Source-preserving slide restoration

Bring faded slides back into view.

BurlyMingo Heritage recovers usable color, white balance, exposure, tone, and contrast from supported RAW captures—without modifying the source or inventing missing detail.

Real source capture. Real BurlyMingo Heritage Base Restoration. Move the slider to compare.

Explore all 12 restorationsHow restoration works
Source-preserving derivatives
Non-generative Base Restoration
Collection-aware consistency
Honest source limitations

See the restoration before you trust the lab

We restore what remains. We do not invent what is missing.

Compare severe color cast, faded skin tones, and a difficult underexposed frame. Every example pairs a real source capture with non-generative BurlyMingo Heritage Base Restoration.

Explore all 12 restoration examples

Preserve what remains

A faded slide may hold more usable evidence than ordinary viewing reveals.

Color film contains multiple dye layers. As they age, colors shift, contrast weakens, and parts of the image become harder to see. A carefully exposed high-bit-depth RAW capture can record subtle surviving density, color, and tonal differences with more precision and flexibility than projection, a phone photograph, or a basic JPEG.

BurlyMingo Heritage works from that captured evidence. We cannot recreate dye information that has chemically disappeared or guarantee exactly how every photograph originally looked.

There may never be a better time to capture them

Slides continue to age in storage.

Heat, humidity, light, pollution, and film chemistry can continue to shift dyes and reduce recoverable information. Better storage can slow deterioration, but it cannot restore information already lost.

A future camera may be more advanced.

The future slide may contain less to capture.

A service hiding in plain sight

Your next photography service may already be sitting in your clients’ closets.

Everybody knows a family with boxes of slides that have been aging for decades. They are often the only copies of irreplaceable memories—and many owners will not trust them to a shipping company or distant warehouse.

If you already own a compatible camera and macro lens, you may already own the expensive part of a local capture service. You handle the family and the digital capture. BurlyMingo Heritage provides the restoration lab behind your business.

  • Capture at the client’s location
  • Keep physical originals local
  • Send digital RAW captures for restoration
Explore the opportunity for photographers

Authentic restoration—not invented detail

Base Restoration works from what is actually there.

We develop the supported RAW or source file, correct color and white balance, recover usable exposure and tonal information, and create a restored derivative without modifying the original capture or generating replacement content.

Base Restoration does not invent faces, objects, textures, or missing details. Any service that may synthesize, replace, reconstruct, or substantially reinterpret visual content will be separate, clearly labeled, and used only when explicitly selected.

See restoration examples and limitations →
Source-preservingThe submitted source remains unchanged; restoration is delivered as a new derivative.
Non-generativeMachine learning may guide internal decisions, but Base Restoration does not synthesize or replace visual content.
Collection-awareGuarded decisions can account for consistency across the broader project.
Honest limitsMissing focus, clipped information, destroyed dyes, and absent image detail cannot be recovered reliably.

Every image has a different restoration ceiling

Results depend on the surviving film and the submitted capture.

Some slides retain remarkable color and detail beneath decades of fading. Others have lost dye information, suffered damage, or were poorly exposed or focused when photographed. BurlyMingo Heritage cannot promise a historically perfect result from every image.

  • Preserve the submitted source
  • Avoid generative content in Base Restoration
  • Apply the strongest defensible restoration supported by surviving image information
  • Identify results limited by the source or capture
  • Avoid presenting speculation as recovered truth

Recommended equipment

Use the setup that works for you.

BurlyMingo Heritage does not require a particular camera, scanner, lens, or capture system. Our preferred portable option is the VALOI easy35 v2 Slide Scanning Kit paired with a compatible camera and macro lens. It is a recommendation—not an equipment requirement.

See our preferred setup and alternativesRead the capture guide
RAW camera
Compatible macro lens
easy35 v2 Slide Scanning Kit

Services

Start with restoration. Add more when the project calls for it.

Source-preserving, non-generative Base Restoration is available for validated positive-image workflows. Enhanced cleanup is scoped separately. Content-altering AI and other future services remain unavailable until explicitly enabled.

AvailableBase Restoration for positive slides and supported positive film
Separately scopedEnhanced Dust & Debris Cleanup
In developmentOptional AI Enhancement, upscaling, organization, metadata, albums, galleries, and extended storage
Explore services and boundaries

Film support

Slide restoration is available now. Negative restoration is in development.

Mounted positive slides and supported positive-film captures are the current production service. Black-and-white and color-negative restoration are being validated and are not available as paid services yet.

Available nowPositive mounted slidesSupported positive-film captures
In validationBlack-and-white negativesRequires film-base normalization and controlled luminance inversion.
In validationColor negativesRequires orange-mask handling, channel-aware normalization, and negative-specific quality gates—not a simple RGB inversion.
Ask about negative validation

Four-step workflow

You own the relationship. We run the restoration lab.

01

Capture locally

Use your preferred camera-scanning or film-scanning workflow. Physical slides stay with you or your customer.

02

Coordinate the transfer

Upload up to three sample RAW or source captures directly to private project storage. During the founding pilot, we coordinate the full-collection transfer in practical batches.

03

We restore

The Heritage restoration system processes accepted images and prepares the selected deliverables with production quality control. Difficult results may be flagged when the source or capture sets the limit.

04

Deliver under your business

Return the finished collection using your brand, your service package, and your retail pricing.

See the complete workflow

Deliverables and timing

Know the project terms before work begins.

During the founding pilot, your written project confirmation specifies the supported files, accepted-image count, output package, estimated completion window, delivery method, and retention period before payment.

Output package

Standard JPEG and TIFF delivery paths are supported. Resolution, color space, organization, and any filename requirements are confirmed for the project.

Estimated turnaround

Your completion window is set after the files are transferred, validated, and counted. Timing depends on collection size, source difficulty, selected services, and current queue.

Private delivery

Finished files are organized by project and batch. The current retention target is 30 days after completion; your project confirmation states the applicable window.

Review supported-format guidanceRead the retention policy

Progressive project pricing

Pay for accepted images—not a membership.

The first 2,500 accepted images are $0.35 each, the next 2,500 are $0.325, and images above 5,000 are $0.30. Each rate applies only to its portion of the project.

Batches help organize transfers. Pricing remains cumulative within one project.

Estimated Heritage charge

$350.00

$0.35 effective rate per image

1,000 accepted images Ă— $0.35$350.00

You determine your own retail price. This calculator estimates only the BurlyMingo Heritage wholesale Base Restoration charge.

Final charges are based on accepted, processable images.

See pricing rules and examples

Built for independent operators

Let BurlyMingo Heritage be your restoration lab.

Your customers. Your brand. Our restoration lab.

Keep control

  • Set your own retail price
  • Keep your customer relationship
  • Use your own brand
  • Retain physical media and source RAW files

Stay flexible

  • No membership or recurring fees
  • No franchise or territory
  • No professional credentials requirement
  • Use equipment you already trust
  • Accept occasional or recurring projects

Expand over time

  • Restoration today
  • Metadata and organization services as enabled
  • Album and gallery opportunities
  • Local family-history interviews led by you

Founding Partner Referral Program

Refer one account. Earn only when qualifying work is paid.

The current program pays $0.05 for each qualifying Base Restoration image purchased by an eligible account registered directly through your code. No recruitment requirement, downstream commissions, or payment for registration.

Suggested disclosure: “I may receive a referral payment if you use my referral link to register and later purchase qualifying BurlyMingo Heritage Base Restoration.”

Current reward$0.05per qualifying Base Restoration imageRead program details →

Straight answers

What partners ask before the first collection.

Is Base Restoration an AI enhancement?

No. It is source-preserving and non-generative. It does not invent faces, objects, textures, or missing content.

Can every image be perfectly restored?

No. Results are limited by the surviving film and the submitted capture. Information that no longer exists cannot be recovered.

Do you need the physical slides?

No. BurlyMingo Heritage receives digital working copies only. Physical media remains with you or your customer.

Can I submit in batches?

Yes. Batches in the same customer project retain cumulative volume pricing. Pilot transfers are coordinated until self-service upload is ready.

Do you restore negatives?

Not as a paid production service yet. Black-and-white and color-negative workflows are in validation.

Can this be white-label?

Yes. Deliver the restored collection under your own business and brand.

Search all questions

Add wholesale restoration to your business

Put a professional restoration lab behind your next collection.

BurlyMingo Heritage wholesale rates are published. What you charge your customer is entirely yours.

Create an account, submit a collection, and add professional heritage restoration to the services you already offer.

Create a free accountAsk a question

Technical notes and research. BurlyMingo publishes restoration experiments, preservation research, negative-conversion work, and lessons from building production image-processing systems. Read the blog → Visit BurlyMingo Labs →