Hey all, I just got a letter from www.hollywoodfotofix.com for online fixed price photo restoration. I own a photo studio and we also do restoration work, but to be honest, it is more trouble than its worth for us and I was curious if I should try sending the pictures out to a place like hollywoodfotofix instead.

Has any one here heard of them or worked with them? All responses are appreciated.

Royce

I've never heard of them but from looking at their site, if I am reading it correctly, you scan, upload to them, they do their magic and send a digital file back to you and you do the printing or outsource the job...seems like it might be easier to just have a list of restoration folks in your area and refer customers wanting that service to them...just a thought...Tom

I have never heard of them myself. It sounds like they work from scanned files you send them and not the original photo which is pretty risk free. If I were you, I would contact them and ask questions and look at examples of their work. What's the payment plan like? What are the membership obligations? Do you pay first? Is there some membership fee? What happens if you don't like their work are you still liable? I must admit it's an interesting new angle from the sites I've seen but I can't see how they can charge the same for all restorations. Also are you satisfied with an 8 day turn around? So I guess what I'm saying is just make a list of questions you want answered and make sure those answers are to your satisfaction. Let us know how it goes for you.
OH, another question, how do they color match your output source? That can be a real problem sometimes.
DJ

I've never heard of them either. It sounds like they have a tiered pricing plan based on the amount of work to be done, so it's not a "one price fits all" situation. (I don't know that for sure because I refuse to register at a site that requests my credit card info before I even see the cost of something!)

In addition to DJ's suggestions about what to look for (and matching your printer is a big one in my book), I would look carefully at their examples and see if the work they do meets your needs. My overall impression is that they do a good job at cleaning up photos and recreating missing pieces, but I think they could be better in removing color casts and giving faded photos more "pop" by increasing contrast. And I'm not sure I like their background changes. But that's just me. I suppose you could work with them to specify exactly what you want though.

They also say (in the FAQ) that their focus is Wholesale Photo Restoration. I don't understand how photo restoration can be "wholesale" because each picture is unique, so that sounds a little strange to me. But perhaps I'm being too critical. If so, I apologize.

Just my (non-professional) $.02,

Jeanie

Found this article:
News article (http://www.photoreporter.com/110600/motophoto_hollywood_fotofix_team_up.html)

That's a pretty interesting twist! I notice that they want .jpg files under 5 megs at high quality setting. I haven't been able to save at the highest setting, so that makes me wonder if a 5 meg file will be sufficient for large prints. Anyone?

Ed

Thanks for the link Vikki. They must be doing something right.

Ed, as far as 5M, I had a heck of a time getting a 8x10" 300dpi good-quality photo under 5M when I needed to send one to Doug.

Jeanie

Wow! I'm impressed with all the quick feedback!

Tom, what intrigues me about their site, is the fixed price aspect. I know folks in my area, in addition to myself, that can do restorations, but we all have to charge by the hour. So we end up estimating a job up front, then are often in a position of spending way more time on a job than it was origianally estimated. I've often wondered how the Walgreen's next door to me also does fixed price restorations! Are they FTPing the files out to a 3rd world country so they can pay the restorerers pennies a day??

DJ, it looks like there is no real membership. It seems to be a pay-as-you go type of thing. What was kind of weird was that I got a snail mail (junk mail) letter that I actually opened, read, and kept! Today when a customer came into my store with a restoration, I remembered the letter, and sent a scanned version of the picture to them. This job looked very easy (but I probably would have spent more time on it than the 1 hour that I estimated).

Jeannie, their policies look reasonable, so I'll give them a try and report back on the results. I guess I can always add more 'pop' to their versions, or make any other changes I like before printing the final version for the customer. I would have preferred to send them a high res TIF file instead of a JPG though. (They only take JPG's).

Vikki, thanks for the link. That made me feel better that these folks aren't totally fly by nite!

Royce

Good point Royce, since they're sending you back a digital file, you can color correct or add pop yourself - usually just a few mouse clicks.

Yes, please let us know how it goes!

Jeanie

Good luck Royce. Keep us informed. I think you've peaked all our curriosities. :)
DJ

Ok..2nd try to try to post my reply to this. (Shortened version cause I'm too tired to retype the original reply)

I got the picture back and it looked good.

I had a small billing problem that was quickly resolved.

I would use them again because retouching is fun and challenging but not very profitable. If I can get a good job for a fixed price, I would much prefer to do that.

Royce