SonyBug

I have a friend that is a true expert in photo restoration. Takes a 1850's daguerreotype and turns it into a color or b/w masterpiece. Just an example...

Is there a market for this kind of service? I see occasional inquiries, but don't know if people want something cheap or good. He would not be cheap. Has done this professionally for some time, and has multiple works published nationally.

What does this forum think?

I am encouraging him to post a few examples of his work (heavily copyrighted of course), but I want to give him a preview of what to expect.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Unless a local photo shop does it, he might talk to them and provide various before and after shots.
Word of mouth; build a web site.
BTW - There were over 6 million hits in Google for "photo restoration service". That may be a hint.

Joe Blow

Ya, but two of those are the same site.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

These days a lot of photo restoration (and other photo processing and retouching) is being outsourced to boiler room type operations overseas. It's probably hard to compete with them price wise.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Yes, there is. There is even a forum dedicated to restoration at www.retouchpro.çom.

Leicaflex Loc: Cymru

Yes, there is a market built on sentiment, some people do like to look back.

Winslowe

Ask the guy. If he's been doing it professionally, he should know the market. Or is there something else behind this post?

Robert Bailey Loc: Canada

I used to do it, and had a local store send jobs to me.
The problem, as someone else has mentioned, is that most stores now outsource
this type of work to Asian countries where people work for $1 an hour.
I had a $50 minimum fee, and could no longer compete.

leftj Loc: Texas

I would think your friend could best answer your question.

SonyBug

Don't know what could be behind a simple question to guage interest in something...

I want to thank all the members who gave me good answers and to fill in a little more - he told me that he did a restoration of some very famous music stars, and after he got the credits on that, business boomed. But, now it has tapered off. Some of us are more computer literate than others, and social medial is not his thing. But restoration is. So, the answer to why business has fallen is probably best summarized by the answers that point to overseas cheap labor. He is not cheap! But his work is spectacular...

Thanks again for all the answers.

Ron Dial Loc: Cuenca, Ecuador

The problem is that people will not pay enough for it. I am an Adobe Certified Instructor in Photoshop and have a Masters degree in digital imagery and like to be paid for my time. Restoration may take hours and hours, and clients are cheap. I did antique restoration for a while, and gave it up. Now just do it for me or friends. So I would say there is a limited market for it.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

There might be some interest in this kind of work, I'm pretty sure about that, but I would not go so far to say there is a market for that, that one can make a living of that. It should be part of an overall larger service, then it would have some potential.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Restoration work has been part of my studio (portrait department) business for as far back as I can remember and has always been a profitable, lucrative and popular part of our product and service offerings.

Of course, there are low ball prices and services in the market place but they cannot compete with the quality and service that we offer in terms or authenticity, presentation and display. We promote that part of our business in a number of ways.

We have always promoted and encouraged “family walls” , that is a program whereby families come in on an ongoing basis to commentate special occasions, photographically record family history and react a display in their homed. He concept includes births, baby and children's portraits as the grow up, graduations, military portraits, business and job related promotions- just about anything, family related, that you can think of that deserves celebration and commemorating. The actual display design can be on a wall, a table, a mantle, a corner of a room, atop a piano, or any combination of these.

We integrate this with our “ancestors” concept which involves restoration and framing of old, damaged or faded photographs and including this in the family wall or corner display.

I believe in the time-honored concept that “you can't sell what you don't show”. In my studio, I have a display of my own family wall. It's in a corner of the showroom, near the entrance, on an antique desk. There is a sewing machine that belonged to my wife's grandmother near her portrait. There are more current portraits of my wife and kids near restored portraits of there ancestors who they are named after. This display attracts lots of attention, stimulates many conversations and brings on many sales.
What do we do what the cut-rate “boiler room” folks don't do? Lots!

Our restoration work is of extremely high quality and it done in the authentic style of the in which the original work was done. We use many original processes such as, archival silver printing, Nelson's gold toner, real sepia toner on traditional papers, hand coloring in transparent and opaque oils. We have a custom framing service where we can restore the actual original frames, supply replacement bubble glass or replicate many period styles. I am always on the
lookout for old frames from various periods. We have supplier of old style miniature frames, Daguerreotype style frames and cases and accessories. Metal prints can be made to look like original tintypes.

In my freezer I have a few hundred sheets of a special Kodak film that was used for the production of printed circuit boards, and a few hundred rolls of Tech-pan. Theses emulations are especially useful for restoring severely faded images where only faint yellow and brown tones remain. It's magical- a full scale detailed negative results that can be analog printed or scanned.

Our restoration work is not only done by computer driven methods but we still employ airbrush, dyes, negative retouching and oil based paints.

We have also secured restoration work from corporations, banks, small businesses, churches and fraternal organizations, service clubs, hospitals, educational institutions, governmental departments and museums. Insurance companies have recommend us to clients who have photographs that were damaged by smoke, fires and water where the original negatives or files are no longer available.

We have restored portraits for presentation at funerals and memorial services, to be sent to a specialized service in Italy where they are printed on ceramic cameo-like plaques and then imbibed in tombstones and monuments.

Marketing wise, there is a very strong interest in “ancestry”, DNA, family trees and history. Folks are spending time and money on DNA research to find their roots, and so many related matters online and elsewhere. It's a natural!

To the OP- If you friend has skills and talent, this will not bring in business if y'all are the only ones who know about it. Obviously, he must generate before and after samples of his work on various levels of originals such as images that need moderate, intermediate, high and extremely high degrees of restoration. He must construct a price schedule for each of theses services. He can offer services to portrait and wedding photographers who do not not have the skills or facilities to handle their own restoration work. Other markets are custom framers, interior decorators, museums, businesses, organizations, religious institutions, and the general public.

Some originals can be scanned while other may be too big, stuck in frames or mounts, stuck to glass or too delicate to “sandwich” in a scanner. Those need to be photographed on a copy setup with polarized lights and a CPL filter on the camera. Sometimes color filters are necessary to help restore contrasts.

We have stated jobs with color slides, old negatives and glass plates and even passport photos with government stamps or embossing to work through. We like the jobs that nobody else wants to take on.

A website might help! A printed brochure can be distributed. Pavement pounding is still a viable sales technique and a good way to do market research in your own geographic location. You gotta get out there and find out for yourselves!

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I've done restoration, colorization, and retouching for about 17 years. One of my works was published in a book on retouching and restoration. It was the first one I'd done. I still play with it from time to time and work at it, also from time to time.

Yes, there is a market for it, but, more than likely, limited. There is a company that farms all their work to India. So, the market as it is may be saturated. I have a couple of niche clients that keep me busy from time to time.
--Bob

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Here's that family display I mentioned.

(Download)