photo restoration

selling gallery

info

faq

If you can’t find what you are looking for please contact us—we are here to help!

How does it work?

Here at Merrill Valley we work hard to keep things as simple as possible!

You send us your photos

Send us your photos (prints or digital files) and tell us what you want. Remember to say if you want prints of the final images, how many copies and at what size. All our printing is done by PhotoBox, “the UK’s first and best online lab”.

Photographs should be packaged securely and mailed to us at Merrill Valley Photography. Digital files can be emailed to us, or if you can upload them to the internet just tell us the web address (URL) and we can download them ourselves. See the quotation page for full details.

We give you a quote

When we have seen your photographs and understand your requirements we will provide you with a quotation for the work. For details of how we cost our work see the section What will it cost?

If you prefer not to send your photographs up front we can give you an estimate based on your description. However, we will always give you a quotation once we have assessed your images.

We do the work

When you have agreed the quote we do the imaging work.

We send you a proof

We want you to be 100% happy with the work we do for you. That’s why we provide you with a free proof image—after we have done all the hard work and before you pay us a penny!

The proof is a high quality, reduced size version (JPG format) of the final restored image. We will either email the proof to you or we can provide you with a web link so you can view and/or download the proof image at your own convenience. Just let us know which you prefer.

Alternatively we can provide you with a 6″x4″ printed proof photograph, but we will have to charge you, in advance, to cover printing, postage and packaging. This will be at the same rates as for final images (see the section What will it cost?) Note that proofs are stamped “PROOF” and are not a substitute for the final, high quality photographic print.

You pay us for the work

When (and only when) you are happy with the proof, you pay us at the previously quoted price. For details of how to pay see the section How do I pay you?

If for any reason you are unhappy at the proof stage you can walk away and it will cost you nothing more, except return postage and packing if you want us to return your original photographs to you.

Of course we don’t want that to happen! We would much rather you discussed your concerns with us—perhaps we misunderstood your original requirements—so that we can come to an agreement. In most cases any rework will be included in the original quoted price; and of course you will see a second proof before we ask you for any money.

We send you the final images

Digital images can be emailed to you or mailed to you on CD. If you prefer, we can provide a web link for you to download the images.

If you have paid for prints these will be despatched to you direct from PhotoBox.

What will it cost?

Our work is costed in four parts: scanning, imaging, printing and delivery. We will always provide you with a quotation before begining the work.

Scanning
If you send us a photograph (print) we need to scan it to create a digital file that we can work on. The cost for scanning is a fixed £0.50 per photograph. If you have already had your photograph scanned and can send us the file, or you are sending us the file from your digital camera, there is no need to scan and we will not have to charge you for this component. Please note that we are unable to scan negatives or slides (transparencies) at this time. If you have the negative/slide scanned commercially we can work from the scan file. Or if you have a print made from the negative/slide we will be able to work from the print.

Imaging
Once we have a digital file to work from we will undertake the restoration / optimisation work you have ordered, always striving to make the very best of your photograph.

The cost naturally depends on what you have asked for and how difficult that is to achieve but will fall into one of the following price bands.

Basic £5.00—£9.99
This covers straightforward corrections such as cropping to a new size, correcting sloping horizons or repairs to non-critical areas of the image.

Medium £10.00—£19.99
This covers the majority of restoration and repair work, also straightforward image improvements, merging of images, etc.

Complex £20.00+
This covers complicated changes or restoration of badly damaged images.

Printing
This covers the following, depending on your requirements.

  • Fixed cost of £0.50 to cover the upload of your digital files to PhotoBox and placing the print order.
  • Printing by PhotoBox. This is charged to you at their current rates. Check the PhotoBox website for latest prices and available print sizes.
  • Delivery to you from PhotoBox. This is charged to you at their current rates. Check the PhotoBox website for latest rates.

Delivery
This covers the following, depending on your requirements (delivery of prints is covered in the Printing costs).

  • Fixed cost of £1.00 to cover cost of CD and copying files if you want the final image/s sent to you on CD.
  • Postage and packing to return your original photographs, together with the final digital images if you want those on CD.

Minimise the cost
If you send us your image file electronically (by email or by providing a web link from which we can download the file) and want us to return the completed files in the same way, the only cost will be for Imaging.

How do I send you my photograph?

Photographs should be packaged securely and mailed to us at Merrill Valley Photography. Digital camera or scan files can be emailed to us or mailed on CD / DVD. If you can upload them to the internet just tell us the web address (URL) and we can download the files ourselves. See the quotation page for full details.

How do I pay you?

You can pay us online using PayPal® or a Credit Card, or mail us a cheque. For further details visit our payments page.

Can I send you negatives or slides?

We are unable to scan negatives or slides (transparencies) at this time. If you have the negative or slide scanned commercially we can work from the digital scan file. Or if you have a print made from the negative or slide we can work from the print.

What file formats do you accept?

We handle digital photo files from most digital cameras. Supported formats include processed (eg JPEG, TIFF) and RAW (eg NEF, CRW) image files. We can also handle most digital scan files.

If you’re not sure what format your files are, look at the file extension—the 3 or 4 letter bit at the end of the filename, after the full stop. For example in the filename DSC6209.NEF the extension is NEF (it is a Nikon RAW file).

If the extension is any one of the following, it should be fine (it doesn’t matter if the extension on your file is in CAPITALS or lower case).

JPG, JPEG, TIF, TIFF, NEF, CRW, CR2, RAF, KDC, MRW, ORF, PTX, PEF, X3F

If the extension isn’t listed above or if you’re still unsure, don’t worry! We can probably handle it but it might be best to contact us for advice before sending us the file.