Introduction
The unprecedented growth in digital camera sales in recent years, notwithstanding the global financial crisis, bears testament to the fact that photographs are immensely important to us. They preserve the important people, places and occasions in our lives for posterity, so, ideally we want them to last not just for our own lifetime, but for many lifetimes to follow. However, the nature of traditional photography means that photographs are subject to deterioration caused by natural breakdown of chemicals, photographic paper, etc., used in their creation and by external factors, such as temperature, humidity and handling. Precious photographs can become faded, cracked, creased or stained all too quickly, but photographic restoration, if performed correctly, can bring them back to first class condition, as good as when they were taken, or very close to it.
Photographic Restoration
Photographs and photographic restoration, of course, existed long before digital photography. Traditional colour, or black-and-white, photographic films are essentially composed of layers of organic matter on a base of cellulose acetate and, as such, are highly susceptible to deterioration. However, in the hands of a skilled restorer, working in a darkroom and using special techniques such as "dodging" and "burning", etc., even the limited capabilities of traditional photographic film can be compensated for.
"Dodging", for example, is a method of decrease the exposure of, or lightening, one or more areas of a photographic print relative to the rest of the print and is done by focusing light on the area(s) to be lightened. "Burning", on the other hand, is a method of increasing the exposure of, or darkening, a selected area, or areas and can be useful for toning down highlights, etc.. Burning is done by placing, say, a card, or another opaque object, between the lens of the enlarger and the photographic paper while the negative is being printed. This allows more light to fall on selected areas making them darker than others in the finished photograph. Other subtleties of the traditional restorers` art including retouching by hand, using artists` brushes and dyes, airbrushing and the use of filters for controlling colour, contrast, etc..
Of course, even with all the tricks of the trade at his, or her, disposal, a traditional photographic restorer may not be able to achieve results that are altogether satisfactory. Some photographs, inevitably, involve some guesswork on the part of the restorer and subtleties of colour, detail, etc. can be lost by airbrushing in missing areas, or through reprocessing of an image.
The alternative to traditional restoration is to digitise the image by making a high quality, high resolution scan. By doing so, you make available a range of digital restoration techniques unavailable to the traditional restorer, but, not only that, you facilitate the archiving of a copy of the photograph in its original, untouched state to CD, or other media. This means that, even if the worst comes to the worst, you have a digitised image on which to start afresh, with no risk to your physical original. All the processes of the traditional darkroom can be replicated digitally, but processes such as cloning and layering are exclusive to the digital restorer and can make a huge difference to the finished image.
Of course, once a photograph is in digital form not only can more sophisticated methods be used for its restoration, but, once restoration is complete, numerous different ways of sharing and displaying the photograph become available. You can share it with your family and friends, by email, by including it in a photograph on the Web, or by burning it to a CD or DVD. For recipients without a computer, however, you might like to consider a digital photo frame which may allow you to upload digital photograph(s) from your PC or laptop via USB ("Universal Serial Bus"), a memory card reader, or even wirelessly. Digital photo frames are significantly cheaper and easier to use than they once were and are, in many situations, a real alternative to traditional, static picture frames.