July 19

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

Just over a week ago saw the advent of a new genealogy based social media cyber watering hole; GenealogyWise.com. Membership has gone through the roof! That's amazing!

One of the groups there is called Lost Faces: Ancestor Photo & Albums; created by Lorine McGinnis Schulze. I'll be posting some photos there to see if anyone can date them. In the meantime...

I've been working very hard on my presentation for our upcoming family reunion (later this month). Word has it that folks are looking forward to it, as it has been awhile since this branch of the family has had one. It takes place in Lubbock, Texas (how hot is it going to be? lol) They're also looking forward to a copy of the presentation on DVD. Yikes!

This guy was the last family historian. He traveled all over South Carolina and Florida recording folks in the 1970's & 1980's. I'm including some of his audio tapes in my presentation. I never met Cole Eubanks[Handsome dude, I can't compete]. In this photo, I like the look of the gallery frame. It can be easily created in Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and other image editing software. There's room for text so you can include names and other information.

This one is actually a tintype. As I work on this presentation, I think about creating a consistent format/style for the photographs. I want to see the personality of the subject. Nice drop shadows and subtle sepia tones are easy to create.

Early photographers gave way too much headroom on many of their portraits.
Of course, they couldn't get as close as we can today, with our zoom lenses. I like to get as close up as possible to the faces without losing other details. I like to crop. In this example, would you like to see more of the baby's face or the gown?

Spiff up your old and faded pictures, I say. Scan them, put the originals away, and digitally clean them up - add shadows, frames and text. Insert them in your powerpoint presentations, project them on the big screen, burn them to DVDs and have fun! After I finish my project, I'm going to relax and enjoy the rest of the summer. You do the same!

Peace,
"Guided by the Ancestors"