Archival

Photo Restoration Service for Damaged, Faded, and Scratched Photos

Damaged, faded or scratched photos rebuilt to publication-ready quality.

Some photos cannot be retaken, which is exactly why a photo restoration service has to get them right the first time. Color Experts International has spent 40 years repairing damaged, faded, and scratched images by hand, with 250+ in-house editors trusted by Amazon, MGM, and more than 12,000 brands. The samples above show what that experience produces; here is how it works for your photos.

What Our Photo Restoration Service Includes

Every restoration is performed manually in Photoshop by a trained editor. No one-click AI filters, no generic presets. We rebuild the image at the pixel level, which is what real damage requires:

Tears, creases, and folds, including photos torn into pieces
Scratches, dust, spots, and surface abrasion
Water damage, mold, mildew, and stains
Fading, discoloration, yellowing, and sun bleaching
Missing corners and emulsion loss, reconstructed from surrounding detail
Optional colorization of black-and-white photos in period-appropriate tones

You receive a clean, high-resolution file ready for reprinting, framing, or publication, delivered in the format you need: JPEG, TIFF, PNG, or layered PSD.

How the Restoration Process Works

1. Send us a scan. Photograph or scan the original at the highest resolution you can manage, then upload it. The original never leaves your home. 2. Get a fixed quote. An editor assesses the damage and confirms price and turnaround before any work starts, so there are no surprises after delivery. 3. Manual restoration. Your assigned editor reconstructs the image by hand, matching grain, tone, and texture so repairs blend invisibly into the original. 4. Quality check and delivery. A second reviewer inspects every file before it reaches you, and we run another pass promptly if anything needs adjustment.

Who Uses This Service

Families restoring portraits for memorials, anniversaries, and genealogy projects make up much of this work, and those single-photo jobs get the same editor attention as our commercial accounts. Professional photographers send us water-damaged client archives. Museums, publishers, and historical societies use us to restore digitized collections at volume. Brands bring us heritage campaign imagery that needs to hold up in modern print resolutions. With 250+ editors on staff, we are a photo restoration service that gives one treasured print and an entire archive the same standard of care.

Turnaround, Pricing, and Free Trial

Restorations are delivered within 24 hours as standard, with rush delivery in 4 to 12 hours for hard deadlines such as memorial services and print dates. Our editing services start at $0.20 per image; restoration is quoted per photo based on the extent of the damage, so a light fade costs less than a torn, water-stained portrait. See our pricing page for details, or get a quote if you have a large archive or an unusual job. Not sure yet? Send 2 images through our free trial and judge the results before spending anything.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you restore a photo that is torn or has missing pieces?

Yes. Our editors reconstruct missing areas, including corners, backgrounds, and even portions of faces, using surrounding detail and any reference photos you can supply. If damage is too severe to restore reliably, we tell you before you pay, not after.

Do I need to mail you the original photo?

No. We work entirely from digital scans or high-resolution phone photos, so fragile prints never leave your home and nothing gets lost in transit. A 600 DPI scan gives the best results, but our editors regularly work from far less.

Can you colorize old black-and-white photos?

Yes. Colorization is available as an add-on to any restoration. Editors apply period-appropriate tones for skin, clothing, and surroundings, and you can specify known colors, such as a uniform or a wedding dress, for accuracy.

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