Forty years of family photographs, rescued from one fading shoebox
Retired couple · Montclair, NJ
1,400
Photographs scanned
3
Copies now held
3 weeks
Turnaround
100%
Originals returned
The challenge
What was going wrong
Roughly 1,400 printed photographs spanning four decades lived in a single shoebox in a loft. The 1970s prints had shifted badly towards orange, several had water damage along one edge, and there was no second copy of anything. A house fire or flood would have ended the family record entirely.
The solution
What we built
We scanned everything at archival resolution, corrected decades of colour drift, hand-repaired the ten worst-damaged images, organised the collection by decade and event, and produced two printed hardback books. Copies now exist in three separate places.
How we approached it
Stage 1
Sorted and counted the collection with the customer present, agreeing a fixed price before starting
Stage 2
Scanned all 1,400 prints at archival resolution on our own equipment
Stage 3
Corrected colour casts, with particular attention to the badly faded 1970s prints
Stage 4
Hand-repaired ten photographs with tears and water staining
Stage 5
Organised by decade and event using dates and names the couple supplied
Stage 6
Backed up to cloud, a local drive and a copy held by their daughter
Stage 7
Produced two hardback books and returned every original print
Outcome
All 1,400 photographs digitised and searchable by decade and event
Ten severely damaged photographs restored, including a 1961 wedding portrait
Three independent copies where previously there was one
Two hardback books produced, one for each of their children
Relatives in three states can now view the albums privately online
“We had been meaning to do this for fifteen years and kept putting it off because we assumed it would cost a fortune. The price was agreed before they started and did not change. Seeing my mother’s wedding photograph repaired reduced me to tears.”
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Ready to turn your workflow into a scalable digital system?
Start with a complimentary discovery call. We will map the objective, outline an approach, give you an indicative budget range, and tell you honestly whether Stravix is the right partner for the work.