New to forum to ask for help

[rhoover165]

I joined this forum merely to ask for help from experts. If this was inappropriate I will apologize now and just go away if no one responds. I do not know anything about photography.

I am working on my family's ancestry and have a photo that may be the only picture of my great-great grandfather. I believe it is this person but cannot know for sure without a reasonable opinion on the age of the photograph. It is one of those portrait postcards that Kodak invented in 1880. May I start a thread and ask questions to determine the date either by the card or the clothes and hats in the picture - possibly even post the picture???

Would anyone be willing to try to help me?

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum,

There may be a person around here who might know a little bit about the history of photo paper, that may be a way to find the age.

I think you may be better off trying to find a collector or historian whom you can take the photo to. There may be some way to tell or test the paper to narrow down it's age. As for seeing it on the internet...I don't know if that would help much...but you never know.

Again, a historian might help with the clothes...but I'm sure that is not an exact science either.

Good luck with this project.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

Welcome to TPF

A good place to start in trying to determine the age of a print is to contact the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television (incorporating the Kodak Museum). They should be able to give you some help. Try their website:
http://www.nmpft.org.uk/insight/thecollection_phoequi.asp

 

[Mitica100]

I joined this forum merely to ask for help from experts. If this was inappropriate I will apologize now and just go away if no one responds. I do not know anything about photography.

I am working on my family's ancestry and have a photo that may be the only picture of my great-great grandfather. I believe it is this person but cannot know for sure without a reasonable opinion on the age of the photograph. It is one of those portrait postcards that Kodak invented in 1880. May I start a thread and ask questions to determine the date either by the card or the clothes and hats in the picture - possibly even post the picture???

Would anyone be willing to try to help me?

RH, welcome to TPF. The advice given above by the two distinguished TPF-ers is great. Do follow it.

Also, you can post a scan of that picture altogether with the right dimensions and I can try to date it as best as I can. If you want to post your picture then Photobucket will do. Post a link to it and I'll be happy to take a look.

 

[Rob]

I joined this forum merely to ask for help from experts. If this was inappropriate I will apologize now and just go away if no one responds. I do not know anything about photography.

I am working on my family's ancestry and have a photo that may be the only picture of my great-great grandfather. I believe it is this person but cannot know for sure without a reasonable opinion on the age of the photograph. It is one of those portrait postcards that Kodak invented in 1880. May I start a thread and ask questions to determine the date either by the card or the clothes and hats in the picture - possibly even post the picture???

Would anyone be willing to try to help me?

I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say I'd like to see the photograph. We may as a collective be able to "see" something that a history expert might miss, but I fear that dating it exactly is a job for a dedicated professional!

We'll all be happy to make informed and educated guesses and maybe the average would work out accurate? :mrgreen:

Welcome anyway!

Rob

 

[rhoover165]

Thank you all. I have the photo scanned (front and back-true size) to a pdf file. I have never used "Photobucket" but am willing to try to upload it. Does that allow anyone that is interested to see it? Is there any other way I can/should attach it? It is only 268 kb.

 

[rhoover165]

P.S. Photobucket did not like my pdf file - it wants a jpeg or other picture format. Is there a way to show you my pdf. It is the only way I was able to scan both front and back.

 

[Big Mike]

Do you have photoshop? You could open the PDF file and save it as a JPEG file, then upload it.

 

[rhoover165]

I only have print shop and microsoft publisher. I just tried Print Shop but I couldn't get it to work. I am not all that technically literate. I can also scan to a TIFF file but I don't think that does any thing for me. If all else fails, I can scan the picture from home (I am current at work) with a Canon Scanner and save as a JPEG.

 

[Big Mike]

If you can scan it as a TIFF, any image software should be able to save as a JPEG.

 

[rhoover165]

Thanks Mike. That worked. I now have a JPEG. I will try again in Photobucket. Can everyone read it there? Am I able to attach it to this post?

 

[rhoover165]

Okay. I think I did it. This should be the link:

http://photobucket.com/albums/f159/rhoover165/

Would someone let me know if it worked?

Rose

 

[Big Mike]

 

[rhoover165]

Now I know why they call you Big Mike.

Thanks!

 

[rhoover165]

P.S. The actual post card is 3-1/4 x 5-1/4. The photo within the card is 2-3/4 x 3-1/2.