A Boy and a Motor Car, Brought Back
Photographs like this one carry as much social history as family history, and that shapes how I approach the colour.
Drag the handle to compare the original with the restored version.
The photograph
A boy in a flat cap sitting on the running board of an early motor car, probably 1920s or 1930s. A picture that dates itself twice over — once by the clothing and once by the vehicle.
The damage
Long cracks ran through the frame in several directions, with surface scratching over the boy's body and heavy wear along the lower edge. The whole print had faded to a flat sepia with very little separation between the boy's white shirt and the pale background.
The work
The cracks and scratches were repaired first, then the tonal range rebuilt to separate the shirt from the car body behind it. For a photograph of this age the colourisation has to be researched rather than guessed: the muted blue of early coachwork, a grey wool cap, a white cotton shirt and a plain dark tie. I deliberately kept the grain and softness of the original process. A 1920s photograph should still look like one.
This was a old and antique photograph restoration job — see more on old and antique photograph restoration.
| Service level | Restoration with colourisation |
| Price band | £30+ |
| Turnaround | 2 days |
Other Restorations
Torn Baby Portrait Rebuilt from Fragments
One of the most damaged photographs I have worked on, and proof that a print in this condition is not beyond saving.
A Colour Print Lost Under a Yellow Cast
Colour prints from the 1970s and 1980s fail in a very particular way, and it looks far worse than it actually is.
An Edwardian Child Portrait in Colour
Seeing a child from a hundred years ago in colour is the moment most clients tell me they had not expected.
Have a photograph like this?
Send me a scan or a clear phone photo. I will tell you honestly what can be recovered, and what it will cost, within three hours.
