Photo Restoration Day

Too Pro for Your Own Good

2006-08-07T09:09:00.000-06:00

If you're an amateur with a good digital camera and a love of Photoshop, beware: Snap Judgements.

"One of the benefits of digital photography - the fact that amateurs can take better-looking photos and doctor them using photo-editing software - is also becoming a bane. Photofinishing labs increasingly are refusing to print professional-looking photographs taken by amateurs.

The reason: Photofinishers are afraid of infringing on professional photographers' copyrights."

Get Yourself Published In Your Local Newspaper

2005-05-13T19:09:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I was in an article about our company in the local newspaper. It was a nice sized article on the center-fold of the paper, and we've already run into plenty of people who have seen it. It's generated some phone calls, although that wasn't our intention. In fact, we didn't make the article happen, it just so happens that the editor came into the store 10 years ago for a photo restoration, probably one of our firsts, and was surprised to see us still around 10 years later. That prompted her to come inside, learn about what we were doing (we had filled up one small office in the building then, and now fill the building), interviewed the owner and scheduled the paper's photographer to come by.

It's easier than you'd think to get in your local paper. Here are some examples of recent local newspapers with stories on local photo restoration experts:

A company called Digital Magic up in Kodak Country, or Rochester, New York got herself on TV - all about photo restoration. Photo restoration makes for great human interest stories, and the before and after images you can provide make for great graphics.

Nancy Lynne Photography - She'd received a merit award for a photo she took, but someone took the time to contact the paper about it, and then not just focus on the award, but on all the services she provides.

Strange Photo Restoration Requests

2005-05-06T17:42:00.000-06:00

I've seen some pretty crazy photo restoration requests recently. Here are some examples:

All within the same week:

* Reducing the size of a woman's breasts digitally. This was requested by another family member from the same family portrait.

* Making a bride's dress more modest.

* Fixing a woman's shirt so it looked like she was wearing a bra.

* Making a German Shepherd from a male into a female.

When most people think of photo restoration, they think of old photos that are either torn or faded, or old black and white photos that need colorization. In reality, photo restoration and photo manipulation cover so many things! If it can be done in photoshop, you can get it done with your local photo restoration expert, whomever they may be.

Obligation to Share Genealogy Photos

2005-02-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

Back in the early days of photography, there really wasn't such a thing as double-prints Tuesdays. It didn't exactly work like that. These photos of our ancestors, if they survive today, they're really one-of-a-kind. These ancestors have a lot of progeny though, a lot of descendants who'd LOVE to have a copy of these photos. Don't the possessors of these photos have a certain obligation to share these photos with the other descendants? With today's imaging technology, the photos can easily be scanned and shared via email or through a photo-sharing site.

Some interesting sites for vintage family photos, made to either help identify or share images of ancestors or genealogical importance are:

Ancestor Archive - A genealogy database built to share photos of your ancestors with you - just come here to search, maybe you can put some faces to the names and dates you've been collecting. You can also post old images you've come across at flea markets, etc., although that seems like a long shot.

Miscellaneous Genealogy Photos Needing ID - This is a site someone put up to kind of help identify those odd photos you have yet have no clue as to who the people are. This is the kind of site that each of us could probably have.

Wham, Bam! Thank you, Lousiana Governor's Office

2004-11-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

So we googled ourselves and found that Louisiana had declared Louisiana Photo Restoration Day and had just overlooked the fact that we might like to know about it!

/brief

Out with the old, in with the new?

2004-11-23T15:04:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a trip to Portland where I was able to participate in a consumer show with some friends of ours in order to help promote their photo restoration services. It was fantastic. We had a lot of interest and were really able to get the word out about their service... Now, easily 15-20X as many people were interested in the digital cameras. Yes, we all must buy new cameras, I know. We need to buy new cameras so we can take new pictures, because these new pictures we're really going to care about! I know we lost the photos we took 10 years ago, and we don't have any of our photos archived, and we need to get some restored yet don't.... but this time,... this time it will be different. These will be *new* pictures and they're worth more than the pictures we already took!...

Ok, Breath... Breath... Sorry.

If we're taking pictures in order to preserve memories and record moments, it seems that the moments and memories we've already recorded must be important, must be worth keeping, worth protecting. Yet we spend hundreds of dollars on taking pictures, and very little on protecting, preserving (or restoring) the photos we've already taken.

I wonder if a case could be made for using a place like Perpetual Storage to store digital images, would people pay to have copies of their photos placed in this place? I guess niche>niche>niche>niche>niche would. Sounds like an interesting business.

Photo Restoration Days

2004-10-11T14:59:00.000-06:00

Yes, I've slacked on the posts, and I apologize. But when's the last time you called your Mother or another family member? Alright then.. :)

So far we've got Photo Restoration Day in:

Colorado - August 1, 2004
Utah - October 12, 2004
Kentucky - October 13, 2004
Oregon - October 15, 2004
Nebraska - October 20, 2004
Wisconsin - October 21, 2004
South Dakota - October 25, 2004
Michigan - November 22, 2004
South Carolina (Part of Archive Week) Nov. 7-12, 2004

Pulling My Leg?

2004-09-28T13:50:00.000-06:00

Received an email from a woman who asked for an age progression to a "baby photo". She shared that this was the only photo she had of her first love. I figure the possibility that someone is trying to pull my leg is 75%, but then again, I'm creatively paranoid.

Unfortunately, age progression, even with the best of tools (such as several photos of the subject, family photos for general family traits, etc.)is not an exact science.

This was the only photo this woman had of this child, and the photo is terrible. While I offered to help her have her photo restored if she could get a good scan, I had to tell her that an age progression wouldn't be anything she'd be looking for.

This is why it's so important to archive and preserve our heirloom and family photographs. Once they're gone, they're gone.

What's It Worth To Ya?

2004-09-24T11:18:00.000-06:00

Sometimes you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone, right? Well, folks are folks are folks. Photo retailers sometimes experience price as a buying objection. A customer brings in a photo of their grandfather on the farm, bent and crinkled and missing the left corner. When given a price tag of $40-80, this is a tremendous value for the customer. What a deal!

This same customer, should that same photo retailer lose his "One of a Kind" photo of his grandfather, would expect the company to pay him a lot of money to make things right. We're talking more than a thousand dollars, but still the customer will feel that they got the raw end of the deal.

It's true that you don't know what you've got until it's gone. There are journals your family has kept that are lost and unrecoverable, there are names and dates and other genealogical information that is not known, if you have a photograph of a special person or special memory, restore the photo. Make the investment in the photographic record of your family.

How much would you be willing to pay for a photograph of your great-grandfather that closely resembles your grandchild?

What's It Worth To Ya?

Photo Restoration Name Suggestions

2004-09-10T16:17:00.000-06:00

1) South Dakota signed on as the 7th state to declare photo restoration day.
2) CharleyFix.Com is going strong, could use more damaged photos.

With so many photo restoration and photo retouching websites, many great names are already taken. I've researched some prize ones that are, amazingly, still available.

FeauteauxRestauration.Com - It has a certain European appeal. Ooh La La!

FodoFicks.Com - It has a certain South Dakotan appeal.

FodoRezturashun.Com - Can't forget North Dakota.

F070R3570R3.Com - In memorium of the 14 y/o hacker we had to send to "Juvie" for messing with our site(Not Really).

old-photo-restoration-retouch-repair.biz - For the truly desperate.

Please send suggestions to austin@photorestorationday.com.

Photo Restoration Needs Everywhere

2004-09-01T13:00:00.000-06:00

CNN News Story 9/01/04

This is a tragic story. I have two beautiful daughters, a two year old and a four month old baby. I'm glad, however, that what happened to her has now been discovered. I was looking at the photo and thinking "What a little cutie.", like I often think about my little cuties at home, and I realized that the photo, distributed by the family, is damaged.

I realize that there are probably many photos that are used to find missing children that are in need of repair. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children would probably be one organization that has a need for photo restoration help every so often. Families sometimes don't have a decent photograph to give to searchers, and the photos they do have could either be repaired, OR non-necessary items or people could be removed from photos to make the child more the focus of the photograph.

Right now, I've got enough to worry about getting CharleyFix to critical mass. We've got the photo restoration help, sure, but we need more families in need! If you are on the help team and you haven't gotten an image yet, it's because I'm having problem getting actual families to upload their photos! If anyone can help me contact additional people in Punta Gorda, that would be fantastic. Great places to call would be: insurance companies, plumbers, construction companies, etc. You can use DexOnline.com to contact people from that area. You can just refer them to CharleyFix.com.

If you have any news or content of interest to photo retouch or photo restoration folks, please share: austin@photorestorationday.com

The Word Is Out

2004-08-27T19:28:00.000-06:00

To see the press release "in the wild" go to news.google.com or news.yahoo.com and type ' photo restoration ' without the quotes or ' hurricane charley '. As long as you go within the next 24 hours you'll see it at a great position for Hurricane Charley and it'll be the top on photo restoration for a long time.

Photo Restoration Industry Restores Photos Damaged in Hurricane Charley

Photo restoration industry provides www.CharleyFix.com to restore photos damaged in Hurricane Charley.

(PRWEB) August 27, 2004 -- Among the many belongings damaged in Hurricane Charley, family photographs are among the most irreplaceable. Thousands of important photographs received water and other damage during the storm. Most homeowner's insurance policies, however, cover photographs only up to the replacement cost of new film and processing. The sentimental value of the photo is not taken into account.

Damaged photographs, whether by water, the sun, age or neglect, are able to be restored through most professional photo retailers. Using today's technology, digital artists can repair an image - recovering photos which otherwise would have been lost forever. The service can be costly, however, and folks who've suffered through Hurricane Charley have many photos in need of repair.

The photo restoration industry has provided a website where families can take photos affected by Hurricane Charley and restore them free of charge. The site, www.CharleyFix.com, allows families to upload the photos. The photos will then be restored and returned as a print and burned to CD.

Volunteers not only include companies which provide photo restoration services, but members of www.RetouchPro.com, an online resource for photo restoration and retouching. Work was initially organized through the photo restoration industry website, www.PhotoRestorationDay.com

Many of those participating have been looking for a chance to volunteer their services. Diane Blakeside shares "I have thought of providing this service to disaster victims for years. I know that photo's help connect us to our past and therefore adds a sense of continuity to our lives."

The CharleyFix project is located at www.CharleyFix.com

# # #

Kentucky Fried Photo Restoration

2004-08-24T14:39:00.000-06:00

I enjoyed finding Precious Photos'photo restoration news from 1999. Some jewels include "Precious Photos appears to be setting up to become the 'Microsoft' of the Photo Restoration Industry." and "It is unknown, at this time, what the initial offering price will be however, 39% of Precious Photos stock will be made available to the public." Wow. Now, keep in mind this was 5 years ago. Every great internet idea was going public. And it was a great site and great idea.

It reminds me of one of the most embarassing things I've ever done. At the time, I wasn't the least bit embarassed, but, like the above "news" from 1999, it seemed a good idea at the time. This was 1998, and my then employer took us to the most expensive restauraunt in Salt Lake City for our Christmas party. I'd heard about this place, but I'd never been. So first, I drive up, and it was totally set up for valet parking, but I was too embarassed to have them valet park my shabby car, so I lamely drove my car the 200 yards to the parking lot and hiked up to the restauraunt. So I get inside, and it's beautiful, I mean, WOW. The waitresses had their bosoms overflowing the old medieval type dresses they wore. The menu was awesome, with food I'd never had the chance to eat before. I decided to order the food that I'd never seen on a menu, like escargot, and that kind of thing. It was really fun.

Then came the moment of truth. The lady took my drink order. Now, I'm LDS and don't drink alcohol. I wasn't going to order a sprite or milk which is what I usually order, so what do you think I ordered? I was out of my mind, I was OUT OF MY MIND. Here I am in this restaurant which was better than any restauraunt I'd seen in any movie and I ordered something that I'd seen people order in movies, even though I had NO IDEA WHAT IT WAS. I asked for.... wait for it..... A Non-Alcoholic Sex On The Beach.

I have no idea what a "Sex on the Beach" drink is. It could be pure alcohol for all I know. I asked for a Non-Alcoholic Sex On the Beach. The waitress, seeing the actual situation (the one that I'd see later) was probably embarassed for me. She asked "What does that consist of?" so she could just place the order. I had no idea. So we decided some fruit stuff, like pineapple juice and apple juice.

It seemed like the thing to do at the time, but now, looking back (and I mean, the next day looking back) what a stupid thing to order! So pretentious! I was the poster boy for being a hick in a fancy restauraunt. To order what this clean-cut Utahn saw as the "cool" thing to order in such a setting... A Non-Alcoholic Alcoholic Specialty Drink. Oh man. LOL. Well, I guess, like the aforementioned web news... It's ok as long as it's not immortalized on the internet.

School starts tomorrow, and I'm taking 3 classes. Between work, my family, PRD and CharleyFix, and now school, this is going to be.... interesting. Press release is going out on Thursday night for a Friday morning release.

It's a Start

2004-08-21T11:28:00.000-06:00

It's a beautiful day, the website is done (good start anyways). I'm going to go enjoy my day now.

If you have any comments or suggestions about CharleyFix.Com, please email me at austin@photorestorationday.com so I can get them taken care of.

I'd like to put out a press release in order to attract more photo requests and to get the word out on this. I'll be submitting it on Monday. If you have any comments or suggestions on THIS too, it's austin@photorestorationday.com.

Have a good day my friends!

Happy Anniversary Me

2004-08-20T17:48:00.000-06:00

My anniversary was yesterday. I felt guilty not posting, but I'd probably feel guiltier had I spent the 20 minutes it usually takes me to "get it how I like it". My wife Lela and I have been married for four years. We have two children, Eve and Megan. We spent the evening with them, but we're going out Saturday night, WooHoo!

So, CharleyFix is up. We've got the Upload page up, which is very user friendly. It's easy to do an upload page when you don't have to worry about a credit card! I'm pleased with how that'll work. I've still got to finish out the volunteer login, and the rest of the pages, but it's a good start. My personal goal would be to have it finished by tomorrow afternoon.

So, a funny photo restoration story from a friend in photo restoration I'll call:

"The Eye of the Beholder".

A customer submitted an old family portrait circa 1920. It was a beautiful sepia tone image with Mother in a big, old dress - sitting in a big wooden chair, and the family all around her. There was a teenage daughter standing to her right, and her young eleven year old boy on her left. All were leaning in and giving their best close-lipped, barely-turned-up-corners-of-the-mouth 1920's smiles. The instructions were to remove everyone from the photo but the eleven year old...

Some may disagree, but photo restoration artists are... human. Yes, just human. And the artist had seen the boy not leaning against his mother's chair, but had seen the boy leaning against a cane. A wooden cane. The Mother's dress was large enough to cover up most of the wooden chair, and based on how the boy was standing, with one foot behind the other, it was difficult to tell that he had two feet. So the artist simply took out everyone and made the boy look as natural as possible with his wooden cane... Standing in the middle of the room on his one foot.

When the customer showed up to pick up the picture, it was hard to tell who laughed harder, the customer or the restorer once he'd realized that he'd spent an hour turning an arm rest into a cane without realizing it!

I'm a big fan of linking up the post, but it's been such a long week, have a good weekend I'm out. Thanks for reading. Post comments if you like. I get nearly 250 uniques a day, and if I don't see some comments soon I'm going to disable that part of the site! It's getting embarassing...

Michigan Checks In

2004-08-18T17:46:00.000-06:00

We've received the proclamation for the great state of Michigan! Michigan will celebrate "Historical Photo Restoration Day" on November 22, 2004. Thank you to Governor Jennifer Granholm for her support.

Within the next 24-48 hours the CharleyFix FTP will be available for photo retrieval. We were able to speak to the folks in Punta Gorda today. Obviously food, clothing and shelter are top priorities for the families most in distress, and have to be what gets taken care of first. It will be a couple more days before we get photos SCANNED and FTP'ed our direction. For those involved in CharleyFix, we'll receive the photos directly to ftp.charleyfix.com, then forward them to you for restoration. We've received a donation of free printing for up to an 8X10 as well as free shipping, so when these are received, I can mail these back. You're also welcome to mail them back on your own if you wish.

We'd like to gather some information from the families that submit photos in order to later share the help you'll have been able to provide. We will provide a simple, informative press release on the CharleyFix program in order to highlight the need to preserve and archive important photographs, as well as the ability to fix photos which have been damaged not only by water, but by age, neglect, etc.

CharleyFix is as much your project as my project, so if you'd like to suggest anything, either for the project, for the press release, or make any other comments, please do so. It's a collaborative effort, I'm just posting about it on PRD.

Enlisting Help

2004-08-17T17:40:00.000-06:00

The Hurricane will be old news within a week, but we'll keep looking for help for the next month. There were thousands and thousands of photographs lost and damaged. By providing help to those whose lives have been disrupted the most and who have the least financial resources available to them, we can provide some comfort in repairing some sentimental family photographs.

Thanks to those who've already enlisted to help. Participants will be listed on the right of the page, we will continue to add to this list as folks are able to respond to the call.

Hurricane Charley

2004-08-16T23:23:00.000-06:00

There are thousands of homes which have been destroyed in Charlotte, Orange and other counties in Northern Florida. We have an opportunity to help with restoring some important photographs which have been damaged. If you are interested in restoring one or more photographs free of charge as a service to some of these people, please email volunteer@photorestorationday.com and I can forward you the names of some people to get in touch with.

Let's make sure that all of us put our important images on CD and have a copy stored in a seperate location. Insurance will generally only cover the replacement costs of film and associated developing, and will generally not cover the costs of photo restoration work.

Hello Wisconsin!

2004-08-13T16:00:00.000-06:00

Donna, the woman who handles Proclamations and such in Wisconsin tells me: "I want to know more about this. I have all sorts of old photographs that I would like to have negatives made for so I can give them to other family members. I'd better look into this!" and "I do see the value in what you do. Was just never sure where to go for things like this before so I just let it slide. Shame on me."

This proves that Photo Restoration Day is a good idea. Even the woman helping us get our proclamation in Wisconsin is now going to get her photos taken care of where she wouldn't have before... Why? "Was just never sure where to go for things like this..."

Here's a progress report:

Got Lucky Or...

2004-08-12T19:46:00.000-06:00

It was a Miracle. I found a needle in a haystack. It was the 30th cd out of the thousands of cds I knew I'd have to trudge through. To make a long story short, someone had sent in their only pictures of their wedding photos and they were now with the "to be disposed of" media. That's what not following instructions will get you...

I knew that I could probably find this guy's photos, it's just that I'd have to go through thousands of cds to get them back (and that's IF he labeled his). Well, apparently we label them, and it was in the first quarter of the first box that I went to. Are family photos important? How about wedding photos? I've got to believe that not only were they important for Roy (the groom) and his wife but that they were important enough for me to get a little help from on high.

Today I spoke with the Governors' offices in Florida, Michigan, and Nevada. It looks like Michigan and Kentucky are a go and should have me signed proclamations within the week. I'm requesting dates so that when the days begin we hit 2-3 states per week, between the first of October and the third week of November. Over the next 2-3 weeks I should be finished with my requests and can focus on preparing photo restorers to make the most out of the days, and focus on quality and quantity media coverage.

The press release for Utah Photo Restoration Day has had 2500 readers so far, including 50 media outlets. I don't expect any articles until the day approaches, because, after all, it's two months out. If press release readership averages 5k each with at least one release per state, 30 states would give me 150,000 readers. If we average 100 media outlets per release(not counting when I contact the media directly as the day approaches), that'd be 3,000 media outlets which can, by providing their own coverage turn the 150,000 into ??????.

Utah Photo Restoration Day Just a Beehive State of Mind

2004-08-11T16:33:00.000-06:00

We watched four Brownie girl scouts get their pictures taken with "The Man Who Passed the Olympic Torch to Tom Cruise". We mingled amongst 10-12 Daughters of the American Revolution "DAR" with more pins and medals on their dresses than decorated war vets. We were accompanied by some industry professionals and their Andy Warhol-haircut photographer. This was our wait for Governor Olene Walker to meet with us today.

I got to play governor for 2 seconds before she joined us. I trust it's the closest I'll get to being the governor of a desert state.

Governor Walker was the first one into the room, she stepped to the podium, and after greeting us, read the words of the proclamation, hit the gavel, and the deed was done. Utah will celebrate "Historical Photograph Restoration Day" on October 12th, 2004.

The purpose of the day isn't just to build awareness in preserving or repairing damaged photos, but to give a good excuse to photo restorers to provide service to the communtiy. Hollywood Fotofix will provide fifteen photo restorations as a service to the Utah State Historical Society. Other photo retailers will be handing out "How to Take Care of Your Photos" sheets, etc.

There are many people that love to restore photos, but they don't make money at it, and that isn't the point to them. It's taking a puzzle of a messed up photo and fixing it and giving it to someone who it really matters to. If this describes you, why not offer to restore photos for your local historical society?

Meet:
The Brownies
The DAR

Nebraska Signs In

2004-08-10T13:31:00.000-06:00

Nebraska's Governor Mike Johann has proclaimed October 20th, 2004 as Historical Photo Restoration Day in his state. This is the first time that the state has formally recognized photo restoration, a giant milestone for all Nebraskans who have fought for digital photo services for so long.

Nebraska's photo restoration day will provide an opportunity for museums or historical societies to solicit service from photo restorers, an opportunity for photo professionals to more prominently display their photo restoration services, and an opportunity for media outlets to share with the public the many special things that can be done for preserving or restoring old photographs. Whether it's by an individual on their own or through a photo restoration professional, the idea is, let's not destroy important photographs through inaction.

Skewed View

2004-08-07T13:45:00.000-06:00

At the February 2004 PMA in Las Vegas, I'm talking to a photo retailer who'd stopped by the booth, and he's from the South. As we're talking about our photo restoration program, he stops me, takes a step back and says:

"Yeah, you'll fix photos from other areas of the country for that price maybe, but we got all these photos from Black people, and they don't take care of their photos for nothing. I mean, they bring in these photos with coffee rings on them, and their kids taken a crayon to it... You've never seen anything like it."

Interesting. I suppose if he were in Alaska he'd say the Eskimos don't take care of their photos, or in Utah that the Mormons (I'm Mormon) don't take care of their photos. I work for a large photo restoration provider, and... yeah... I've seen something like it. It's what keeps us in business. People treat their photographs like they do their family members - they love and cherish their photos but sometimes go a while between visits and phone calls.

The guy didn't end up signing up - which is just as well, I guess, because apparently all the photos he gets in for restoration are.... *gulp*.... damaged.

Here's a cool article by Mark Howells for Ancestry.Com. Titled "Questioning Photo Manipulation". He discusses the ethics of photo restoration/manipulation: How do we know what colors the bride wore in that 1900's wedding? (Was Great Great Aunt Wilson really virtuous enough to wear white?!) Concludes: "If the manipulation is an attempt to clean, sharpen, or otherwise make more viewable a treasured photograph...[the service] is easily available now and should be utilized."

Day One

2004-08-06T20:28:00.000-06:00

The bonfires are almost out, the cleaning crews have picked up the place, and folks in Colorado are now finally able to go back to work after a very successful "Colorado Historical Photo Restoration Day" on August 1, 2004 as proclaimed by Colorado Governor Bill Owens.

The day served its purpose, to create more awareness in Coloradoans regarding their ability to preserve and restore important family photographs. Nearly 150 media outlets received our press release, with over 5,000 readers. Not bad for such a quick start. I'd requested the day for this fall, but Governor Owens' office apparently wanted to get the word out before more photos were lost forever, etc. etc.

I've probably said or typed the words "Photo Restoration" nearly 50,000 times in the last ten years. Sure, 10,000 of those were on Google.com searching to see what everyone is up to, but the others are through regular use in my life. Photos and memories are to me as intertwined as salt and the sea. Fixing photos which are nearly lost is something which is nearly a miracle. If you've ever lost something important to you that you'd give almost anything to get back, it's probably because it's tied to your past and to an important memory.

Here's an article about the NFL Films/Kodak project to restore photos found in the debris from the Sept. 11 attacks. What a great service project. As a volunteer project by these employees, what an undertaking. There are so many opportunities for service in this industry.

The AngelPics Project was created by Mark Long at Hollywood Fotofix as a way that he could personally give service to some families that had some very important photos they needed some sensitive work performed on. Unlike many corporate acts of "service" today, the NFL Films/Kodak and AngelPics projects weren't done for goodwill or publicity, both projects are much too sensitive for that... It's done on a volunteer basis because these guys saw a need, and I respect that.

Photo Restoration Day is my service project. It isn't as sensitive as those projects, and... to be honest, I intend to promote and publicize the HECK out of (this makes 50,003) photo restoration.

The goal of Photo Restoration Day is to build awareness in the service, to promote the industry as a whole, but most importantly to introduce damaged photographs to photo restorers and let nature take its course.