Restoring faded prints

[8bit]

We had some lovely shots of our kids taken by a professional photographer when they were little and bought some nice prints which we have on the wall in the dining room. They are on "edge prints", where the image is printed directly onto fibreboard which then has the edges bound, these look fantastic. Unfortunately the sun has faded the prints a little over the years now. I'm not sure if re-purchasing is an option and they weren't cheap in the first place.

I wondered if there was any sort of product (either a liquid, or a film?) that can be applied to the print to add some warmth and contrast back to the colours? Or is this the sort of thing that can be remedied by sending them to a professional photo restoration specialist?

[StevieBee]

8bit said:

We had some lovely shots of our kids taken by a professional photographer when they were little and bought some nice prints which we have on the wall in the dining room. They are on "edge prints", where the image is printed directly onto fibreboard which then has the edges bound, these look fantastic. Unfortunately the sun has faded the prints a little over the years now. I'm not sure if re-purchasing is an option and they weren't cheap in the first place.

I wondered if there was any sort of product (either a liquid, or a film?) that can be applied to the print to add some warmth and contrast back to the colours? Or is this the sort of thing that can be remedied by sending them to a professional photo restoration specialist?

There's nothing you can do to the physical photos.

First and best option would be to go back to the photographer to see if they still have the negatives/original digital files. You say this isn't an option due to cost but you may find it not much more expensive than using a photo-restoration specialist, which is your second option.

[Simpo Two]

Plan C: Accurately photograph each one and tweak the colours in Photoshop until they're how you want them

[White-Noise]

I can't help I'm afraid but before you do anything with them I would consider taking some photos or scanning them. Just incase. Google photoscan might be helpful it stitches together multiple photos you take of it to remove glare and make it higher quality