Mother and Baby, Cracked Across the Frame
Some photographs are damaged precisely because they were loved — handled, carried and shown to people for decades.
Drag the handle to compare the original with the restored version.
The photograph
A studio portrait of a young woman holding a baby in a knitted bonnet, the two of them looking at each other. Mid twentieth century.
The damage
Cracks radiated across the right half of the frame in a starburst pattern, the signature of a print that has been bent hard at one point. The lines ran through the mother's hair and shoulder and clipped the baby's blanket. Fine surface scratching covered the rest, and the print had gone flat and grey.
The work
Starburst cracking is repaired from the centre outward, following each line to where it fades. Her hair was the demanding part — curls have no repeating pattern, so every rebuilt section has to be constructed rather than sampled. Once the surface was clean the tonal range was rebuilt, then the portrait colourised in the warm, soft palette the original lighting called for: a cream bonnet, brown hair, and a gentle neutral background that keeps the attention on the two faces.
This was a torn and cracked photo restoration job — see more on torn and cracked photo restoration.
| Service level | Advanced repair with colourisation |
| Price band | £30+ |
| Turnaround | 2 days |
Other Restorations
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A Colour Print Lost Under a Yellow Cast
Colour prints from the 1970s and 1980s fail in a very particular way, and it looks far worse than it actually is.
An Edwardian Child Portrait in Colour
Seeing a child from a hundred years ago in colour is the moment most clients tell me they had not expected.
Have a photograph like this?
Send me a scan or a clear phone photo. I will tell you honestly what can be recovered, and what it will cost, within three hours.
