The picture is
still in there.
Photographs that faded, tore, or were scanned badly in 2003. Video tapes nobody owns a player for any more. Files that vanished off a card. Most of it is more recoverable than people assume — and I will tell you which category yours is in before you pay me anything.
Full frame · 360 × 246 → 2160 × 1476 · drag to compare
Small photos,
made big enough to print.
For photos that are fundamentally fine but too small, too soft, or too compressed. The machine does the heavy lifting; I check every frame and throw out the ones where it invented something that was not there.
The minimum order. Enough to see whether this is worth doing with the rest of the box.
- Up to 4× resolution increase
- Noise, grain and JPEG artefact cleanup
- Colour cast and fade correction
- Delivered as full-quality JPEG and PNG
The realistic size of one family's worth of loose prints once they actually start counting.
- Everything in Handful
- Consistent colour treatment across the set
- Straightening and edge cleanup
- Organised, sensibly named files
For a whole inherited collection. This is the one people order after a parent moves house.
- Everything in Shoebox
- Duplicate detection and removal
- Date and album grouping where possible
- Delivered on a USB drive if you want one
More than 200? It gets cheaper — tell me the count and I will quote it.
When the damage is
the whole problem.
Tears, water stains, mould, fading, creases, missing corners, and the particular orange that every photograph from 1974 has turned. This is hand work, priced per photo, quoted from a picture of the picture.
Surface-level problems on an otherwise intact print.
- Fading and colour shift
- Dust, specks and light scratches
- Minor creasing
- Contrast and exposure recovery
Real damage, but everything important is still on the paper.
- Tears and missing corners rebuilt
- Water damage and staining
- Heavy creasing across the subject
- Mould and foxing removal
Significant loss, where part of the image has to be reconstructed.
- Large missing sections
- Faces partially destroyed
- Fire, flood and adhesive damage
- Quoted individually, always
Colourisation — add $15
Black-and-white brought to colour. I research period-correct tones where I can, and I will always send you the black-and-white version too.
Printed and mailed — from $12
Archival paper, properly colour-managed, in a rigid mailer. Most people who restore a photo want to be able to hold it.
What I will not do. I will not invent a face that is not in the source. If someone's features are genuinely gone, any tool that "restores" them is guessing, and the result is a stranger wearing your relative's clothes. When that is the situation, I will say so and suggest what is actually possible instead.
Send the shoebox.
Prints, slides, negatives and tapes, turned into files that will still open in twenty years. Everything is logged in and photographed on arrival, and nothing is thrown away — your originals come back with the drive.
| Photo prints, up to 8×10 | 600 dpi, colour corrected, straightenedUnder 100 items: $0.75 each | $0.60 ea |
|---|---|---|
| Slides & 35mm negatives | Dust and scratch removal includedMounted or in strips, either is fine | $0.85 ea |
| Oversized prints & documents | Up to 12×18, flattened and stitched if needed | $3.00 ea |
| Photo albums, page by page | Scanned in place so the layout survivesPriced per page, adhesive albums included | $2.50 /page |
| VHS, VHS-C, Hi8, MiniDV → digital | Up to 2 hours per tape, captured at source quality | $25 /tape |
| Tape capture + AI remaster | The same capture, then upscaled, de-interlaced and stabilisedThis is the one worth paying for | $45 /tape |
| 8mm & Super 8 film reels | Frame-by-frame capture, quoted by footage | from $0.20 /ft |
| Return shipping, insured | Originals plus a USB drive, tracked both ways | at cost |
Before you post anything irreplaceable: message me first. I will tell you how to pack it, and for genuinely one-of-a-kind material I would rather you drove it to me or we found another arrangement than trust it to a courier.
Footage that was
shot on something worse.
Already-digital video that looks like it came off a tape, a flip phone, or a 2009 camcorder. Upscaled, de-interlaced, stabilised and cleaned up frame by frame.
Up to 1080p, de-interlaced and denoised.
- Deinterlacing and frame repair
- Noise and compression cleanup
- Colour and exposure correction
- Original audio preserved
Everything above, at up to 4K, with stabilisation.
- Up to 3840×2160 output
- Motion stabilisation
- Optional 60fps interpolation
- Audio noise reduction
Capture and full remaster of one tape, start to finish.
- Capture included ($25 value)
- Full 4K remaster of the usable footage
- Dead air and static trimmed out
- Chaptered by scene where it makes sense
For comparison, studios generally charge $50–$100 per minute for this work. I am cheaper because it is me, one machine, and no storefront.
No surprises, in either direction.
Show me
Send a phone photo of the photo, or the file itself. No commitment, no card, no account.
I give you a straight answer
What is realistic, what it costs, and how long. Including "this one is not worth your money," when that is true.
You see it before you pay
On restoration work you get a watermarked preview first. If it did not come out, you owe me nothing.
You get everything
Full-resolution files, the untouched original scan, and your physical media back. Files stay downloadable for 90 days.
The things people
actually ask.
Is this just an AI app I could run myself?
Partly, and I would rather say so. For straightforward upscaling, the tools do most of the work, and that is exactly why that tier costs $1.40 to $2.50 a photo instead of the $35 a studio charges.
What you are paying for is the judgement around it: knowing which of the four tools handles your specific problem, spotting when the model has smoothed your grandfather into a mannequin, and doing the corrections by hand when it has. If your photos are in good shape and you enjoy fiddling with software, genuinely, run it yourself. Come to me for the box that has water damage.
How long does it take?
Upscaling is usually back within 36 hours. Restoration is two to five days depending on severity and how many are in the queue. Digitizing depends on volume — a 200-print box is about a week from the day it arrives, tapes are roughly a day per tape because they capture in real time.
If you have a deadline, say so up front and I will tell you honestly whether I can hit it.
What happens to my photos and files?
They sit on an encrypted drive that is not shared with anyone, they are never used as training data, and they are never posted anywhere without you specifically saying yes. Ninety days after delivery I delete my working copies unless you ask me not to.
If I ever want to use a before-and-after as an example, I will ask you first, every time, and no is a perfectly normal answer. The full detail is in the terms.
What if I do not like the result?
On restoration you approve a watermarked preview before paying, so this mostly does not come up. If you do not like the preview, tell me what is wrong and I will have another go, or we call it off and you owe nothing.
On bulk upscaling, if a batch comes back and you are not happy with it, I will redo it or refund it. I would rather lose $25 than have someone tell their family this was a waste of money.
Do you do this full time?
No — I work in IT, and this runs alongside it. That is worth knowing because it sets your expectations correctly: I am not a lab with a night shift, I am one person who is good at this and answers his own email. It also means I am not paying for a storefront, which is most of why the pricing looks like it does.
Where are you, and do I have to post things?
Anything already digital can be sent over the internet and never needs to move physically. Prints, slides and tapes do have to reach me — post is fine and I will tell you how to pack it, but if you are local we can arrange a handoff instead. For irreplaceable single copies I will always suggest the handoff.
Tell me what
you've got.
You do not need to know which service you want. Describe the thing — "a box of my mum's photos, some of them stuck together" is a completely adequate brief — and I will work out what it needs.
Attaching a phone photo of the worst one helps enormously. You will get a real reply from me, usually same day.
Nothing is charged from this form. It starts a conversation and gets you a quote. Payment only happens once you have said yes to a number.