Some help please?

EIngerson · Feb 12, 2012

I figured this was the best place to post this. Sorry Mods if I'm wrong.

I have these pictures of very old pictures of my grand parents. I only had a couple minutes to get a couple snaps of them. I'd like to do something to them and make multiple prints to send out to family members. Anyone have any unique ideas that would be a respectful tribute to them? Thanks for looking.

IMG_1868 by Ingerson"PCD", on Flickr

The second woman from the left is my grandmother. This was actually used in an advertisement for General Electric years ago.

IMG_1866 by Ingerson"PCD", on Flickr

Majeed Badizadegan · Feb 12, 2012

What sort of ideas are you looking for? Crop the prints from the backdrop and print them out?

EIngerson · Feb 12, 2012

Im really not sure. I thought about just cropping them down and printing them for a nice frame. I was just posting up to see if anyone had something unique that they've done or an idea they could share to make a nice gift out of them.

Robin Usagani · Feb 12, 2012

scan it, restore it, frame + matting

terri · Feb 12, 2012

Hi EIngerson! This is the kind of thing I love to do for family members!

Can you can get your hands on the actual prints again? You will need a high res scan so you can resize as needed. There are so many things you can do, but to keep things simple, what Schwettylens has suggested is basically the best option if you are working strictly digitally.

Both these prints look like they are in very good repair, so you should not have to do much in that regard. Note that the portrait of your grandparents was initially from a hand colored studio print, which was very much in vogue at that time. Doesn't it look great?? :love: They did a great job for them. Try to get a scan that holds those colors and that beautiful vintage look. The B&W you can leave alone or have a light sepia tone added if you wish.

I was just posting up to see if anyone had something unique that they've done or an idea they could share to make a nice gift out of them.

I can share this with you, but then I'm a bit of an "alternative technique" freak and had lots of tools at my hands.

When my own grandfather passed away, my mother came across this tiny photo of my gandmother in his wallet and she brought it to me hoping I could restore it somehow. What a mess! It was small, discolored, bend, torn, and had been squashed for years in his wallet.

Here's what I started with:

I scanned it at as high a resolution as I could, then cleaned it up digitally, resized and converted to B&W:

I converted it to a negative:

Then I was able to print the negative out onto Pictorico Pro white film inkjet paper, cut it carefully to a 4x5 that would fit into my 4x5 negative carrier for my enlarger. I was hesitant to go any larger than an 8x10 print and I knew it would still be soft, but that's okay.

I made the enlargement, then used a sepia bleach & toner on the print - diluted, just to get a slightly warmer flesh tone:

The final step was hand coloring with photo oils. The print looks better than this scan, I have rather crappy scanning skills :lol:

:

My mom was very happy, and since she enjoys matting and framing, she took it from there. Since I had made a few prints while in the darkroom, I took one and followed the usual bleach process for creating a bromoil matrix, and then inked it up and added some soft pastel color for this bromoil print:

Just a different form of expression from the same negative.

Anyway, this is the kind of thing you can do with old prints. I hope this helps! Let us know what you decide to do with them - good luck with your project!

EIngerson · Feb 12, 2012

Terri, thanks a ton. Those are some great ideas. I can't get my hands on the originals right now, but I could use my brother to do the leg work for scanning. If you don't mind, I might bother you in the future once I get the process going.

Thanks again
Eric

terri · Feb 13, 2012

EIngerson said:
Terri, thanks a ton. Those are some great ideas. I can't get my hands on the originals right now, but I could use my brother to do the leg work for scanning. If you don't mind, I might bother you in the future once I get the process going.

Thanks again
Eric

No problem! I'd be happy to help if I can.

Robin Usagani · Feb 13, 2012

You have really good condition photo!

This is what I had to work with. This is my wife's grandma. This is back when I just got started with photoshop.

EIngerson · Feb 13, 2012

Yeah, I did get lucky. My Aunt has the photos and she keeps everything in prestine condition. You did an amazing job with that photo. That turned out fantastic.