Ted Liette Loc: Greenville, Ohio

A lady my wife works with was a victim of flooding into her home.They had water damage occur to some photos that were taken of a deceased child. I've never lost a child but I know these photos would have to be priceless. My question is: can anyone recommend a professional restoration business that repairs water damaged photos? I know they are out there but who is the best and who does a high quality job? Could anyone share a link to a good restoration web site.

Thank you for any help or suggestions that may be provided.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

I wonder if an insurance company can help you - they work with people who clean and restore after fires, floods, etc., and I'm sure that photos are involved there.

Time has already passed since the photos were damaged by the water, which makes me think the original may not be salvageable any longer. However, a skilled photoshop user can perform miracles on high-resolution scanned images, so you could also check with local photographers. They may only have the skill to edit photos they took, but you never. DO ask to see samples of his/her work before handing over these precious photos.

hdg Loc: Boston

That's so sad. I can't imagine.

Most photo restorers work the way Morning described -- they scan the photo at high res and then make "repairs" to the digital file. The original photo should never be touched (except the scanning part). So the key is finding someone reputable who will do the work in a timely manner and return both the originals and the digital files (or prints) to you.

Photo restoration can be expensive because of the time required to do the Photoshop. Beware of places that offer $30/photo. They will put in the minimum amount of time to fix a few things, but won't do a lot.

You don't say how many photos there are. Often people will rally around a disaster and help people get their photos done for free by spreading them around many restorers who offer pro bono services. I personally restored a couple dozen from the Sandy storm for people in New Jersey over the course of a few months.

If you go that route, you can put me down for a couple for this poor woman, if you'll send out to Boston.

David Kay Loc: Arlington Heights IL

Let me know how many she has that need to be saved. Also need to know if they are stuck together or just individual photos that are water damaged.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

You might want to call one of the art auction houses in NYC - Christies or Sothebys and ask if they could recommend some one

glblanchard

It's really hard to determine who to recommend without seeing the images. "Damaged" is a relative term, anything from discolored to destroyed. She may not need one of those $200 an hour restoration guys.

Bill Houghton Loc: New York area

Can you post one, scanned at 600 PDI or better. The originals need not leave the owners hands, just the file.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

The only person I'd recommend, as he wrote the book on photo restoration, is Wayne Palmer. He's based in PA. If you do contact him, definitely mention my name.

http://www.palmermultimedia.com/main.htm

--Bob