photo restoration:

pho·to – (foto) Informal n. pl. pho·tos A photograph.
res·to·ra·tion – (rst-rshn) n. 1. a. An act of restoring: damage too great for restoration. b. An instance of restoring or of being restored: e.g. Restoration of the sculpture was expensive. c. The state of being restored.

Digital Restoration

Restoration and The Archives   |   the process

Digital Restoration is a complex process involving analog and digital integration to arrive at a refined, restored and archival product.

Why Digital?

Black & white and color film is composed of layers of organic matter floating on a piece of acetate. As such, they are subject to the deterioration caused by air, moisture, and artificial or natural light. Such films are, Ektachrome color films – used from the 1940s up through the mid-1960s, and early tintype and daguerreotype media.

Traditional restoration methods, more often than not, produce results that are far from desirable. With these methods, rebuilding damaged originals becomes more like guesswork than restoration. Degraded or missing areas of the image are "painted in" using airbrush techniques. Color corrections are made by reprinting the image using filters. Image detail can be easily lost or muted through reprocessing. Traditional restoration methods offers limited to finite tools lacking subtle controls.

With Digital Restoration - processes such as cloning, color curves, and layering can aid in making the replica a true restoration of the damaged original. Duplicating the pristine areas of the image and applying them to degraded areas becomes more of a science and leaves less to the imagination.

Using top of the line Apple computers and Adobe Photoshop software, the digital image is manipulated by restoration professionals who repair, enhance, rebuild and ultimately breathe life back into photographs that would otherwise be beyond traditional restoration. The digital process takes hours and sometimes days but once completed, the reproduction possibilities become endless.

The Archives creates state of the art archival prints using Hewlett Packard's newest Designjet printers and UV inks printed on Hahnemühle media. The resulting images are projected to have a life span of over 200 years.

Restoration and The Archives   |   the process

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