The Story Behind the Photo: Los Angeles Fire Department Portrait

This young man made his parents very proud graduating from the Los Angeles Fire Academy back in the 1970s.  They had this portrait on their wall for many years - until clumsy Dad brushed past it and knocked it to the ground.  The accident caused the glass to break (and recriminations from Mom) and the photo became torn and scratched from the glass shards. There is a piece completely missing at the bottom.  But luckily the photo was fixable.

On closer inspection, it emerged that the photo restoration and photo repair issues were not confined to the scratches and tears. There was also faint orange spotting across the photo caused by imperfect washing of the chemicals when the photo was first developed.  And, the photo had become faded over time - and some color had been drained away. For a certain generation of photos the cyan (blue) ink is the first to fade.  In some case the loss is so extreme the photo looks red. Here the loss was less serious.

Before going to work restoring the photo we did some research on Los Angeles Fire Department uniforms and insignia of the period.  We learned that the unform is a dark blue, the tie is black, and the insignia is gold.  With that information we went to work and produced this restoration. The work required the surface repairs as well as some hand coloring - including the lips which had become light and slightly off-color.

Once the photo repair was done we sent this "before and after" preview to the client who gave us their approval to go ahead and print.  Since the original was an 8" x 10" glossy that is the photo we made for them.  In addition, we delivered a digital print that can be shared and even reprinted!