estoring old, often damaged photographs, long a difficult and expensive undertaking, has become quite a bit easier with the rise of the home computer. Using primarily Paint Shop Pro®, I have been able to refurbish severely damaged photographs, and even rescue images from photos that were overexposed to begin with. It takes time, a little bit of talent, and A LOT of patience! Here, however, are some of the results, which I present as further incentive to those family members who have old pictures that might add to our archive, but have not yet actually decided to scan them or allow me to do so for them. Hope this will tempt you!
These are not thumbnails. To get a better look, you may select "View Image" on your bowser for any of these photos.
This photo (of Benjamin Harrison Beckerman), taken in about 1910, has been torn (broken, really, since it is on cardboard!) and there is a break up the middle. It has faded with age somewhat. At first, I thought to restore it to life in a pure black-and-white, but I found that it lost some of its feeling in that tone, and so I restored the sepia after the cracks had been mended.
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Sometimes an original roll of film is all overexposed as is the case here. All of the pictures from this roll (taken in Miami in July, 1946) looked much as this one (left). The particular print here (Ruth Leah Beckerman and Eleanor Arlene Beckerman) also had stains on it which had to be removed. With luck and, again, a lot of patience, the results are something like these (right), and in fact, most of this set of pictures has been restored. |
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Sometimes the black and white is better than the sepia, as in this one. This photo, from about 1903 (Arthur Edward Beckerman) was quite faded, and had stains on it that made it difficult to restore; the more his features came up, the more the stains did. Here's what I have on this to date:
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Often the restoration is not such a difficult process, but even a picture that seems pretty well-preserved benefits from a little touch-up. This one, for having been taken in 1918, was in great shape when I found it, but I gave it a tweak or two just to see what would come up and was pleased that I had.. |
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This one was a toughie. The original photo, as you can see, was WAY overexposed, and for some reason (Demonic possession? Divine intervention? Channeling Drew Barrymore?) the child (Roberta Marlene Springer) reflected all of the light of the flashbox. The reflection blocks much of the woman holding her as well (Rae Springer Leder). This was a combination of patience, creativity, patience, stubbornness, and more patience. The faces in the restored images are not pasted in; they are the original data that was in the photograph, obscured by the reflection and glare. Some of the background has been reconstructed.
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I sat and stared at this one for weeks before daring to begin. Where does one start on a photo so badly damaged? Let this photo be a lesson to those who take photos with no negative and put them in wallets! Anyway, little by little, I removed the cracks and tears from faces and suits (Sidney, Jack, and Moe Springer), and eventually even removed the glare in the upper left hand quadrant. |
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