It's very easy to get confused over how images are treated by computers. I will do my best to explain here, everything you'll need to know to achieve the results you wish for. There are so many places on the web to search for information like this, it can be really confusing. But for you to understand the best way for me to restore or retouch your images it is best to explain the basic principles at least. So first of all…

1. Your name.
2. Your e-mail address.
3. At least one image to retouch/restore. This ideally should be in a low compression JPG or TIFF format with at least 3,000 pixels on the long side of the image (see below for further explanation).
4. The best description you can provide for the work you want done.
5. (Optional) I fully understand how difficult it can be to explain exactly how you want your photo retouched. So, if there is a picture which can help you to better describe your request, just include that in your supply and name it 'Reference Picture', this will then be used as a point of reference for the retouch.

If everything you need to supply is less than 10Mb in total, then you can simply e-mail it to me. Put your name and full description in the body of the e-mail and send it to me here.

Please remember if the file you can supply is in a lossy format (e.g. JPG) then the data that has been lost is no longer available for me to retouch. Imagine cooking vegetable soup with some large bits of carrot and potato in it. But it's too heavy to carry from one place to the other, so you throw away the lumps of vegetables. To most people it will taste exactly the same, but to the knowledgeable it will look and feel very different. No matter how many more carrots or potatoes you put in again, it can never be the same as the original, those bits you threw away are gone forever. In the same way I can add back some (digital) vegetables but remember it will only be an imitation of the original.
It is always therefore, important to supply the best quality original possible.

If you are using the upload service, please complete and submit the online order form, your file will be attached to the order form and uploaded together.

Unfortunately you can only upload one photo at a time at the moment with my current setup. I will be looking at different methods for this service in future, but for the moment just use the same 'Contact Name' for each upload and all subsequent files will be linked in the same way. Please remember to clearly label each of your photos (eg: photo 1, photo 2 etc), and supply a description for each in the 'Notes & Description' field.

It's possible to supply all kinds of digital photos which can be transferred via the internet. For example JPG, PNG, GIF, or TIFF format photos less than 20Mb if using the upload form (less than 10Mb if using e-mail). For those who wish to send larger format images, or in other file formats (DNG, RAW etc), please use the Contact link for help with your order.

If you only have a printed photograph and you have access to a scanner, please follow these easy steps:

1. Set the size to 100% (or 1:1 depending on your scanner settings).
2. Use the colour photo or RGB colour setting on your scanner (if possible, please do not set it to automatic scan).
3. Set the resolution to a minimum of 300dpi – we ideally want the image to be 3,000 pixels on the long side
   (see below for further explanation).
4. Save the file as a low compression JPG or TIFF file type (please read the manual for information specific to your scanner).

If you are in any doubt at all just use the Contact link for advice.

If you do not have a scanner, you can take your photo to a professional scanning service – most print shops and photo processing outlets have a scanning facility. You can print this page if you want to give them these instructions.

If you are not completely satisfied with the work returned, you can submit further instructions and it will be revised, until you are satisfied. Obviously if the instruction is different to the original, further charges will have to be made, but I assure you that your complete satisfaction
is paramount.

 

What follows now is a lot of detail on what different file types mean, how scanning works and what best results can be achieved by the work carried out. It is not compulsory for you to read all this but if you are interested, it may well help in how or what you decide to supply for retouching/restoring.

Type	Description	Compression Type & General Size
JPG (or JPEG/JFIF)	JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the original name of the committee that wrote the standard. Abbreviated to JPG, it is usually a lossy technique designed to compress colour and grey scale continuous-tone images. JPEG-compressed images are usually stored in the JFIF (JPEG File Interchange Format) file format. The data that is discarded at lower levels of JPG compression, is designed to be information that the human eye cannot detect. Therefore it is a good compression technique for basic digital cameras because most pictures taken are of natural items (people, places etc.) that we are very good at filling in any gaps for ourselves when we view them.	Either lossy or lossless compression (usually lossy). Suffers ongoing degradation with repeated edit/save cycles. Can be adjusted to limit the amount of data loss. Can save from 5% to 95% of file size with significant data loss.
Exif	The Exif (Exchangeable image file format) is a file standard similar to the JFIF format with TIFF extensions; and is incorporated in the JPEG-writing software used in most cameras. Designed to standardise the recording of image metadata which includes such things as camera settings, time and date, shutter speed, exposure, image size, compression, name of camera, colour information, etc.	Uncompressed. When files are viewed/edited by suitable software, this data can be displayed.
TIFF (or TIF)	The TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a flexible format that normally saves 8 bits or 16 bits per colour (red, green, blue) for 24-bit and 48-bit totals. The flexibility of TIFF images can be both good and bad, since software capable of reading every type of TIFF file doesn’t exist. Some digital cameras can save in TIFF format and it is widely accepted as a photograph file standard in the printing business.	Some digital cameras save in TIFF format, using the LZW compression algorithm for lossless storage. As it is normally used uncompressed, file sizes can be very large.
RAW	Refers to a family of image formats available on some higher spec. digital cameras. Although there is a standard raw image format, the raw formats used by most cameras are not standardised or even documented. Many graphic programs and image editors may not accept many or all of them. All main manufacturers supply their own software for editing these files.	Usually uses a lossless or near-lossless compression, and produces file sizes much smaller than the TIFF formats of full-size processed images from the same cameras.
PNG (or PING)	The PNG (Portable Network Graphics) file format was created as a free, open-source successor to the GIF. PNG file format supports truecolour (16 million colours) while the GIF supports only 256 colours. There is additional support for alpha channels (mainly used to display transparent areas). Some browsers also support PNG animation (MNG & APNG). This is a good, quite compact format for transferring photographic files.	The lossless PNG format is best suited for editing pictures, with large areas of plain colour. File sizes can be significantly smaller than low compression JPG.
GIF	GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is limited to an 8-bit palette, or just 256 colours. This makes it suitable for graphics with relatively few colours such as diagrams, logos and cartoon style images. The GIF format also supports animation and is still widely used to provide image animation effects. But it is not a good format for photographs because of the limited colour depth.	GIF uses a lossless compression that is more effective when large areas have a single colour. File sizes tend to be quite small, mainly because of the limited colour depth.
OTHERS	There are many, many more image file formats e.g. BMP, TGA (TARGA), PCX, PSD, PSP and on, and on. Then there’s Vector formats, 3D formats and even Stereo formats. But this is not an education forum, I just hope it helps those interested in the complexity of the graphic image arena, while going some way towards convincing most of you that my knowledge is extensive and obviously available to help you in your needs.	My knowledge is in fact ever-expanding and I hope it never compresses.

When it comes to photo restoration in particular, you will probably have to scan an original photograph. You’ve maybe done this many times with a variety of things before and you simply place the original on the glass, push the go button and the software does all the work for you. It’s easy really, isn’t it? Sadly this will seldom be adequate for restoration work to be done very effectively.

Desktop scanners have become quite ridiculously cheap in recent years and the savings have to come from somewhere. The main areas they come from is cheaper light sources and lenses, together with some very clever software. Resolution is the key to scanning and the word to look out for in scanner specs. is interpolation. What this basically means, in simple terms is – whatever resolution the documentation says your scanner is capable of producing (let’s say 12,800dpi), it is probably only actually scanning at 4,800dpi, a much lower resolution, looking at the pixels it scans, interpolating them and filling in the gaps with this data. In essence this means it is making up the information. Similar to the vegetable soup analogy earlier, as much as 75% of the data in the scan is imitation, it simply isn’t there to begin with. We really want to avoid this if we can.

Therefore, if your scanner offers options for manual or professional settings, or even just the option to turn off auto scanning, then this is what you want to do. Now let’s look at what settings you want to use.

This is a difficult one to explain in detail but suffice to say, you basically want a file that is the same dimension you want to finish with. If you want to print out 8″ x 10″ photos then you ideally want a file that is also 8″ x 10″ when scanned. The trouble is, you also need to look at the resolution of the file at the same time. I’ll try to explain…

If you have an original that is only 1″ long that you scan at 100% and at 300dpi (dots per inch), then you have a file that is 1″ long with 300 pixels along that length. If you now enlarge that to the 10″ output you need, you only have 30 pixels per inch in the result (300dpi divided by 10″).
Take a look at these examples…

  

1″ Original

10″ Equivalent

The software is doing some pretty clever stuff – for every single pixel of data in the original it is expanding this to 10 pixels in the enlargement. Each 10 pixel square in the large version has only 1 pixel of data to play with from the original, so the software blends the
10 pixel blocks together using the single pixel data from the original. If you look at this from up to 10 times further away that normal
(go on move away from the screen), you won’t really notice any difference between the two images. Clever isn’t it? But the reality is, when you look closer (which is normal) the result is obviously much softer or blurry. Because it really is only 10% original data and the rest is invented by the software.

It is possible, of course, to enlarge the image at the same time as scanning, but then a whole new set of variables come into the equation. Things like density, granularity (film grain) and so on. But we don’t need to go there.

As I said above, if you base everything on ending up with at least 3,000 pixels on the longest side of the final image size you want, then things will usually turn out fairly good. As a basic guide use the following table to determine the settings for your scanner resolution.

Start off by setting the scanner to the following:

1. Set the size to 100% (or 1:1 depending on your scanner settings).
2. Use the colour photo or RGB colour setting on your scanner (even if the your original is black & white).
3. Set the ‘Save File As’ function to be a low compression JPG or TIFF file type (please read the manual for information specific to your scanner).

Now for the resolution settings:

Original Size (on the long edge)	Minimum Scanner Resolution (in dots per inch)
10″ (or greater)	300dpi.
9″ – 10″	350dpi.
8″ – 9″	400dpi.
7″ – 8″	450dpi.
6″ – 7″	500dpi.
5″ – 6″	550dpi.
4″ – 5″	600 – 800dpi.
2″ – 4″	1,200dpi.
1″ – 2″	2,400dpi.

If your scanner manual mentions a maximum optical scanning resolution, scanning at anything above this won’t help at all. This is where interpolation comes into effect and we want to avoid having pixels in the image invented by the scanner, don’t we?

Exposure – If your photo is dark, even very dark, it is frequently possible to lighten it, enhancing the darker areas and produce excellent results. However if your photo is over-exposed and very pale it is much more difficult. If the image has burnt out to white in places, it is often impossible to rescue the white areas without inventing the information. When there is no data in the image, we have to invent it, remember?
Here is an example of having to invent picture information. This wasn’t through exposure, but from damage. But it shows that it can often be done, but remember, it is made up. There’s also an example here of exposure correction, but if you have several images of the same subject with varying exposures, then it is often possible to create a very good photograph by combining them.

Sharpening Fuzzy Pictures – Your camera will probably carry out some sharpening of the image as part of its processing activity, such as ‘shake removal’. It is however, often possible to make a slightly blurred picture look less soft, but bear in mind that it is seldom going to be as good as having a perfectly sharp image to start with. There are many things I can do to help make key elements look sharper. Take a look at this example and you’ll see the main subject is much sharper, look especially at the hair and eyes. I also softened the background to enhance the effect of this sharpening. Just imagine how some of your treasured images could be enhanced.

Straightening – This possibly speaks for itself. But one of the easiest things to forget when you take a photo is whether the horizon is straight or whether things which are supposed to be upright, are actually upright. There is also a common problem with some of the cheaper manufactured lenses that distort images in their own way. A good example of this is known as ‘barrel distortion’, it is surprisingly common in smaller digital cameras that have wider angle lenses.

Colour Correction – Most cameras have a nasty habit of making up their own minds about the colour hue and strength (saturation) of the image. Sometimes it’s spot on. Often it’s not, and the image could do with some careful correction. It is quite common for example, for photos that were taken under fluorescent lighting to have a strong colour cast. I also regularly see photos that were taken under water and have quite severe colour casts. More often than not, it is possible to reduce or even completely remove these colour errors. Just take a look at this example to see what I mean.

Colour Replacement – Changing specific colours within an image to a different colour is relatively straight forward. The colour of clothing or a car for example. The key is to make sure the texture and shading remain true to the original, otherwise it will look false.

Backgrounds – It is very popular to remove, replace or otherwise alter backgrounds in existing photos. Maybe there are background items that are confusing the intended image. From standard backgrounds to studio sets or landscapes, it is possible to create the scene you really envisaged when the shot was taken, or maybe the shot implies what it should be now. Take a look at this example to see how changing the appearance of the background can have a dramatic effect on the result.

Repairs/Modifications – It’s quite common for products or prototypes to need modifying, reshaping or colouring before they are put on display. Maybe you’ve a rare photo of a prized painting but the frame is damaged. Repairs and enhancements such as this are always possible.

Eye Changes/Head or Face Swaps – If you have a cherished photo of a loved one but there are some flaws you’d like to see corrected, just let me know. If you’d like the eye colour changed, or maybe the eyes are closed and you’d like to have them opened. As long as you have some good reference to the normal or desired eye colour to go by then it is often possible to achieve. In this particular example there were three photos to choose from, neither of which had the desired outcome on their own – one had one of the sisters without a smile, while another had one of them with her eyes closed. By combining the good elements of each, a (fourth) perfect record was achieved.

Cosmetic – Spots or blemishes can be removed, skin can be smoothed and wrinkles removed (or even added if you want!). Skin tones can be adjusted, hair colour or eye colour altered. Double chins can be single again, wayward hair or eyebrows can be tamed. Teeth can be straightened and/or whitened. Here’s a good example of some cosmetic work, and done for all the right reasons too.

Colour v. Black & White – Converting all or part of an image to Black & White can produce great eye catching effects. This is obviously subjective, but the transition can be startling. There is a timelessness to black and white photography and some images can take on a truly artistic feel. It is no coincidence that some of the world’s most memorable images are in black and white. Similarly tinting all or different parts of a monochrome image can be equally striking. Just let me know the effect you are trying to achieve.

Creative Borders/Text – Borders of all styles can be created around your image. Personalised text or messages can also be added without interfering with the image (the original is never harmed).

Photo Montage/Collage – This is the technique of producing a composite picture by combining several photographs into one image. Special occasions can be celebrated with a creative montage by combining your favourite photos into one, even adding text and special messages. Panoramas are a classic example of montaging many images together.

Colour Calibration – Computers and printers, as well as cameras and the human eye all see things very differently. This is why the output from one camera, scanner or printer may be different from another. The image files that are returned will be balanced to give good results, with the most natural tones possible on printers that have been correctly set up for the environment they are in. You may find it necessary to fine tune your printer controls to adjust the image to your suit your personal preference. Please see your printer and computer manuals for details on these settings.