Digitise & Restore

We would like to share with our friends another stunning example of how digitisation can bring an old photo back to life!

The example displayed above clearly shows how adding colour to an original black & white photo dramatically transforms the photograph. In this instance our customer was able to recall the colour of the clothes even though the original photograph had been taken in 1936!

In the second example (below) you can see that the original photograph had been retouched in order to bring some subtle colour to the picture. The restoration process enabled the customer to request additional colourisation, further transforming it while keeping it true to the original.

The digitisation and scanning of your old photos & slides is only the first step in bringing these precious memories back to life.

If you would like to discuss bringing your own photo memories back to life with one of our experienced team please feel free to call or email us using the details below.

Customer Services: 01926-810604
Email: support@savephoto.com

www.photolegacy.com

Digitise & Restore

Restoring the 'Titanic!

The 'Unsinkable Ship' setting sail for her fateful maiden voyage a century ago is an image those who waved her off will never forget.
But while the enduring memory of the Titanic is of the famous liner sinking into the North Atlantic, one man captured a rare snapshot of the moment she set off on her one and only journey.

Sailing smoothly through the waves just off Southampton, this 100-year-old photograph shows the doomed boat taking to the icy seas on April 10th, 1912.
It was captured by then 15-year-old Elliot Brown, who used the picturesque scene of his uncle's sea-facing back garden on the Isle of Wight to photograph the giant vessel as it loomed into view off the south coast.

Iconic: A 15-year-old Elliot Brown took this picture of the Titanic as it left Southampton on its first and only voyage

Mr Brown's uncle's house on the Isle of Wight offered spectacular views of ships sailing from Southampton out towards the English Channel, with the teenager using a brownie box camera to immortalise the moment.

Respected: Elliot Brown, pictured here as a young man in photographs from the same album as the Titanic picture, maintained an interest in photography but went on to become a GP in Birmingham.

The young Mr Brown, a keen amateur photographer, took a picture and stowed the image away into his album along with pictures of his friends and family, unaware of just how significant his quickly-taken photograph would later become.
When disaster struck and the 882ft Titanic plunged into the North Atlantic Ocean four days after Mr Brown's picture, the teenager knew he had captured an iconic moment, but nonetheless opted to keep his memento safe in the family album.

The photograph remained in his possession his entire life as Mr Brown married, had children, and established himself as a respected GP in Birmingham.
When his second wife Faith was moved into an old people's home, however, his children began clearing possessions from Elliot and Faith's bungalow in Galmpton, Devon.

It was then they came across the album and its rare contents belonging to their father, who died in 1967 aged 70.
Had they not saved the rare image in the album, the momentous picture could have been lost forever.
Mr Brown's son Bruce found the picture, which had a noticeable fold down the middle and was stuck in the album with a handwritten caption: 'RMS 'Titanic': Maiden Voyage'.
Bruce has since had the iconic photograph digitally restored in time for the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking, but still plans to keep the picture in the family.
The 77-year-old retired meetings manager, from Henley-on-Thames, said: 'When I was in my mid-20s he happened to tell me in passing that he had taken a picture of the Titanic as she came out of Southampton water.
'I remember it stuck in my mind when he told me at the time, and it has been a subject which has fascinated a lot of people ever since.
'He realised how significant a picture it was some time later, but decided to keep it in his album.
'Like everyone else the Titanic had a big impact on him and he was shocked by what happened.
'My father was quite a religious man and was quite moved by the fact that the band on the Titanic apparently played 'Abide With Me' before it went down.'

Describing the moment he found the photo his father had told him about decades earlier, grandfather Bruce added: 'It was a split second decision whether to keep the album as it was his and I didn't know anyone else in the pictures, but I'm not glad I did.'

Century-old: The original image taken by Elliot Brown has a fold down the middle next to the caption: 'RMS Titanic - Maiden Voyage'

First and only journey: A route map of the route taken by the Titanic on its doomed maiden voyage

Pete Boswell, from Warwickshire-based Photo Legacy, who restored the photo, said: 'It has been a fantastic experience and a privelege to work on a picture like this one.
'When people find pictures like this one it is often a journey of discovery, and this image is no different.'

Bruce Brown revealed that he discovered the photo album in his late father's home in Devon in around 1985, but kept hold of it since then and has only recently had it digitally restored.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2126457/Titanic-sets-doomed-voyage-Newly-discovered-picture-taken-amateur-photographer-15-shows-gleaming-liner-leaving-Southampton-fateful-journey.html#ixzz1rMcmOn00

Restoring the 'Titanic!

The New Secure Photo Legacy Box!

Take a peek at the new secure Photo Legacy Box!

Photo Legacy Box

Over the next 3 months we will be upgrading all of our packaging to new strengthened plastic boxes!

We were the first photo scanning company  in the UK to provide free packaging for all of its customers. Since then we have constantly upgraded our packaging with the aim of providing out customers with the best possible solution to protect their precious photos.

As most of our current customers send us their precious photos & slides via recorded delivery postal service or by tracked Courier we decided that we wanted to provide our customers the best possible packaging that is primarily designed to protect its important cargo during transit to and from our Labs.

These new plastic Legacy Boxes will come in three different sizes designed to provide robust protection for each of our Photo Legacy products. The Boxes have been designed so that they can be locked and made secure by the customer before they are handed over to the Courier.

Our customers will be encouraged to continue to store their precious original photos and slides in the acid-free bags that are provided with each Photo Legacy Box.

Oh!..and I almost forgot to say that we don't have any current plans to increase the cost of our services to simply cover the cost of the new Photo Legacy box!

www.photolegacy.com

The New Secure Photo Legacy Box!

Back in the Day...

We recently completed an exciting scanning project for one of the oldest schools in Britain, Shrewsbury School. The project involved the digitisation over 5,000 individual photos mainly mounted in rather old and fragile photo albums dating back to the 1880's.

                                         Copyright 2012 Save Photo Limited

Many of the photographs were found to be suffering from a number of different problems commonly associated with old photo albums that had caused the actual photos to appear faded, water-stained and damaged.

Digitising old photographs delivers many benefits but one of the most important is the fact that the digital copy can be repaired and restored so that the photograph can be printed and enjoyed in its original quality.

It was decided by our customer that many of the photographs should be enhanced and so here are a few examples of the photographs that we restored so they look like did back in the day...

                                                                 Copyright 2012   Shrewsbury School

                                                                Copyright 2012   Shrewsbury School

www.photolegacy.com

Back in the Day...

Photo Legacy Going National!

Warwick, UK, 19th March 2012 - CeWe Color, one of the UKs leading photo finishing providers, has today announced its partnership with Save Photo Limited to provide consumers and its retail customers with a new service - professional photographic digital scanning.

CeWe Color UK is at the forefront of high quality personalised print products including the CEWE PHOTOBOOK, wall art, gifts, calendars and digital prints, working with many high street retailers and also direct to consumers through www.photoworld.co.uk

The new partnership with Save Photo will provide customers with a comprehensive range of photographic digital scanning services for different types of media such as prints, slides and transparencies. It aims to give the end user a simple, affordable opportunity to keep their memories safe forever, by having all of their valuable old photographs digitised and securely stored in their own secure Photo Legacy account www.photolegacy.com

The service is due to start later this month with a leading photographic retailer.

"We are very excited about the opportunity to be working with a company such as CeWe Color" said Pete Boswell, Managing Director at Save Photo "CeWe's reputation in the imaging sector for innovation meant we could explore some new ideas we have been developing for improving the end-user experience. CeWe offer our business a perfect route to the consumer via CeWe's own online services and high street retail partners"

Commenting on the partnership, Duncan Midwood the Managing Director at CeWe Color stated "We see the whole area of digitisation as a really important opportunity.  Our customers have been asking for a safe and reliable service that captures their valuable pictures so we welcome the opportunity to develop this new product line with the team at Save Photo"

Over the last 12 months Save Photo has seen the demand for its services steadily growing which prompted them to move their business into new larger premises late last year. The new facility has over 3,500sq feet of imaging Labs, offices and secure warehousing.

www.photolegacy.com

Photo Legacy Going National!

Old Slides – Photo Mysteries

 by Pete Boswell

Late last year as part of our marketing campaign we ran a series of display advertisements in The Woman’s Institute monthly magazine that is sent out to its 250,000+ members across the UK. We were not sure at the time what kind of response would should expect from the Advert. We were as it turned out, in for a rather pleasant and unexpected surprise!

The overwhelming demand from these advertisements was for our Slide scanning services. This in its self was not totally unexpected.

However, when we asked our customers (as we normally try to do) for the reason for digitising their slides in the first place they generally informed us that they were unable to view or share these pictures as they didn’t own "a working’ slide projector" or in the case where they had ‘inherited’ the slides from another family member "they had never actually owned a slide projector!"

What excited us most and provided us with our unexpected surprise was the fact that for most of these customers this would be the very first time they would ever have seen these pictures! 

Many of the Photo Legacies we were creating for these customers contained family pictures that were from slides that were over 40 – 60 years old and for many these pictures represented the bulk of their Parents and Grand Parents photo memories.

www.photolegacy.com

Old Slides – Photo Mysteries

Family Photo Preservation

Preserving your family’s Photo Legacy should always be a planned priority from one generation to the next.

It is said, that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” but many families do not have a working photo preservation system in place, which increases the chance of losing valuable memories.

Genealogy websites have made it easier for people to gain access to records and other documents that help them research and build their family tree. And there are also many things one can do to protect the photos that enhance the preservation of their family’s lineage.

The storage method for photos and other documents — or lack thereof — is another “factor for why people don’t know their histories,”  When researching the family tree, we recommend that the family appoint a family historian who will become the custodian of the families old photographs. Sharing this valuable archive with other family members is simple once the original archive has been converted to a digital format.

The following tips will help you accurately care for your family’s photographs:

• Say goodbye to the shoebox as a way of photo keeping up with pictures. Instead, use air sealed containers and quality albums to lengthen the life of your photos.

• Identify each person’s name on the back of the photo, remembering to mark the date the photo was taken, and then briefly describing the occasion. Be sure to use an acid free pen!

• Scan all photos and keep an electronic backup of the photo in the event of an emergency. A copy should be kept backed-up locally on an external hard drive and also off-site on the Internet using Cloud storage. Remember when backing-up to the Internet make first make sure that the service you select stores all your data at its original hi-resolution quality.

• Make sure the location of the photographs are known by more than one person, the key data for every photo is to identify the Who?, Where? & When?

• Create an organised family book for everyone to enjoy. There are many options on the market for creating hi-quality printed photo-books which are ideal for creating a family book.

 Our old family photos are meant to be enjoyed they are our own personal time travel machines. So lets not leave them forgotten and hidden on old photo albums and shoe boxes. Every family has a photo legacy many simply don't know it!

www.photolegacy.com

Family Photo Preservation