Vickie P. from our Shutterfly Gallery Guru team, tells us how she discovered the magical process of digital photo restoration, shares a couple of amazing before-and-after examples, and provides tips on how to get your own photos restored ( at scancafe) without doing a spot of digital cleaning yourself.
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Making Shutterfly photo books has been a wonderful hobby for me over the last several years. My interest in photobooks first began by making an 8×8 Story book. It was a Father’s day gift for my husband and was easily and quickly to put together into a lovely book. Hundreds, if not thousands, of jpeg files of daddy and daughter photos were already stored on my computer and easily retrievable.  The book was put together in no time and arrived for Father’s day. It made my husband the most proud father in the world to receive it and is still a favorite in our household.

But since making that simple Father’s day tribute, I have taken on a much more intensive task, this time embarking in time travel in an attempt to document and discover my family’s past generations. I wanted my children to know their great grandparents, great aunts and great uncles, as well as their grandparents in their youth. The means by which that could all be made possible was with Shutterfly photobooks and some modern digital technology.

I set out to find as many stories and forgotten photos of relatives that I could possibly discover. I have always personally believed that having a photo to tie in with a story about someone, leaves a greater impression. It’s easier to know someone when you can put a face to the name. And so began my quest to find such things.

My first discovered treasures, happened to be a glamorous but severely creased photo of my 20 something year old mother and a darling childhood photo of my 90 year-old Aunt Lila, who was born in 1916. I was thrilled to have found them. Both photos were beautiful, but Lila’s was very faded, torn and tattered and my mother’s was almost in pieces, the creases being deeply embedded. Both were in great need of restoration.

My project began with scanning each at a resolution of 300 dots per inch or dpi. Next, I began filling in the missing bits of each photo with a cloning technique that copies good portions of the picture into the areas that are creased, torn or missing. After filling in all the damaged areas with good matching ones, and adjusting Lila’s photo for contrast and density, the faded old photo became vivid and sharp! I digitally added a subtle touch of hand coloring and this photo literally looked as if it had woken up from a long sleep!

My mother’s photo had a glamorous makeover by cloning out each crease and adjusting contrast and color for a beautifully balanced black and white result. Both photos could now be enjoyed by everyone as they were no longer forgotten treasures, stored away in a dark closet. They could be placed into my Shutterfly photobooks for all to marvel over!

I have found by trial and error, to obtain the best result, scan your photos at a decent resolution depending on the size of the photo you are working with. For instance, in my Classic Photo Booth book, I was working with many small photos of approximately 2×3 inches. Scanning at a resolution of 600 dpi gave me a wonderful result that allowed each photo to work well in photo templates as large as the full 8×8 page. I scan photos 5×7 and larger at a resolution of 300 dpi and have had wonderful printing results.

Personally scanning and restoring vintage photos might not be for everyone, but with Shutterfly’s recent partnership with industry leader, ScanCafe, it doesn’t have to be! ScanCafe, provides a scanning and restoration service for your old photos, slides and even negatives, bringing your treasured memories into the digital age, and SAFELY too!  For peace of mind, ScanCafe uses a door-to-door online tracking system integrated with UPS so you can follow your package not only while in transit, but also during production at each station within the lab itself! You can see your order every step of the way which is so important. I believe many shoeboxes full of photos, slides and negatives have been waiting for this convenient and safe way of coming into the digital age. Visit ScanCafe and see what they have to offer at http://shutterfly.scancafe.com/index.php

I am convinced that incorporating old family photos into Shutterfly photo books have made my books much more interesting and complete. I find it amazing while studying old photos, to see a familiar dimple, an endearing crooked smile or even an unruly cowlick that I recognize in family members today! So many traits continue down the genetic line and to be able to meet our ancestors by studying their photos and learning where some of these things have come from, brings the past into the present and truly makes me smile.  While I may not be able to shake my great grandfather’s hand, with a little digital help and Shutterfly, I can surely introduce him to my children.