LOOK BACK OVER KELBURN NORMAL SCHOOL’S FIRST 100 YEARS!

I am pleased to annouce that Kelburn Normal School's Centennial history book is now available. Jo from Carterworks was responsible for image digitisation, restoration and retouching.

LOOK BACK OVER KELBURN NORMAL SCHOOL’S FIRST 100 YEARS!

Kelburn Normal School - Celebrating 100 Years is a brand new 150+ page, fully bound, hard-cover photographic book charting the school’s first 100 years (1914-2014).

Using previously published historical information, newly sourced personal memories from some of the thousands of pupils who have passed through its doors, and hundreds of photographs from the school and national archives, it’s a fascinating look back at Kelburn Normal School.   

The book is chock-full of images of the school and its pupils from the past 100 years. Is your child, parent or great/grandparent within its pages? Many have already found theirs!

Priced at $70, the Kelburn Centenary Committee is selling the book at cost, with no profit for the school. Postage ($7.50 in New Zealand) is additional, or books can be picked up from the school’s office for free.

28th June: A new shipment of books has just arrived so if you have not already ordered now is a good time to place an order at https://www.kns100book.co.nz/

We hope you enjoy looking back over the first 100 years of Kelburn Normal School.

Unusual marks on an old photo

Recently I was asked to restore a photograph that had some unusual fine white pin marks on each corner.   I have not seen these types of marks before....

The full restored photo

Enlarged pin mark

The marks remind me of crop marks used by print designers when laying out publications either to indicate page edges or where to crop an image. I am wondering if these marks were added by the photographer to assist the picture framer. So far my research has not been able to confirm this. Have you seen this on any of your old photos do you know what these marks indicate?

Copyright Carterworks NZ

Wonderful wedding photos

Wedding photos are always wonderful!

In the last couple of weeks I have restored a number of Edwardian wedding photos for different clients.  The images featured in this blog show an extended family as well as the bridal couple on the verandah of the family homestead....

Below are the faded originals which contain multiple fine scratches, stains, spotting etc. The real challenge with a restoration like this is to remove the damage while retaining the detail of the dresses.

                                                                                                                        

Copyright Carterworks NZ

National library conservation clinic

The National library offers a Conservation Clinic every two months - the next one is on the 18th of April.  See the following link

https://natlib.govt.nz/events/national-preservation-office-conservation-clinic-april-18-2017

Scanning Lantern slides

19th Century Magic lantern
 projector Wikipedia

Some time ago a client approached me about digitising a collection of early lantern slides.  Lantern slides are squarish glass slides that contain a mounted photographic transparency and are designed to be displayed in a magic lantern projector. Magic lantern projectors date back to the 17th Century and use a concave mirror at the back of a light source to direct the light through a lantern slide onto a lens which is adjusted to display the image on the slide onto a wall or screen.  Early lantern slides were hand painted images, then later the slides were printed using either photographic or photomechanical processes.

Lantern slides are positive images made from a negative. The image is mounted on a glass plate and covered with a glass cover which is taped at the edges. Lantern slide shows were either for entertainment or educational purposes. My client's slides dated from the 1920s and were black and white photographic images her Grandfather used to illustrate a presentation he made to the Nelson Literary Scientific and Philosophical Institute.  The slides and talk were about the hill tribes of Assam in north east India where he lived for some years.

Oridinary scan of image captions

Scanning the slides involved a two stage process - a reflective scan to record the image surround which contained important image captions and a second transparent positive scan.  In the second scan the scanner light is transmitted through the slide in the same manner as a magic lantern. The combination of shining light through the slide; the fact the slide sits directly below the scan head with no additional scanner glass and the auto focus function, enables a very clear high resolution scan.  Lantern slides are encased in glass so it is important to identify the emulsion side to get a clear scan.  Like glass plate negatives Lantern slides need to be handled carefully with gloves to avoid fingermarks and breakage.

Slide Scan

Final image

Final image

Final image

                       














Copyright Carterworks NZ

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

Photo manipulation before Photoshop

Below is an example of an albumen carte-de-viste composite print which features in the Graphis Atlas Interesting Picture of the Week. This image was created using a masking technique which has the allowed studio photographer to superimpose a new background around the sitter.

"The photographer created a mask for this negative and for the negative of the sitter then combined the two images during printing. This technique was perfected by Daniel and David Bendann of Baltimore in 1872. Their patented method of compositing portraits with scenery was known as "Bendann Backgrounds." For more information about these types of prints
check out http://graphicsatlas.org/guidedtour/?process_id=12