Preserving old pictures

Jens Schuetz

Jens Schuetz

Joined
Jun 24, 2013
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4,162
At eBay I found a picture which the cousin of my great grandfather's father took in 1870. He is not in it I think though they had selfies even back then already. He just took the picture as the stamp with his name and address proves. I don't Google my family names that often (maybe twice a year) and I bet one of his pictures isn't auctioned everyday. Talk about coincidence. In fact I couldn't find any other picture in the web with his stamp on it. I didn't even know he was a photographer but the address is right and the name too and checking old books from back then confirmed his profession.

Of course I bought it right away for just $10 and it's kind of special to me. Might even be the only one left of his work.

Now how do I preserve it besides the obvious, like making a digital copy?
Framing would be nice but I heard chemicals from the frame might alter the picture. Encasing it with plastic sounds pretty good but again chemicals might leech out of it. Maybe I put it into mylar like old coins?

Thanks for any cool ideas.
 
Jens, Here is a photo I recently inherited of my Grandfather. John Henry Bookout. It is the only photograph of him in uniform back during the Great war in 1917. He was wounded by a machine gun in the Argonne Forest and then gassed. Could not leave hospital in France until 1919. Was disabled the rest of his life. Next to it is how I repaired it.
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He is looking great in his uniform. I like how you restored it. Removing the lines without losing details in the hat for example probably took a while.

Gassing and machine gun, only because of some crazy European politicians. Seeing the faces of these young boys on both sites always makes me get goosebumps and think what a waste. Don't know if I'm more angry or sad at that. I like me some Rambo movie like the next guy and have been in the military myself but seeing the faces of real victims just gives a whole different perspective. I'm getting to old for combat anyways but also make sure I teach my kids not to follow some deranged leaders into death.

I'll post mine later but it will also take a few hours in Photoshop. Removing every tiny dust speck without altering the information is hard. I'm kind of ocd when it comes to old photos.
This one would be the oldest thing I have from my family. My grandma had lots of cool documents but she gave them to a museum since she thought nobody would be interested in. Didn't ask me :-( I would have scanned them at least.
Now I'm trying to contact the museum to get at least a few digital pictures of what she gifted them. Thing is there is no museum under the name she remembers. :-o Maybe it ceased to exist or got absorbed by another one.
 
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Jens, Obviously the cleaned up digital will be great to have but NOTHING replaces the actual photo that your relative originally created. I would look at museum pages to find out how they conserve actual photos. There are a lot of limitations as the photo paper and the chemicals it was developed in will continue to "work" against you, but they do make archival photo holders that are specially designed to not add more chemicals to the mix. Just make sure it is certified for Archival.

Bookie, Good looking young man. I see where you got your looks from ;)
 
Shavru said:
Jens, Obviously the cleaned up digital will be great to have but NOTHING replaces the actual photo that your relative originally created. I would look at museum pages to find out how they conserve actual photos. There are a lot of limitations as the photo paper and the chemicals it was developed in will continue to "work" against you, but they do make archival photo holders that are specially designed to not add more chemicals to the mix. Just make sure it is certified for Archival.

Bookie, Good looking young man. I see where you got your looks from ;)
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You are right about that Shav. I have an old picture of my Great Great Grandfather standing next to his Indian motorcycle. It a very old photo that has yellowed and frayed at the end. My mother made a digital copy and fixed it up, but it doesn't hold the same allure as the original. Just seeing the leather helmet, goggles, and old riding boots gives me shivers down my spine. A picture speaks a thousand words... these old photos speak volumes.
 
Bac Si, My personal opinion is I like the sienna tints best on that age a photo. That is a LOT of fine detail work cleaning that up. As with your smithing work, your eye for detail and the crisp clean work you do is superb. My husband has been doing digital photography since some of the first digital SLRs were available so I know how much work that task was. Great job again!

Jens, I am looking forward to seeing yours when you get it cleaned up too :) Can't wait.
 
Maybe tonight if the kids aren't making me fall asleep again. They have their ways with good night stories. Must keep eyes open, mussstttt


Also liking the tint!
 
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Here is the original though the scanner made it more reddish than it actually is but thats an easy fix. More serious are all these other issues. I can't deny that I like a good photoshop challenge and have done quite a few for friends just for fun. Lets see what I can do here.
:-P

Closer to the original tint
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and now off to fix the hard stuff. Will try to do it by tomorrow though these 4 large glue spots showing through might be impossible. Also can anybody decipher whats written between his legs?
 
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Jens, I have been trying my hand with your photo and it is proving to be a tough one to salvage. The bigger the image, the more detail is lost. Both images you've posted also shows different details or lack thereof. The photo below has been blown up to a larger size for restoring and appears grainy. Great fun.
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Look at that table? Try to find something like that now days. Ain't gonna happen.
 
Bookie said:
Jens, I have been trying my hand with your photo and it is proving to be a tough one to salvage. The bigger the image, the more detail is lost. Both images you've posted also shows different details or lack thereof. The photo below has been blown up to a larger size for restoring and appears grainy. Great fun.
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So cool Bookie. Even with the grain you got the contrast so dialed in that I can see more things better than in the original. Also the spots are gone! :-)
I'm almost done with my version but got side tracked a bit.

The address in the back of the picture led me to a scanned collection of old address and phone books in which I found a bit more than 450 hits from 1822 until 1990 for about 30 of my ancestors. Typing them into excel and now matching and completing the information in the family tree takes up lots of free time. Cool stuff. Also now I know that we had an uncle of my grandfather live only 30 minutes away until he died when he was close to 100. I wish we would have known of him earlier and could have visited him.
 
Thanks again Bookie, The way you pulled out the details and reduced the noise is almost like these guys in these police movies. :-)
I went back and forth looking at your version while working on mine. Some stuff I wasn't sure if its dirt or a button or a hair and your interpretation helped. I left some of the fold in the middle. Maybe that's an indication that somebody carried it with them in his or her pocket.
Here is what I came up with. Still not happy with his right hand. :-)


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Jens, this photograph was supplied by a person felt to be non-gratis on the forum any longer--names unmentioned. He pulled out his best tricks for you and wanted you to have it. That wall is outstanding!

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Bookie said:
Jens, this photograph was supplied by a person felt to be non-gratis on the forum any longer--names unmentioned. He pulled out his best tricks for you and wanted you to have it. That wall is outstanding!

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Thank you, I know who :-) and also to you Bookie for forwarding it. It's amazing to see everybody's interpretation. All a bit different but also all great. Good that I don't have to chose one and can keep all of them.
It's great to know, you know who, is still around. I wish I'd have his email address.
That wall is tricky indeed with all those lines. Do you think they used plaster back then or could it be wood?
 
Painted canvas! I have an address book, too. Still at it. Took the last photo and combined it with mine. Must do color adjustment and fill in, etc, but it IS getting better!
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