richard hall

The photo of John Barrow required extensive restoration. Tears and scratches were repaired and dust was removed. A lot of repainting was required, as well as tonal adjustments and careful sharpening to bring out the fine qualities of the photo. The original was a three by two and a half inch print, but after repair a much larger print was achieved.

This photo was taken at a Catholic wedding in Ulster in the 1950's, and my client wanted the boy taken out of the tableaux. It turned out that he was a protestant who grew up to become a Loyalist terrorist. I used a cut and shut technique to remove the boy and then utilised digital paint tools to blend the scene together. Additional work was required to eradicate dust and scratches, and the whole composition needed tonal adjustment to remove discoloration and fading.

Robert, now in his fifties, was eager to give his mother a larger portrait of himself as a child. However the only colour image he had came from a broach and it was only an inch in height. I scanned the photo in at high resolution, then repaired the tears and discoloration. I also removed dust and the overall colour cast. I finally softened the edge of the image to give it a feathered vignette. The image was then printed out at eight by ten inches.

Robert of the previous photograph had an image of his father plowing a field on his farm in the 1940's. It had been taken with a Box Brownie camera. This and its extensive weathering had rendered the image hard to retrieve. I increased the tonal contrast without decreasing its tonal range which revealed extensive damage. Through careful painting I was able to remove noise, scratches and tears. In order to make the composition work better I added a sky and blended it in with the original.

My client wanted this very corroded photo of his long dead friends to be restored back to its original colour state. Not only had the colour yellowed and faded, but there was extensive cracking and dust burns. I had to overhaul the photo starting with removing all the damaged artifacts. I then reconstructed the legs of the sitter on the left, and the sky, and recoloured it with many overlays, extensively adjusting the tones.

I was asked to re-colour a photo of this Edwardian couple, and so liaised with the client in the choice of colours. I made digital overlays of colour, blended these together, and applied tonal and lighting effects to enhance the drama and focus of the image.