With the proper photo restoration service, you can bring your old photo to life.

  • Beacon has restored hundreds of photos since 2007, often turning old photos into family treasures.
  • Every restoration is reviewed by at least two Beacon trained professionals.
  • Originals photos never leave the Beacon studio and are handled with extreme care.

Process:

  1. Photo RestorationPhoto Restoration It starts with sharing the photo with one of us at Beacon, either through this web site, via email or text, or in person at our studio. You can even take a quick photo of it on your phone and send it to us to get a quote. We caution people to mail their old photos depending on how fragile it is. When coming in to the studio, we like to scan the originals right away so that you can take them home for safe keeping.
  2. Then we review the extent of restoration it needs and tell you what can be done and how much time and money it would take.
  3. Upon your approval and payment either in person, through our web site or over the phone, we move forward with it.
  4. We start by scanning it at the highest resolution necessary to digitally restore it and then work on it in Photoshop or Lightroom until we are happy with the results.
  5. We then share the before and after versions by email.
  6. Depending on your objective, we can also print several copies and frame it for your long term enjoyment.
  7. If a customer is unhappy with the results we will make reasonable attempts to improve it until they are happy but unfortunately there are no refunds with restorations since it is a good faith agreement and a labor of art.

 

Things We Can Fix:

There are lots of things we can fix in old photos and there are some we can not. Here is a list of things we can do:

  • Cropping often makes a big difference in improving photos. We can crop to fit a specific frame size or crop to enlarge or center the subject. Photo RestorationPhoto Restoration
  • Dark photos can be brightened using a variety of techniques including increasing exposure and brightening shadows.
  • Dull or hazy photos can be made more vivid using increased contrast, sharpening, and enriching depths of blacks and increasing white levels.
  • Color fading and staining can be reversed through increased vibrancy and saturation, and in extreme cases, we even paint color back into photos.
  • Removing blemishes such as pimples, wrinkles, bruises, fly away hairs, red eyes or spots in the background is a common request and can be done relatively quickly.
  • Color effects such as turning photos into black and white or sepia, or spotlighting a specific color can be done fairly easily. We can replicate almost any Instagram effect.
  • Dust and scratches are common in old photos, and with modern photoshop technology, we can remove even the biggest tears. Pricing depends on the severity of the dust and scratches and its location. A big tear through a person's face can be very difficult to fix.
  • Pixelization and digital noise is the result of digital photos being passed down too many times via email, text and photo copies. Thankfully we can remove some of their effects by smoothing out these artifacts while retaining sharpness in critical areas, such as faces and hands.
  • Object or person removal is a common request and we have mastered that especially with today's incredible software. In people photos, a face or two in the background can really take away from a great portrait.
  • Object or person replacement is often a time consuming project, but we have done it many times. In the case of a family portrait it is common for everyone to look good except one or two faces, which we can swap out with better expressions from another photo. We have also replaced parts of a face or body such as an eye or foot, by duplicating the other side and then transforming it to look right.

 


Things we can not restore:

There are some photos that are too blurry or missing large pieces with no replacement photo that we can not restore. We would rather set proper expectations and not attempt a restoration we know we can not fix.

 

Pricing:

  • Cropping $3
  • Brightening Dark Photos $3 Photo RestorationPhoto Restoration
  • Improving dull or hazy photos $3
  • Color effects $5
  • Color fading - minimal $5
  • Color fading - medium $10
  • Color fading - extreme $20
  • Blemish Removal - minimal $5
  • Blemish Removal - medium $10
  • Blemish Removal - extreme $20
  • Dust or Pixelization - minimal $5
  • Dust or Pixelization - medium $10
  • Dust or Pixelization - extreme $20
  • Scratches - minimal $10
  • Scratches - medium $30
  • Scratches - extreme $50
  • Object or person removal or replacement - minimal $20
  • Object or person removal or replacement - medium $40
  • Object or person removal or replacement - extreme $60

 

More Photo Restoration Examples

Photo RestorationPhoto Restoration Photo RestorationPhoto Restoration Photo RestorationPhoto Restoration  

Photo RestorationPhoto Restoration Photo RestorationPhoto Restoration

To discuss restoration, scanning or printing services please call Beacon at 617-329-9516 or just come into the studio. We are located at 196 Winthrop Street, Winthrop, MA 02152. 

- Note: Most original photos are scanned and returned to customer on first visit, and digital restoration is done thereafter. If there are too many photos or if original is large (requiring archival photography), photo(s) will remain safely in the Beacon Studio. All work is done by local digital artists, not overseas.