Have your found old photos but they are just not what they once were? With time, many of our prized family photos and memories can become damaged. Or maybe we merely wish to see faded photos brought back to live by digitally restoring them. The prospect of restoring and archiving these photos may seem daunting, but this guide will help you understand the multitude of photo restoration and preservation options available. These strategies will not only help you find ways to salvage your old photos, but also find creative and inventive ways to display your treasured photo memories. 

Digitizing your Old Photos Right in the Comfort of your Own Home

When working with old photos that may be damaged or drastically changed from their original form, digitizing them is an important first step in the preservation and restoration process. There are many ways to digitize old photos and the route you decide to take depends on what you are looking for in preserving or restoring your photos. In some cases, it may be enough to use photo scanning apps at home to see and preserve the images on a screen, but you may desire altering the state of photos digitally to try to restore them to their original beauty. This section will review the many options that are available to you when determining how you would like to work with your old photos. 

In some cases, you may want to digitize your photos at home with your phone, or a flatbed photo scanner. Yet significant time and effort is needed to achieve what you are looking for. Phones can be a great and easy way to digitize old photos; there are many apps that exist to aid in digitization of your old photos. One great example would be Google PhotoScan where you can utilize the app to create quality digital files right in the palm of your hand. Google PhotoScan has auto edge detection, perspective correction, and a smart rotation tool to help you achieve a quality digital file. While home scanning apps are easy to use and very accessible, it is sometimes hard to get a good scan that is lit well, and in many cases the files scanned might not be high enough quality to produce large prints.

Another home scanning option would be to utilize a flatbed scanner to scan your prints. If you have access to a scanner at home, this many be a quick and simple solution to digitizing your photos. However, many flatbed scanners are not designed to scan photos and your digital files may not be of the quality you are searching for; colours may not translate correctly and there could be potential sharpness issues with your photo files. While home scanners might have some setbacks, this option may be work for your purposes. In many cases, you will be able to get a digital file you can easily send to family and friends and keep as a digital backup on your home computer. 

Another photo digitizing method that would require some knowledge of photography would be to take digital photos of your old pictures, creating digital files that can be downloaded onto a computer. Ideally when utilizing this method, you would have a well-lit white surface and a tripod you can attach your digital camera to. Facing the camera downwards towards your surface, you would be able to take pictures of your old photos to then be downloaded onto your computer where you could crop and edit them so they can be shared or printed. If using this method, make sure your digital camera is capturing high quality images of your pictures by checking that it is creating larger file sizes so you can print quality photos later. This method of using a digital camera might be intimidating to some and does require a certain knowledge of photography and time. 

Breathing Life back into your Treasure Trove of Photos 

For many of us, our prized photos may be damaged from wear and time; there might be rips or scratches in your photos, and colours might have faded. Restoring these prized photos digitally can be an important step in breathing life back into these memories and provides you with great digital files to print from, letting these old photos live on in new and exciting ways. 

You might have enough knowledge about photo editing to digitally reverse and fix damaged photos right at home using photo editing software. Taking the digital files you have created at home and working on them on your computer might be a great option for you. One popular software for photo restoration would be Adobe Photoshop which has a wide variety of tools which an experienced user can use to restore their image. There is a certain price barrier though; Adobe Photoshop is a paid program so you must buy a subscription. Additionally, Adobe Photoshop does have a steep learning curve to use the software to its full potential. Other popular free programs similar to Adobe Photoshop are PhotoWorks or SoftOrbits Photo Retoucher. The cons to these alternative photo editors are their lack of settings and tools which might inhibit your ability to achieve what you desire with restoring your old photos. 

Editing and restoring digital files of your old picture at home is a great option that can be affordable and a great journey in rediscovering old memories. Yet for many, this type of home photo restoration requires significant skills so it can be quite hard to achieve the type of restoration you are looking for even if you do have some knowledge of these programs. 

That’s why another great option is to bring your old photos to a photo lab or specifically to a photo restoration specialist  to work on your photos. Photo restoration at shops such as Annex Photo in Toronto  might be a perfect option for digitizing and restoring your old photos due to their expertise. At places such as Annex Photo, photo professionals can not only create high quality digital files of your photos, but make sure that they can be restored as close as possible to how you want them. 

When bringing your photos to experts at a photo lab or photo restoration service, it is important to not only organize your photos accordingly to how you would like them scanned, but also consider exactly what you want done to bring your photos back to life. Having a conversation with the sales associate or photo editor taking in your order about exactly what you want done to the photos is an important step to restoring your pictures. It might also be advised to turn a color original into a black and white digital file to help with touching up the photo to hide unwanted colour fades and damages the original photo might have. 

Keeping your expectations realistic is important as not all damage can be reversed – your photo restoration expert can provide some insight when assessing. At Annex Photo, we work hard to achieve what you want and deliver you high quality digital files you can use in the future to let those memories live on. Once you have your new digital files, that’s when the real fun begins as there are many exciting ways you can take those files and display them to the world in their new and vibrant form. 

Displaying your Restored Memories in Creative and Exciting Ways

Once you have your digital files and they have been restored, there are many great ways to display those treasured photo memories to the world. One perfect way to showcase those memories is to get those photos printed professionally. It could be a fun idea to print your photos at smaller sizes like 4”x6” or 5”x7” and store them in photo albums for family and friends to browse through. Printing at these smaller sizes also gives you the option to scrapbook with your new photos and organize them in creative ways that truly lets them shine. 

In some cases, especially if you have worked with photo restoration and digital photo printing experts like the team at Annex Photo, your digital files will be of good enough quality to be blow-up and printed at much larger sizes. Selecting your favorite images and printing and framing your photos at large sizes can be amazing ways to let those treasured photos live on in your home. Or printed and framed photos can be a great gift to family and friends. Check out our selection of 8”x10” picture frames and 11”x14” picture frames.

There are many other creative ways those photos can be given a new life – like putting together a photobook. Online there are many photobook making services. Here at Annex Photo we also offer many different photobook options including printable hardcover photobooks, printable soft cover photo books, and standard hard cover photobooks. Many of our customers love our express photobooks – they can be ready in 24 – 48 hours for pick up in Toronto! 

It can also be exciting to get plaques made of your memories. We offer many styles and options for photo plaques. On the smaller scale we offer wood block desktop plaques that can be a great gift for someone’s desk, but we also offer wood plaques to be wall-mounted – sized all the way up to 24”x36”. Along with wood plaquing options, there are also metal photo panels that can be a creative and modern way to preserve your treasured photos. 

Restore and Cherish those Found Old Photos

The world of digitization, restoration, and display of your found old photos is vast and exciting with many tools and options at your disposal to breathe life back into your treasured memories and share them with family and friends in fun and creative ways. 

If you have any questions about photo restoration, please reach out to the passionate, life-long photography experts at Annex Photo.