I have recently been scanning some of my dad's negatives from the early 1950s. These Plus-X frames may be of interest. It is a demonstration of what an amazing archival material a black and white silver gelatin emulsion can be.
I think it is also amazing that some of us are still using the same film (of course, with improvements over time) 70 years later.
He took three of these frames from inside the Parthenon. I remember when you could walk inside, but it has been closed for at least 30 years. The thousands or millions of tourists were wearing out the floor. He used a Canon rangefinder with a 50mm ƒ/1.9 Serenar lens.
These negatives were decently clean but had bad scratches. In those days, fixer needed to be hardening fixer. They may have been scratched when they were rolled up in a tight cylinder and put back into the film can. All of my dad's B&W negatives were in the original film canisters. Years ago, I unrolled them and put them into archival sleeves. Then they took a decade or more to uncurl. But the oldest nitrate strips still curl like a spring.
I cleaned the scratches with the heal tool in Photoshop CS5. It takes a lot of time but the result is much better.
By the way, Athens had beautiful clear air then because only diplomats and Americans could afford cars. He noted in his diary that he had never been in a major city with such clean air.
I think it is also amazing that some of us are still using the same film (of course, with improvements over time) 70 years later.
He took three of these frames from inside the Parthenon. I remember when you could walk inside, but it has been closed for at least 30 years. The thousands or millions of tourists were wearing out the floor. He used a Canon rangefinder with a 50mm ƒ/1.9 Serenar lens.
These negatives were decently clean but had bad scratches. In those days, fixer needed to be hardening fixer. They may have been scratched when they were rolled up in a tight cylinder and put back into the film can. All of my dad's B&W negatives were in the original film canisters. Years ago, I unrolled them and put them into archival sleeves. Then they took a decade or more to uncurl. But the oldest nitrate strips still curl like a spring.
I cleaned the scratches with the heal tool in Photoshop CS5. It takes a lot of time but the result is much better.
By the way, Athens had beautiful clear air then because only diplomats and Americans could afford cars. He noted in his diary that he had never been in a major city with such clean air.
