This mid-1970s color print was made by a discount portrait studio in a chain store. In less than 20 years of display in a dimly-lit hallway, it faded to a brick-red hue, a victim of cheap paper and substandard processing.

The print was displayed in a small frame within an oval matte. The print has suffered differential fading because the matte protected part of it from light exposure. Although the print was not abused, it has developed myriad fine cracks over its surface (not visible in this size reproduction). Orange base staining has obscured the whites.

The first step was to remove the differences between the oval area and the surround by masking out the oval area and selectively applying curve and tone controls. The oval and surround were brought into exact match and merged. Next, masks were constructed to isolate the mother and child from the background, so that they could be separately corrected with curve and tone adjustments (no "hand-tinting" was required). After the color and tone had been fully restored, careful filtering and local retouching and spotting tools eliminated the cracks and other surface flaws.

A complete description of how I performed this restoration is in my book, Digital Restoration From Start to Finish.

(Time to restore: approximately eight hours.)