Culling archival photos, enlarging, framing (questions!)

[tgrant]

Hello,

I'm brand new to this forum, and am looking for some input into a project that I'm working on at my job. We've moved into a new office, and I've been tasked with looking for old pictures of the neighbourhood and the building we work in here in Toronto. It's a pretty exciting project for me, as I love finding out about the history of a place and the people who used to work here (it was an old tannery back in the 1800s).

My question really stems from how to go about this. We're looking at about 20-25 pictures for the office, ranging from architectural plans and maps to old black and whites of the streets. I'm planning on taking a trip to the archives to look at pictures that are already available for viewing on the internet, but I want to make sure that they look nice and crisp. How would you suggest going about this? A lot of the pictures I've gathered have been from the Internet, and I'm worried about the quality that I'll be able to get from them. We're looking at 18x24 for most of the pictures other than a few larger pieces.

Would you recommend taking pictures from the Internet, as long as the resolution is okay? I'm not worried about the archived pics, as they will be high quality scans to then get printed off and framed. Finally, what sort of printing should I go for? High quality glossy photo?

I really appreciate any and all input on this.

Thanks so much in advance!

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

Keep in mind that just because a photo can be found on the internet, does not mean that you have the right (copyright) to print it. To keep it legal, you would have to get permission from whoever owns the copyright...which may be very hard as it's likely that many of the photos are posted on the internet illegally (without permission) in the first place.

If you can discern the photographer, you might try to contact them...or their family or business...in the case of older photos.

You might have some luck with the city archives or maybe a historical society, as they might actually own the photos and might be willing to let you print them (or sell you a copy) etc.

As for the printing, I'd suggest using a good pro lab. Consider the finishing you will have (framing etc.) and ask their opinion. I don't think that 'glossy' is necessarily the best choice for framed prints, for example. Maybe contact a good frame shop and talk to them about it as well.
You might also consider other options, such as mounted prints etc.