Conserving & copying vintage prints

Just been handed some very old prints, judging by the dress, of mid-victorian vintage. Time has not been kind and they have been stored in a damp environment for many years.
One print has large areas of a brown rusty "stain", the blacks have a silvery appearance, and is very low in contrast.

I have been tasked with producing copies without causing further damage to the originals - Two will have to be removed from their frames, but I will not be able to remove the backing card.. Flat bed scanning and a few days of post processing should produce acceptable results on all bar one or two.

Does anyone have advice on getting the best out of a low contrast scan, and is there anything I can do to halt/reverse the deterioration of these prints ?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.167 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

Don't know about scanning. I am starting to do this by making a copy on a 4x5 negative. No results yet but that's how they used to do it.

instead of removing the prints from the cards
why don't you make copy negatives.
outside sunlight, and even a 35mm camera ( i use a 135 mm lens
and either tmax 100 or plus x when i do this). unless you are planning
on making bigger than 16x20 enlargements 35mm is OK, and you can bracket
your exposures, and if you have filters, to neutralize the stain, that would work well too.
you won't really be able to halt the deterioration other than making a clean negative
and printing new prints ...

good luck!
john

My wife and I use to offer a service to our customers for making copy prints & negatives and also complete restorations. This was before computers as we know them.

Depending on quantity and quality needed, I would use 120 roll film, usually 6x9. For higher quality or as part of the restoration, would use 4x5. I always use my Graflex View II camera with studio strobes, never hot light. Print mounted on a magnetic board on the wall, camera on tripod.

The restoration process was make a 4x5 negative, blow up to 16x20, and my artist wife would take over. She would paint what was missing, for example, if the print was torn.

After she was done I would make another 4x5 negative from the 16x20 and the make the final print, usually 8x10, which looked perfect.

That said, in the area we were in, extensive restorations was pretty expensive for most people. Copy photos with or without negatives were affordable.

Thanks for the hints and pointers, both here and via PM. Making copies the traditional way with sheet film, whilst in keeping with the analogue remit, may be more trouble than it is worth. Now that I have managed to separate the two framed images from their mounts, it makes sense to give a flatbed a go first.

One suggestion I came across for increasing contrast was to soak the print in developer and then fix/wash - Not wanting to separate the print(s) from the backing board, I'm not sure this is a good idea. Would this method work with the silvered out print...

paul_c5x4 said:

Thanks for the hints and pointers, both here and via PM. Making copies the traditional way with sheet film, whilst in keeping with the analogue remit, may be more trouble than it is worth. Now that I have managed to separate the two framed images from their mounts, it makes sense to give a flatbed a go first.

One suggestion I came across for increasing contrast was to soak the print in developer and then fix/wash - Not wanting to separate the print(s) from the backing board, I'm not sure this is a good idea. Would this method work with the silvered out print...

Click to expand...

paul

i wouldn't soak the prints in anything, or remove the boards from the prints.
a friend in a museum told me those are some of the worst things you can do.
if you are hoping to make scans. i have digitally remastered old faded carte de visites ... faded isn't as bad as it may seem, and the stains + tears can be "worked-on" without any problems. you might just want to take a few head-on 35mm photographs of the images, just in case something happens to them so you have a back-up if there are problems ...

good luck!

john

You might like to have a look at the following book:

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE 19th CENTURY: A process identification guide
By William E. Leyshon

There is a link to the entire book in PDF format that I posted in the Links section of APUG:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Scroll down to find the link.

As far as I know, there is no way to remedy silvering out. Once it's gone, it's gone. The book has a small section about this too, besides lots of info about identifying the process used to create historical pictures.

Marco

I did this recently using my DSLR, boy, it was hard to get the white balance and to get even lighting. A cloudy (overcast) day outside ended up being the best. Good luck.

Get Ctein's book.