Restored Photos featured in "Sure to Rise: The Edmonds Story"

Congratulations to Kate, Richard and Peter for successfully completing "Sure to Rise: The Edmonds Story". It was a pleasure for me to contribute to the project by helping Kate with the digitization and restoration of many of the family photos featured in the book. Kate possessed a remarkable collection of captivating early 20th-century photos showcasing her ancestors, which were tucked away in family photo albums. I digitized and revitalized selected images. Below are a handful of before and after examples showing the damage alongside their rejuvenated counterparts ......

Before: Family group photo - original size 24.7cm by 14cm and damage detail. Restoration included removal of scratchs, tear, dust spoting and stains (See damage in enlarged details)

After: Restored Family group featured as a double page spread in the book 25cm by 42cm     

Before: Ladies on the steps showing the original photo which measured 10.8cm by 6.3cm. Restoration included cropping and enlargement; removal of dust, silvering, minor marks and correction of overexposure. Photo Credit: Dianne Gallagher

After: The Ladies on the steps as featured in the final publication 16cm by 13.5cm.

Before: Photo of Thomas Edmonds supplied by others. Restoration involved minor lens correction, removal of damage - spotting dust and fading.

After: the restored portrait featured as a chapter heading in the book. 

Chemical damage of photographic prints

Sometimes I receive photos to restore that have suffered from chemical damage and it is one of the reasons why it is so important to capture a digital copy of a photo before it deterioates further. Chemical damage includes a whole range of reactions - two common ones being silvering out and sulphiding.

Silvering out is caused by chemical breakdown of the silver used to form the image in 19th and 20th century photographs.  The silver reacts with atmospheric contaminants such as hydrogen sulphide and peroxides leaving a bluish or green tarnish in the darker areas of the photo....



Scan by Carterworks showing silvering

Sulphiding is where this reaction causes the photo to change from black to brown and create overall fading.



Scan by Carterworks showing sulphiding

Over time these chemical reactions lead to a loss of photographic information or unsightly distortions and marks on the image.   Luckily both these images were captured in time and have been restored by Carterworks.



Restoration by Carterworks





Restoration by Carterworks



The National Gallery of Australia recommends that photos should  be displayed away from direct light, ideally behind UV glass and in temperatures of around 21 C and with a relative humidity of 50%.  They also recommend that photos

be mounted and framed or interleaved and stored with archival quality chemically stable acid-free plastics such as polyethylene, polypropylene or polyester. Archival paper products should be neutral pH, unbuffered and lignin, sulphur and peroxide free. One sure way to determine if something is archival quality is to check if the material passes the American National Standards Institute Photographic Activity Test (ANSIPAT) .

Source:http://nga.gov.au/conservation/prevention/photos.cfm

In NZ you can get these archival storage materials for your photos and documents from:-

Conservation Supplies (online and in Havelock North) http://www.conservationsupplies.co.nz/
Port Nicholson Packaging in Wellington   http://www.pnp.co.nz/archival-storage/

Copyright Carterworks NZ

An example of an old retouched photo from the Image Permanence Institute

I have discovered a wonderful on line resource  that you can use to help you identify and conserve your photos.  It is called the Graphics Atlas which has been put together by the Image Permanence Institute a New York based research centre.

This online resource includes examples of all different types of early photos, slides and negatives.  Information about the construction of different types of photographs, negative and slides, the sort of damage they typically suffer from, cross sections and close up views of the image are provided. 

Below is an example of an early retouched photograph from the Atlas, proving that retouching and restoration is not a new, and in fact was used in early photographs.

 

 

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Instagram and vintage - they're fun but they are not the only option for your old slides & vintage photos

Recently I have noticed lots of fashion shoots with a vintage or instagram look.  These are great fun. There are now tons of phone apps and photoshop tutorials that show you how to create these effects – which can look great  if chosen well and applied to the right image….

I started to wonder where the idea came from to add these effects...............

I suspect it is a result of home scanning of family photos....

Old colour photos and slides naturally produce this vintage or retro instagram effect because the scanning process just copies the chemical damage caused to the film or print over time.  While some images look nice, others just don’t work.  A lot of people just don’t know how to fix this …..and think their only option is to throw their photos away!

The good news is you have options.  You don’t have to put up with this chemical damage once your images are digitised.  Any digitised image can be colour corrected and restored to bring out the true colours of the original image . In this photo taken in the early 1980s, the original is on the left, the restored one is on the right….

 

You can also get rid of other unwanted effects - dust, scratches, over exposure, shadow, and even people as in this example from my website which was a Kodachrome slide from the 1960s.

 

If you have some images sitting round home that look like this…

then give me a call ........they can be saved

Alternatively you can send your scanned photos directly to me via my file up-loader!

 http://www.carterworks.co.nz/cwphotorestorev3_010.htm

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