Friday, January 26, 2007

More Photo Restoration

I have been working with some more old photos. The first, below, isn't really all that old. I took that shot in 1973 when Butterfly was about a year old. This one was my effort from start to finish as I developed the negative and printed the picture myself. I only experimented with my own developing briefly. I really like the photo, but the original had some stains and scratches, so it was a good candidate for restoration. If you do go to see the original, you'll see a lot of darkness on her face that was very hard to get rid of. It was very painstaking work, but I like the result.

Once I had got this photo to where it is now (see below), I went through the exercise of tearing it up, scanning the torn pieces and putting it back together digitally. Some of you who dabble in photos might like to view the various steps here on Flickr.

Ch6 Baby Restored

The photo below is another of my grandfather and his fellow construction and/or bricklaying workers. I posted a similar photo taken in Montreal in an earlier blog, but this one was taken in New York City in the early 1920s. The family moved there for a few years because that's where grandpa found work. They later moved back to Montreal. My mother wondered why they did, but I expect it was for family reasons, and I wouldn't be here if they hadn't come back. There likely would have been another human in my place, but it wouldn't have been me.

This restoration was mostly about getting rid of the penned notes that were on the original. Strangely enough, most of them disappeared just by using the blue channel. Most of the marks didn't show up there but only on the red and green channels, so I discarded those. I include this information for some of you who will know what I'm talking about. Don't fret if you don't; it's not important. The original is also on Flickr.

Ch6 Grandfather Restored

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a sweet Butterfly. It has to be satisfying to 'fiddle' so successfully with this process.

Ginnie said...

Both of your pictures are wonderful. In answer to your comment on my blog re; used book stores...where's your sense of adventure? I'll bet you'd find some treasures in that scary place!

Anonymous said...

Good job on those!

Wish I could go back in time and spend a day with those guys.

~Kila

Anonymous said...

Nice work. Your daughter is absolutely gorgeous.

-epm said...

AC,

I've been following your restoration work on Flickr... I'm impressed! You're really developing quite a fine eye... I can't seem to find the right words, but your digital restorations increasingly don't look like digital restorates. I mean that in a good way, if you follow.

Valerie - Still Riding Forward said...

You have so much talent! Keep on it!

How's the fiddle coming?

Gina said...

Very nice, both of them!

Anonymous said...

Nice work! You seem to be "developing" (pun intended a real knack for restoring photos.

Anonymous said...

Impressive work, A/C. Such clarity in the restored photos. The one of your daughter is simply lovely.

I have been dabbling a little with fixing a few photos but not to the depth that you have. It blows me away.. what can be done.

Leann said...

I been going throughsome of my black and white pics.and skaning them so I can put some on my blog.I was asked to do what Erik aka"the very nice man" asked us to do.we are all going to put black and white pic,s of when we were kids.on our blogs on monday.you sure do good work redoing those pictures.mine dont come out that good.your daughters picture is sweet.

Anonymous said...

That's very impressive. She is a cutie. I love the old photo. Reminds me of some in my albums.
I also love this song. What is it?

Beccy said...

You did a fantastic job restoring the old photos. Your daughter's beautiful.

PBS said...

What a beautiful little girl! Both pictures are nice, I really enjoy your photo work!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! And your post-processing is fabulous too.