Post by PeterW on Jul 15, 2009 16:48:22 GMT -5
Quite a time ago in a local charity shop I picked up a bundle of old photos for 50p. Most were the usual dross of poorly taken instamatics, dog-eared black and white contact prints of holiday scenes and so on, but I got them for the half a dozen or so Victorian album portraits. They're all scratched and rubbed, but they'll restore with suitable PS treatment.
On the back of one, also scratched and battered, was pasted a relatively rare trade card for the London Stereoscopic Company which, as well as producing hundreds of stereo view cards also took portraits, held free classes on photography and had darkrooms available for amateurs. As near as I've been able to find out it dates from about 1880-1885. Near-perfect examples fetch real money of ebay, more than I'd want to pay, so I thought, as next-best thing to a pefect original, I'd see if I could restore it.
It was quite different from restoring an old photograph. As well as taking out scratches and so on, I had to copy, flip and paste quite a lot of sections of the tracery round the edge and in the corners where it was was too scratched to restore. Getting the pasted-in parts to line up was the hardest job. It took about three hours, but I'm quite pleased with the result.
I can't remember posting it before. Thought it might be of some interest.
PeterW
On the back of one, also scratched and battered, was pasted a relatively rare trade card for the London Stereoscopic Company which, as well as producing hundreds of stereo view cards also took portraits, held free classes on photography and had darkrooms available for amateurs. As near as I've been able to find out it dates from about 1880-1885. Near-perfect examples fetch real money of ebay, more than I'd want to pay, so I thought, as next-best thing to a pefect original, I'd see if I could restore it.
It was quite different from restoring an old photograph. As well as taking out scratches and so on, I had to copy, flip and paste quite a lot of sections of the tracery round the edge and in the corners where it was was too scratched to restore. Getting the pasted-in parts to line up was the hardest job. It took about three hours, but I'm quite pleased with the result.
I can't remember posting it before. Thought it might be of some interest.
PeterW
