him a body! My parents loved their gift, they couldn’t believe that it wasn’t an original photo. It now takes pride of place on their mantle piece. Thank you Richard!” Lucy D.
This charming photograph was taken on this couple’s wedding day 60 years ago this year. The restored version can now be printed and enlarged to virtually any size whilst keeping the colouring and feel of the original. David M and his wife were very pleased with the result and he emailed to say “Thank you so much for your patience – so pleased with your excellent service and will be more than happy to recommend you”
Restored Wedding Photograph – Photographs Forever
Take a look at the new 1 minute video showing some examples of photograph restoration and how to make the most of your precious photographs
A selection of Vintage Comic Strip Card and Prints
I have recently restored images from comic strip books such as Dan Dare from The Eagle, Dennis The Menace, Desperate Dan, Bash Street Kits, Beryl The Peril and in conjunction with Ian Berry of Bluebell Enterprises. Ian has created from these images a series of greeting cards to complement his huge range of other vintage images which are available in local shops as well as on line.
Go to www.VintagePics.co.uk to see the full range of handmade greeting cards and mounted prints, ready for framing, all with a nostalgic theme.
Over 2000 images available including Art Nouveau, Art Deco, early Vogue and Vanity Fair covers, Vintage Adverts, Motor and Travel Posters and a wide selection of town and village views from the 1700’s to the 1960’s.
Oaklands The Grange Red Cross Hospital 1918 Photograph Before and After Restoration by Photographs Forever
This photograph of Oaklands The Grange, Clevedon – Red Cross Hospital was taken 18 November 1918
This residence was kindly lent to the Red Cross by Mr. & Mrs. Ernest Wills, of Ramsbury Manor, Wiltshire, completely free of charge for use as an auxiliary hospital in August 1914.
It came under the jurisdiction of the 2nd Southern General Hospital, Bristol, later being affiliated to the Beaufort War Hospital. The members of the men and women’s sections Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), Somerset 33 (Clevedon section) and Somerset 2 worked arduously in its preparation and by the time it was opened on November 9th 1914, they had furnished ten wards and a total of 45 beds, and also equipped the offices and kitchen.
I was sent this very old photograph that had been rolled op for many years and had become so dry that became cracked and torn and of very limited use to enjoy. With some care and attention this is now digitally restored to its original condition
I received this email from Elissa B after she had agreed to go ahead with her photo restoration:
“You will be making my mom a very happy lady – the photo is in such terrible condition because she’s had it on display for the past 23 years, but I noticed a few months ago that she had taken it down because it had deteriorated so much and she was worried about it becoming completely unrecognisable. I managed to swipe it from her safe keeping place in the hopes that you’d be able to restore it. My brother and I are going to give it to her for her birthday in January and she will be made up. It’s her favourite photo in the world. I really appreciate how helpful you have been, you obviously have a great appreciation of how treasured people’s photographs are to them and their memories.”
Here are the before and afters of Elissa’s restored and colourised black and white photograph:
“My photos have arrived safely. They are spectacular, thank you so much for all of your hard work.”
Here’s Elissa’s follow up email:
“My photos have arrived safely. They are spectacular, thank you so much for all of your hard work. My mom’s birthday is not until 13th January so I’ll have to wait until then to see her reaction to the colourised photograph of us although I am itching to show it to her right away! It will mean the world to her :-)”
I had an interesting request recently. I was sent this photograph taken on an iPhone to see what I could do…. The original is underexposed, skewiff and has a large hot spot caused my the built in flash
Original iPhone photograph
Fully restored photograph
This is the message I received afterwards from my customer – “Thanks for the prints, they are brilliant. This village is where I was brought up and the house was our family home until 1984. I was born in that house in 1951 so the photo is somewhat special for me.Thank you for making it such a lovely picture.”
It’s always very gratifying to receive this sort of feedback and hear that the work I’ve done brings so much pleasure!
