November 9

THE HEALING BRUSH
BY GEORGE GEDER
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column

Those old photographs, the cabinet cards and the tintypes, are the gifts of the ancestors to their descendants. They are the reflections of our heritage and the mirrors of our souls.

Unfortunately, those pictures didn't get the love of technological reproduction upgrades as did books or recorded music. They languished deteriorating in acid filled photo albums or shoe boxes. What to do with that 1872 image of your 2nd great grandmother?

Photo restoration is as much about the preservation of such precious artifacts as it is about the transferring of those images to the latest archival digital format.

In this series we will discuss ideas on preserving the original photographs, making digital copies, cleaning and repairing those images. We will explain what you can do yourself and when you should send your pictures to a professional. Are Walgreens and Sam's Club the professionals? We will have reviews of software and books that will help you in your DIY photo restoration efforts.

When it comes to telling your family history, you certainly want to enhance the stories with pictures. Without photographs and charts you run the risk of boring today's audiences to tears with just plain text. You want to jazz it up with those old images that have been languishing, sometimes undiscovered, for years in shoe boxes, deteriorating photo albums - and heaven forbid, basements and attics.

We're not here to cast blame or point fingers (shame shame on you). To get this series rolling, I'm going to show you some of the pictures in my family collection that are prime candidates for some Healing, TLC, and restoration.

Now you may think that with the software that came with your computer that can remove red-eye, crop, and brighten your photos that were scanned by that $79.00 scanner from Office Depot is all you need. Maybe.

You might think that you can scoop up all those pictures and run down to Walgreens, K-Mart or Sam's Club and hand them over to the clerk who will in short order give you back wonderfully restored and enhanced copies of your originals. Maybe.

Before you jump into this adventure, I want you to pause and think about the significance of those precious photographs. The older they are the more precious. If there are no negatives, they may be the only copies in existence. They may be in very fragile condition. The clerk at Walgreens is going to shove those photos in an envelope and toss them in a bin under the counter by the clock radios. And where do those photos go? Some go to a 'photoshop sweatshop' overseas where there's a room full of low-wage workers at computers mass producing restorations. You may think that after the Saturday barbeque while still licking sauce off your fingers is a good time to crank out those pics and get to scanning. I dunno.
Do all old photographs need restoration? In how bad of condition should a picture be before considering restoration? Let's look at some examples.

Here you see a 'tin-type' of my grandfather, the boy in the dress-like outfit. This picture was taken around 1890. The emulsion has come off in places, particularly on my granduncle Fred's face. It has darkened considerably and shouldn't be handled too many times, approximately 118 years later, from here on. I would definitely scan, restore and make digital copies of this picture to distribute to family members. A good repository for this image could be the historical society near where this picture was taken, which is probably in Waverly, Tioga county, New York. That's another story for another time.

My Grandfather

This photograph was taken some time around the turn of the century and you can see that it's fading. Detail can be brought back into this picture with image editing software. Presently, the man is unknown. I would make digital copies and pass them along to family members in hopes that someone will recognize him.

Unknown Man

Every picture has or tells a story. This one was taken in 1958. It's the only one in existence and is heavily damaged. The little boy in the photo is the current owner of the image. It's also the only picture he has of his mother who passed away when he was quite young. So obviously, he wanted this one restored which I was more than happy to do.

ca. 1958

We all have pictures in shoe boxes and photo albums from the 1960's and more recently that the colors are changing or have a particular cast. Some pictures are stuck like glue under those plastic/magnetic overlays. That seemed like a good thing at the time. We were ordering two copies of everything; maybe we would share one set with a distant relative or send a copy to an elder or cut up one set and get collage-happy. The remaining copies can also be restored to near original glory; and thanks to digital technology, in some cases, even better. This picture is turning more orange as time goes by.

Orange, As Time Goes By

Some of the digital solutions are simple. Others are more involved. Regardless, I strongly suggest that you take the time initially to draft up a plan on how you want to proceed with your photo archiving and restoration efforts. Write out your plan so you have a reference guide as you stare at the hundreds of pictures. It will help you to better manage the project.

Finally, here's a picture that a client wants me to take my time to restore. It's a deteriorating image of her grandmother. She sent me the photograph and it was crumbling as I took it out of the package. Yikes!

Client's Grandmother

In the next episode, I'll show you the results of the restorations to these photographs. If your the DIY type, I'll show simple techniques that you can use with some free or inexpensive image editing software. If you are the 'Let the experts handle it' type, there will be a report on where to send your precious photographs. Your assignment for now is to go purchase a bunch of lint-free white gloves to wear while handling those images of your ancestors. We don't want that barbecue sauce or the oils from your skin to cause further damage on your pictures.

Peace,
“Guided by the Ancestors”