Costs
Part of Restoration is actually three different jobs wearing one name
Specifying a restoration job well is what makes quotes comparable
Commissioning restoration work, and what to ask before the price: how to specify a job so quotes are comparable, the questions professionals ask vendors.
What to take away
- No prices here. Nothing was quoted for this article, and restoration pricing varies by item and by studio.
- Quotes are only comparable if the specification is identical. Write the specification first.
- Ask the internal questions before the external oneswhat is the scope, and what counts as done.
- Get the handling and return terms in writing. They are part of the price.
Why there are no numbers
Restoration is priced per item, by condition, and no two damaged photographs are the same job. Publishing a figure would be a guess, and nothing was quoted for this page. What transfers is the specification process, which is where households lose money by not doing it.
Write the internal specification first
A professional version exists and is worth borrowing. Michigan State University Libraries' page on working with digitization vendors points to a vendor questionnaire.
It goes beyond questions for a potential vendor. It includes starting points for internal questions about project scope and technical quality standards.
That is the step households skip. Before contacting anyone, answer for yourself: how many items, in what condition, what the output is for, and what counts as finished.
The page points to guidance on developing a request for proposal. It calls that guidance a resource for thinking critically about the request's salient aspects. It points to a video on working with vendors on audiovisual digitization.
Scaled to one family and a shoebox, the internal questions are:
Internal specification questions
- How many items, how many damaged?
- File, print, or object treated?
- What resolution, format, who holds files?
- What is my budget limit?
- Which items get the budget first?
Then the external questions
| Ask | Why |
|---|---|
| Price per item at my actual quantity | Tiered rates hide the real figure |
| Minimum charge or setup fee | This is what makes small jobs expensive |
| What is included in retouching | Dust and scratches only, or reconstruction? |
| Who owns the files, and in what format | Some studios deliver only low resolution |
| How are originals handled and returned | The largest risk in the whole transaction |
| What happens if I am not satisfied | Agreed before, not negotiated after |
The fourth row catches a common surprise. A studio that returns only compressed files has sold you a display copy, not an archive one, and doing it again means sending the original out twice.
Where the public money goes, and why it matters to you
Institutional funding shapes what free help exists. The Institute of Museum and Library Services lists digitizing collections as a supported area. It funds projects that expand museums' capacity to serve as memory institutions.
IMLS lists grant programs for digital infrastructure, including national leadership grants for libraries and museums and grants to states.
The practical consequence is local. Libraries and museums that have received this kind of funding often run public digitization stations and classes, which can turn a paid job into a free one. Ask before you commission.
Our guide to what photograph restoration actually means covers which job you are buying, and the notes on what digitizing costs cover the ongoing side once files exist.
