Photo Restoration & Retouching

Personalized consultation services for artists and photographers — from image editing and colour correction to preparing your work for gallery exhibitions and art shows.

For over four decades, the team at Total Image Works has worked closely with artists, photographers, and institutions to bring their creative vision to life. Our consultation services are built on decades of experience, helping artists bring out the very best in their work—on paper, in print, and on the wall.

It’s not just about brightening an image or resizing a file. We work with you to carefully consider every element that affects the final result:

  • The subtleties of tone and contrast
  • The emotional impact of colour
  • The effect of scale when enlarging
  • The choice of paper or media, and how it interacts with your image
  • The sharpening and detail management required for high-resolution output

This is a collaborative process. Whether you’re preparing for a show, building a portfolio, or producing an edition, we act as your technical and creative partner—making sure the final print reflects the full depth and intention of your work.

Photo Restoration & Retouching

What can we do with a damaged or difficult photograph?

Retouching and restoration are two different jobs that people usually ask for in the same sentence. Retouching is work on a file that is fundamentally sound: colour correction, exposure and contrast, dust and blemish removal, distraction removal, and preparation for a specific paper or substrate. Restoration is rebuilding something that has been damaged – tears, water marks, mould, and fading for example.

Most restoration work starts with capture rather than editing. If you have a physical original, we digitize the photo or film first at high resolution, because the quality of that capture sets the ceiling on everything that follows. Film is scanned on drum, imacon and flatbed scanners depending on format. Original artwork and prints are photographed under controlled daylight-balanced lighting using a 150-megapixel capture system, which reads surface texture and colour far mor faithfully than a flatbed can.

From there work is done by hand, not by a filter. Colour casts from ageing paper are neutralized against what the image should have looked like rather than a preset. Torn areas are rebuilt from surrounding detail. Faded regions are recovered where the information still exists in the file and reconstructed where it does not, and we will tell you which of those we doing, because a rebuilt face is an interpretation and you should know that before it is printed.

We also do a great deal of quieter work that never gets called restoration: preparing files for enlargement, recovering detail from older or lower-resolution photographs so they can be printed larger than the original, matching a new fine art printing job to an existing one in a series, and getting the file ready for a specific paper so the print matches what you see on the screen.

Retouching and restoration is billed at $100 an hour with a 15 minute minimum, so simple corrections stay genuinely inexpensive and you are not paying a project rate for 15 mins of work. Heavier restoration is quoted per project after we have seen the of the original, and we quote before anything starts. Standard retouching turnaround is 2 to 3 business days.

Send a scan or a photograph of the original, or bring the piece to the studio. We will tell you honestly what can be recovered and what cannot. Some damage is beyond repair, and it is better to hear that at the start than after an invoice. When the file is ready it can go straight into printing, mounting and custom framing without leaving the building. You will also receive a high resolution copy of the edited file.

Digital Retouching & File Preparation

Our technicians work one-on-one with you to refine colour, contrast, sharpness, and tone. We offer:

  • Precision retouching and cleanup
  • Colour correction and matching
  • File sizing and optimization
  • Print testing and adjustments
  • Edition setup and file archiving

We won’t print until it’s perfect—and we’ll guide you there.

One-on-One Collaboration

This is what sets us apart. Our team has been working closely with creators for over 40 years—and we’re still just as invested in helping you make the best possible print.

Experience You Can Trust

Experience You Can Trust

Our clients include many of Canada’s most respected artists, institutions, and galleries, including:

  • Edward Burtynsky
  • Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)
  • Bau-Xi Gallery
  • Paul Nicklen
  • Cristina Mittermeier
  • Barbara Cole
  • And many more…

We bring this same level of care and expertise to every artist and photographer we work with—whether it’s your first show or your fiftieth.

FAQ

Many more answers to ordering-specific questions — including shipping, pricing, turnaround times, and product details — can be found on our online ordering site:

ORDER ONLINE

Yes. Exhibition consultation covers print selection and sequencing, sizing for the wall and viewing distance, paper and substrate choice, framing or mounting decisions, and edition setup. We’ve prepared work for the Art Gallery of Ontario, Bau-Xi Gallery and artists including Edward Burtynsky and Cristina Mittermeier. Book a consultation at the Toronto studio or meet virtually.

Yes. We restore faded, torn, water-damaged, and aged photographs, rebuilding missing detail and correcting colour so the image can be reprinted to archival standards. Bring us the original print or a high-resolution scan and we’ll advise what’s recoverable before starting.

Standard retouching jobs take approximately 2 to 3 business days. Complex restoration work is quoted per project, since the timeline depends on the extent of the damage and the level of rebuilding required.

We provide precision retouching and cleanup, colour correction and matching, file sizing and optimisation, print testing and adjustment, and edition setup with file archiving. Our technicians work one-on-one with you rather than applying a fixed preset.

Restoration is quoted per project because no two damaged images need the same work. Send us a scan or bring in the original and we’ll assess the damage and give you a fixed price and timeline before any work begins.

No. Send the highest-resolution original you have and we’ll handle preparation — colour correction and matching, resizing to the finished print dimensions, sharpening for the chosen paper, and soft proofing before anything is printed. TIFF and PSD retain the most detail, but we regularly work from high-quality JPEGs and scans of physical originals.

Yes. We offer in-person consultations at our Toronto studio and virtual sessions for clients outside the GTA, so you can review edits and proofs collaboratively wherever you’re based.

Often yes. We asses the file first and advise the largest size it will support without visible quality loss. If you only have a physical print, negative or slide, we can digitize photos and film at high resolution first. Where a file needs help our retouching team can restore detail, correct colour, and prepare it for enlargement before printing.

Book a Consultation

We offer in-person consultations at our Toronto studio or virtual sessions for clients outside the GTA. Whether you’re starting with a rough concept or a nearly-ready file, we’ll meet you where you are and help you elevate your work.

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