Surface Cracking Across a Studio Portrait
When emulsion starts to lift, the damage spreads across the whole print rather than along one line. It needs patience more than anything else.
Drag the handle to compare the original with the restored version.
The photograph
A seated studio portrait of a young girl in a full-skirted dress, beside a tasselled curtain — a set-up typical of a provincial photographer's studio.
The damage
The print had yellowed heavily and the emulsion was flaking away in bright white patches, worst across the top left corner and scattered over the dress and face. Unlike a clean tear, this kind of damage has no edges to realign; each loss has to be filled from what surrounds it.
The work
Every flake and crack was filled individually, matching the tone and texture around it. The dress took the longest, because the fabric has a pattern that had to continue convincingly through the damaged areas. Once the surface was sound, the yellow cast was corrected and the portrait colourised — a pale blue dress, a gold locket, and the deep gold of the curtain tassel that was still just about readable in the original.
This was a torn and cracked photo restoration job — see more on torn and cracked photo restoration.
| Service level | Advanced repair 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.
