Monday 7 April 2008

Recovering Old Pictures

This week I have been rescuing some of my degrading negatives and converting them to digital format. I feel that I have had a very successful time of this, with few problems. These are some of my favourite images from this part of my photographic nostalgia trip.
This seat is at Rufford Park in Nottinghamshire. It is in itself a fine sculpture in concrete, and just good fun. The picture is from the 1980's, when negative film was not always the best quality. (I had more hair then, but my taste in shirts has not changed!)
In 1935, my grandfather had this photograph taken of my father. It is a black and white negative print which has been hand coloured using film dyes. It was photographed in 1988 to record the colour, which was rapidly fading.
Poor quality film, is a problem. The shot of a Lancaster Bomber, taken in 1976, has been enhanced using computer technology. The colour and the grainy quality of the original have been rendered to give a good quality image from a really poor photograph, obscured by plexiglass reflections near the camera lens. This type of work does take a bit of time to achieve.
Most roles of film have the odd shot that is flashed out at the end of the emulsion. Such images are seldom printed, but they can be recovered - I do not have the inclination to enhance this photograph since it is a duplicate of a good one taken at the same time.
Then there is the occasional surprise image. This black and white photograph was taken around 1916 and may include a member of my family. I do not have the original print - but it is interesting to note that there are 4 nurses and 4 medical orderlies in this photograph. All of the uniformed patients appear to be convalescent soldiers from the first world war, or so I believe.
I would be pleased to hear from anyone who can contribute any information about this picture.

2 comments:

Robert said...

That ram gets about and looks vaguely familiar. Was the arrangement of the pictures showing the Lancaster flying away after bombing the Swiss chalet intentional? It looks like a direct hit to me... mission accomplished.

Anonymous said...

Trust you to put such an comic interpretation on an innocent association. The Lancaster bomber, by the way, had a mid-upper turret fitted by the time the Swiss chalet photo was taken. The ram is clearly a favorite of the moment!