| Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Your Family Photographs | |
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When photographs deteriorate or are damaged, there is frequently a strong desire on the part of the owners to restore them to their original appearance and condition. There are many physical and chemical treatments which can be utilized to improve the aesthetic, informational and physical strength of an aged photograph. However, there are many factors which may limit their effectiveness. In fact, owners should be aware that almost any treatment of an original photograph carries with it a potential to do as much harm as good. Photographs of great cultural, historic, aesthetic, collectible or even just sentimental value should never be treated by amateurs. Only within this past decade has the science of professional photographic conservation come into its own right. Photographic conservators are developing many ways of reviving and reclaiming deteriorated photographic images.
The five forms of photographic restorations include: Electronic restoration, Chemical restoration, Physical restoration, Airbrush restoration and Copying.
Electronic Restoration
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Before(left) and after(right). Notice that the more restoration work that is done, the less it looks like a photo and the more it looks like a drawing or painting. |
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Because of today's technology, the newest form of restoration is electronic restoration, more properly called Electronic Imaging Enhancement (or EIE). In this system, the picture to be restored is scanned and the electronic signals are digitized and projected onto a computer monitoring screen. The operator decides what restoration processes are needed and inputs this into the computer. The operator is able to remove blemishes in the photograph such as scratches or stains, etc. Although the technology has been realized, the commercial use is not quite ready to make it a practical form. The key item in the system is a sensor onto which the picture is imaged. While it has adequate resolving power, it is not as good as that of a good photograph. Progress is being made, however, into producing better sensors with better resolution. A principal problem with EIE is the cost of the equipment. System costs are so high that to produce an image the user would find the costs to be prohibitive. Therefore it is not practical at this time to consider this form of restoration for the average person's use.
Chemical
Restoration
Chemical restoration of black and white photographs is based on redevelopment or
bleaching and redevelopment. A badly faded black and white photograph may have
an image that is barely visible. Technically, what has happened is that the
metallic silver in the image has been oxidized to form a colorless silver
compound. If the faded photograph is redeveloped in a black and white developer,
the silver salts in the faded areas will be reconverted to silver metal and the
resulting image may be a considerable improvement over the faded original. A
more effective chemical restoration procedure is to bleach the faded image and
then redevelop. There are a couple of serious reservations about using the
bleach and redevelopment procedure. First and foremost is the possibility of
causing degradation of the old emulsion to the extent that the photograph is
irreversibly damaged. Second, bleach and redevelopment irreversibly changes the
original. You should never allow any work to be done on your photograph that
cannot be undone. Only Photographic Conservators should be allowed to work on an
original photograph.
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Images © 2000 David Mishkin. All Rights Reserved.
