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Contents of this page:
Be An Educated Consumer Click here for copy of Be An Educated Consumer
Image Editing Price Wars Update 2014
Be An Educated Consumer Our service can be compared to the difference between going to an high-end department store and bargain store. Do not compare apples to oranges. When looking at a “photo restoration service or website”, consider the following: Preservation/Conservation Vs. Digital—You may want to restore or preserve the original, then you go to a Preservationist or Conservator, digital is not for you. Digital is less expensive and presents zero risk to the original. With the preservationist, if you don’t like it, there is no turning back. You may want to ask some questions, such as, will I be able to detect the restoration? Will the photograph maintain it's photographic appearance or look like it's drawn in?
Good Clues, For Good Choices— When few photos are displayed in any web site or place of business, this could be a sign that there has not been many restorations worth showing. If you walk into a frame shop, scrapbooking store, camera or photography studio you can bet restoration is not their main focus. Maybe they are not passionate about their site or your photos or that other product is their passion. If turn around time is 2 days or less, it is highly probable that they are outsourcing. Ask if the work is done in-house or do they out source the work, ask to who? You do not want your photos sent via e-mail overseas. The restoration of any image takes time, or even if it is a minor fix it still takes time for the best results, wait for a job well done. It's a huge mistake to choose a restoration service based on price or distance from your home alone. Restoration services located in Mall’s or independent office buildings with many employees, must pass on the over head, advertising and the cost of accepting credit cards expenses onto you. PMP has been in business since 1999 on the praises of clients spreading the word instead of expensive advertising, by keeping all their expenses down and passes the savings onto you.
Amateur Vs. Professional—You may know someone that is pretty good with image editing that’s grrrrrrreat. Before you ask them to do you the favor, first ask them how they acquired their talent and what was their experience with it. One gentle lady said to us at a convention that her husband could do it just as good as a professional. He immediately jumped in and said “Yeah, I did do it and I was very satisfied how it came out. It took so darn long and I was good and sick of it when I was done, I will never do another one. If you have another one in mind, just pay her to do it, it’s worth it.” Consider the friend that may only be qualified for simple repairs and lacks the experience that comes from restoring hundreds of different kinds of damage. Because they are your friend, it is polite to wait when it is convenient for them, they also may take longer for lack of experience or procrastinate because they really didn’t want to do it, it is work, after all. Don’t leave your descendants the work of an amateur.
Miscellaneous Benefits—
Out Sourcing Restorations (you don't want this)
Weekly we receive e-mails from people that tell us they can restore up to 50 restorations per day, work on an image any where from 10 to 15 minutes, with a turn around time of 1-2 days. They brag about how they have a large pool of people working for them and they will only charge $5.00 to $10.00 per photo, no matter what condition it's in. They tell you, you can charge 29.99 per image making a $20 to $25 profit! That sounds great but we don't want this deal! Mulling over the idea of it, OH! OMG! that means that these people working in those pools only get, let me totally guess....50 cents to $1.00 per photo, I don't know. Wow! There really is slave labor still in the world as we speak.
Original You may be told that a photo this damaged is not restorable because it too far gone, but that's only because it's not profitable for them to spend too much time on one image, so they discourage you. You may have to send it back several times until they get so you like it. That may never happen, you either give up or find another company. If they do accept even one this bad, below is an example of what you may expect to see.
This is their idea of a restoration. Submitted with resume.
This is not PMP's work!
keep scrolling down
This photo speaks a thousand words, about our quality and commitment to the original. The hands still have a photographic appearance, the background looks to be more like what the original appeared to be and the face has not been distorted.
With our photo dating experience we know what is appropriate, for the time period of a photo and colored it accordingly.
Restoring Poor Images Understanding the limitations of restoring or improving a poor quality image. or Already Had Work Done? Let us have a look and we can tell you if we could have made it better! Keeping It Real
With that said, all things are relative. If the image is important to you, it is worth every attempt to at least restore it to it's original state, even if that state is only repaired and not better than the original. Too often people expect miracles because they have seen a beautiful but damaged photograph restored and made better than the original, not understanding that it was possible because the photograph was a quality image to start with. We tell you all this upfront, there are zero surprises.
This image was done by another company. The client was not happy. The damage is gone but the eyes have changed, she doesn't look like herself and they made no attempt to fix her collar. Simply put this image has been OVERWORKED.
The image below is our interpretation of the same image.
This looks more like the tiny
original, minus the damage!
If your photo is as damaged as this, read on click here. Takes you to Estimate Guide.
Image Editing Price Wars Update 2014.
Our Pricing Philosophy in 1999.
It's 2015 now and many things have changed since we first started business in 1999. Back then we did our home work and compared all the pricing and pricing methods of our competition. In our opinion they fell into one of three categories:
Group One: Those who to charged too little and were giving their work away and fell by the way side quickly. There were some in this group that their prices seemed low and would rise with additional charges for every little improvement. One segment of this less expensive group sprung up by approaching companies that had products related to photography a very low price per image and sent their clients work via electronic files to outsourcing. They established themselves in chain stores making one price per image of 29.99 plus gave away the digital image and a CD.
Group Two: Those who charged way too much because they had to cover the expense of having many employees with benefits, equipment and running the facilities. Only people with money to burn could afford to have an image restored, hardly being fair, but are still in business. These customers are the ones that don't do their homework in researching their options and feel like if they are not paying a high price, they are not getting quality work, so they pay dearly.
Group Three: Those who wanted to stay in the middle of the road, to be affordable for most budgets, yet get paid for their expertise and a job well done. This group stayed in business developing a strong repeat loyal client base through the years. That's us! Our prices can afford to be lower because our overhead is paid for, there is only one employee, that's me the owner. Claire Santos-Daigle. Alone I have been managing to do the work with a turn around time depending on variables of 3 to 8 days and I guarantee the work to surpass your expectations.
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With Photographs
Scrapbooking Inspirations and Solutions Handling and Storage of Photographic Materials Image Editing Consultant Since 1999!
California License #97605154
Last Update Always a work in progress, please visit often. We apologist for any long periods between entries some times medical issues prevail. Rev. 06/23/2017
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Wow!
No Great Challenges Since 2011!
Both
fruit but very different
You
may already know what outsourcing is but let us explain the details of
outsourcing in reference to image editing/photo restoration in a nut shell for
those who do not.
These images to the left are some images some outsourcing businesses send us.
This
photo (below) was submitted to us by someone looking for work. What
they did was, erase the damage away, draw in what was lost, loosing the
photographic appearance. The hands and face look like a
drawing. This cuts down on the time but takes away the charm of the
original. This artist did not meet Photos Made Perfect's standards.
This
is the original. It is not a great candidate for restoration because it is only
2x2 inches, not in focus and covered with tiny cracks and grime. Enlarging
it to be able to see it better is desirable but comes at a price. It takes more
time, patience and skill so that you don't see the work that has been done.
When it is completed, what you have is a restored version of a poor quality
image. So the out-come is more time and money spent for the 
Poor
quality images, with will always be a poor image. What you end up with is a
restored poor image. Restoration is restoring to it's original state. These
images fall into our "guarantee exception" policy below. Photos that
are out of focus, can not be made to be in focus. 
