Michael Vaughan Photo Restoration & Photography

01/16/2026

This project and final restoration are what I consider to be a Portfolio Piece. The original photo had a layer of I'm not sure what, it had color shifted, darkened, etc. Whoever applied it also drew eyes in pencil for the girl on far left and Young man in back middle.

All of it had to be removed. I called and consulter with 2 conservators from BYU Harold B Lee Special Collections office. It was over an hour meeting trying to devise ways to remove the top layer without damaging whatever remained underneath.

Afterwards, I brought it home and worked into the evening. The layers came off. But, so did a lot of emulsion for areas across the entire photo.

I have included a few stages of the restoration I still find interesting. The final results a restoration file that prints and looks better than the original. also, Special Collections asked for my information to add me to their resources.

01/16/2026

05/08/2025

before/after

04/02/2025

A small collection of scan/restore photos. restored images are printed again on archival photo papers (including metallic paper).

This is my 25th year of photo restoration. The photo treasures, artwork, and stories that people bring to me are incredible!

08/14/2024

Growing up I wondered how much money donated to "starving kids in Africa" actually were used on the kids. Thanks to my daughter, Lauren VaughAn, and her desire to help humanity, I recently found out. She made a humanitarian trip with Nurturing Nations to a children's school in Ghana. There she witnessed first hand suffering and joy. The children have been rescued from slavery, abuse, abandonment, poverty,...

As I review her thousands of photos documenting the trip, children missing limbs from Malaria, clean and torn dresses, miss matched shoes, bare feet, and yet smiles. Even a single well worn thread bare soccer ball shared in a school of 400 rescued children. Honestly, it's hard to take it all in.

I think of how much money I spend on the candy machines at work, and how a single dollar a day feeds a child. It's not about counting my blessings. It's about doing better.

Personally, I'm going to make a difference for Nurturing Nations and this school by donating money from each photo restoration for two reasons. First, 100% of my donation goes to the school children, not administration fees and overhead. Second, because I can specify where I want my donation used I'm buying more soccer balls. shoes, and food.

If you can spare less than a candy bar a day, I invite you to join me and donate to Nurturing Nations. Together, we can do better.

12/01/2023

What is your response when somebody shows up on your doorstep with an image like this asking you to restore it?

08/31/2023

During this photo restoration I found...

"A doppelgänger[a] (/ˈdɒpəlɡɛŋər, -ɡæŋər/), sometimes spelled as doppelgaenger or doppelganger is a biologically unrelated look-alike, or a double, of a living person."

Actor Jared Harris on left, unrelated person on right.

08/24/2023

The request was to colorize and create an 8x10 print from a tightly cropped source photo.

08/09/2023

03/25/2023

colorized and quickly stitched panoramic in progress.