These are a couple of members of Kathleen Brandt’s family from the 1800′s. Overall the picture was not in bad shape. The biggest issue from a restoration standpoint was the staining of the blouse. There were a few blemishes on the little fellas face, some repair work on the dress and the edges needed to be rebuilt.
I was pleased with result. More importantly, so was Kathleen.
Can you see the outline of another image in this print? You can clearly see a cowboy with his hat on embedded on the legs of the man on the far left and the roof of the house running through the face of the woman. More of the other picture is throughout the bottom. The final step in creating a print is to wash out any trace of chemicals left behind in the paper. That required about 15 minutes of running water. A tough thing to do in the 1800′s. It appears this picture was face to face with another for decades. A little moisture forms and one picture “leaks” into the other.
Getting the leaked through image out took a lot of time but it was worth the effort. Additional cosmetic work, like on the boys ear, and a new sky helped put some life back in the final image of Kathleen Brandt’s family.
My friend, Jenna Mills, is an avid genealogist with over 10 years research experience. She asked me to restore a family photo from the 1920′s. Parts of the original image and the final product are below. You can follow Jenna’s ancestral stories on her blog Desperately Seeking Surnames.
This is the top portion of the photo and you can see writing in ink, a no no, lots of scratches, spots and some damage. Removing scratches and spots is time consuming and tedious.
The bottom half has quite a bit of staining and a fair share of spots and scratches. Stains are tricky to remove.
The final product. What do you think?
This is me, photofixerjoe, in Vietnam in 1969. The original print is 3.5 X 5. The picture was taken, developed and printed in country. I am pretty sure they did not use proper archival processes in their printing techniques. That would explain why the picture is fading quickly. It did not take a lot of work to restore this particular image. I restored it about 10 years ago and the original continues to deteriorate. But that doesn’t matter because I have a digital file and several new prints. Please see my Contacts page for information on what it would cost to save your important old pictures.
One of my friends gave me this portrait of his family from the the late 1800′s. Although it appeared to be very faded there was quite a bit of detail left behind. I did have to use some creative license with the background wallpaper. I printed an 11 X 14 which he took to a family reunion. He came back with a request for another 10 copies which he used as gifts for the family.
