Restoring stills - possible?

[Simes]

I am about to receive a few stills that have seen better days.  I am wondering if these can be restored in the way posters can?

If so, can people direct me to a restorer, or, if I was to attempt myself, what sort of steps are required, and what sort of materials and filler is bought?

A quick search highlighted the below but I dunno if there are recommendations.

http://www.image-restore.co.uk/

Cheers.

[erik1925]

Hey Simes,

I inquired once, to Mario Cueva of Lumiere Poster Restoration, if photos could be restored. He said that they can be and he also does that kind of work. I had found a large, 19th C silver albumin print that had a few small areas that could be retouched ( http://www.allposterforum.com/index.php/topic,10174.0.html ) and showed it to Mario one day when he was here.

He didnt explain his technique but said he does do this kind of work. I havent had anything done to my photo yet but may at some point, down the road.

[Simes]

Many thanks sir.

Appreciated.

[jayn_j]

a lot of this depends on a bunch of factors.  Does the original paper of the print need to remain?  Was the print matte or glossy? Are we removing scratches and dust, or recreating major sections of photographic image.

My parents owned a portrait studio and did a lot of this sort of work.  The general approach was to create an inter-negative, do retouching/restoration on it and then create a new print.  These days, I would digitize in high resolution, use photoshop for the restoration and then create a negative to be printed. 

However, no portion would then be the original stock.  In addition, there was a fundamental change in photographic paper in the late 1970s where they transitioned rfrom a paper backing to a polycarbonate (plastic) backing.  You cannot get the paper backing anymore.

It is possible to do the restoration of the original paper on matte finished photographs.  It is much more difficult to do so on glossy finished stock as the image you are manipulating is hiding under a clear coating that needs to be removed and then restored.  On the matte finish, you can use retouching pencils to hide spots or other defects and then coat with a matte protective spray.  It really isn't possible with glossy stock.

[Simes]

Many thanks Jay and Charlie.

The information from both was fascinating.  I am to receive three press stills. They are from the International set for Moonraker.  This is a different set from the US set that numbered to 24 in that;

a) The identifier was M-Int-##, as opposed to the US set which was just M-##
b) The International set has numbers up to the 100's, of which currently I have around 60
c) The International set was truly international in that I am picking these things up, mostly from the US, but also Spain, Argentina and, as above, Lebanon.

The still choices are probably not as accomplished as the US set, and the paper is of a slightly thicker stock.  I do not know my way around photo paper stocks other than to quote 'single weight, silver gelatine'.  Copies for instance seem to be of a heavier stock.

Anyway, the stills coming from Lebanon appear to have been used for display as opposed to just newspaper reference.  Maybe as an alternative to lobby cards.  Many pinholes, some paper loss.

It is this I am thinking of having repaired / repairing.  And this is because the International stills are nowhere near as proliferate as their US counterparts.

To be continued.  (If one can be interested in restoring anything from Moonraker.  As, Jaws, it is not)