Photo Restoration Blog

Posts Tagged ‘old’

From time to time i get some interesting photos to restore. Wednesday I took a delivery of some old photographic glass plates. They came in these lovely boxes. Two sizes of plates 5×4 inches and 7×5 inches. Both Kodak and Ilford plates, the Kodak selling point was “Anti-Halo” and the Ilford “Auto-Filter”. From research it seems they were circa 1923. The subject matter of the plates were hunting trophies. Leopard, Tigers, bears and Boar. (sorry permission not yet granted for display)

Old Kodak and Ilford Glass Photographic Plate Boxes 5×4 and 7×5 inch

What was very interesting to me is that the larger box came with the instructions for development.

Recipe for developing glass plates for Ilford Auto-Filter Anti-Halo 400

The recipes make interesting reading, I like the mention of the warning on the smaller box…

” Before returning unused film to this war-time package, care should be taken to ensure the film is wrapped in light proof paper. “

They were confident that unused film would be returned safely and unexposed even in war time!

Some old and varying sized negatives came along with the package for photo restoration in this envelope. The negatives, still hunting photos may have been intended for “The Explosives Department” at “Imperial Chemical Industries” in Calcutta as the envelope that came with it, was ready printed with the address. ICI eventually became defunct in 2008 after many years producing chemicals, explosives and paints before it was taken over by Akzo Nobel. Perhaps one of the employees was a hunter and simple kept his negatives safe in the envelope.

Old envelope ready printed for posting back negatives

Certainly an intriguing story developing…

Balliol Invicta Football Club 1910-1911 Division one Winners for Southwark and District

Balliol Invicta Football Club 1910-1911 Division 1 Winners for Southwark and District

I recently restored a photo of a football team, Balliol Invicta Football Club winners, Division one, Southwark and District 1910-1911

Balliol Invicta Football Club 1910-1911 Division one Winners for Southwark and District faithfully reproduced to the same size and blue-black tones on Hahnemühle Paper 24x20 inches.

It’s remarkable how things changed over the 20 years from the Clapton Football Club photo from 1890. The shorts are so much shorter and kit matching.  The socks match unlike the disorganized mess of woolly socks and shin pads of the Clapton photo. I guess rules were coming into force to ensure teams looked the part and the kits were being standardized. Covering the knee was no longer an issue because of more relaxed opinions / rules of how much skin could be shown, not to mention being more practical.

Even the boots in this photo look remarkably similar. Although its difficult to see the Clapton Team had their shorts held up with anything from rope, a scarf or a proper belt. The Balliol team seem to have good image here in the photo and REYNOLDS in the front is even smiling, something you don’t see very often in early photography.

I don’t follow football myself but these early photos do offer a great insight into the fashion of the day and its great to be able to compare them. Yet again another example of how photographic techniques of yesterday still stand the test of time today.

In order to make a daguerreotype, iodine fumes are used to react with a silver-coated copper plate to form light-sensitive silver iodide. The plate is then exposed to light using a box and lens or camera and the image developed using mercury fumes, before being fixed in a warm solution of common salt. This was quite a lengthy process and the exposures were very slow, as plate was not that sensitive to light as we know photography today. The daguerreotype process was very popular during the first half of the 19th century, is was soon after replaced with faster and less complicated but safer techniques.

Old Daguerreotypes had to be protected by a glass font and sealed to prevent the image getting damaged, The image itself is a thin coating of deposits on the copper plate and can easily be ruined with a simple finger touch. Think of the image rather like candle soot on a glass tile, a very fine power that can be smudged with the lightest of touches.

I recently restored a Daguerreotype for a customer of mine.

Old Daguerreotype Restored

Several scans of this beautiful little old Daguerreotype were needed. It measured around 5 centimeters tall and was encased in a red velvet and brass case, with a glass sealed glass panel protecting the image. The scans were combined to give the best image to start the restoration process.