Restoring old print(s)

I have been asked to restore &/or copy several old prints, made by Athol Shmith ( a well known Australian photographer of the 1940's). The subject is of his favourite model, who was the mother of my client.

I have started the copy process, but am having trouble with a chemical degradation of the original. In the dark areas, mainly at the bottom of the print, there is a growing "silver" shiny effect which copies very badly. I have tried several lighting effects to minimize shine, but am still not happy. It occured to me that this may be a product of poor fixing, despite the professional source. My question is; would there be any possibility of clearing this up by re-fixing and then washing?

Any advice or knowledge from others who may have experince with this will make a little lady (my client) very happy.

I have attached an early copy for reference.

Back in the 70's I did a lot of work with a museum & art gallery preserving, restoring and copying old photographic images. If the photograph is in reasonable condition, no mould it is usually possible to remove the silver sheen.

Before attempting this try gently moistening the image surface with distilled or de-ionised water, often the sheen disappears while the surface is damp and its easy to copy the image. If not the silver sheen can often be removed by very careful cleaning with a weak ammonia solution.

When I did a lot of this work the images were carefully checked then the emulsion re-hardened in a dilute formaldehyde solution prior to washing, re-fixing and re-washing, then toning and a final wash.

Copy negatives were always made on Ilford Ortho film. Now I always copy digitally as there are two major advantages, far greater control of the tonality and very much easier to retouch & restore damaged areas, also the clients usually request a digital file.

Ian

Ian, that's great and very encouraging advice. I am copying digitally, but will now present the scenario you suggest to the client.

Thank you very much.

a good way to handle this kind of print is to copy it onto film (or with a digital camera--not a scanner) using polarizer gels on the copystand lights, and use a polarizer on the lens of the camera. the gels are oriented one way, and you can cancel out the reflections on the lens with the polarizer. Looking at this thumbnail--I don;t think this print is silvering out as much as it has a heavily textured surface--which was often done on studio portraits to keep people from copying them in the first place, or done for retouching purposes. this texture can reflect the copy lights or the scanner bar--the way to knock it out, is to cross-polarize, the only way to do it really. btw--if you have a 4x5 setup, ilford ortho plus would work very well on a print like this

For the record, I tried DKT's suggestion. It worked a treat. I have done this many years ago and had forgotten. Anyway, I had all the gear to do it from past events so no problem. Thanks to DKT for the reminder and to other posters ideas that will remain useful perhaps down the track.

erl said:

For the record, I tried DKT's suggestion. It worked a treat. I have done this many years ago and had forgotten. Anyway, I had all the gear to do it from past events so no problem. Thanks to DKT for the reminder and to other posters ideas that will remain useful perhaps down the track.

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I've restored many old photos, some more than 100 years old (w/silvering). DKT described the method I've always used with great success.

The original photo should never be treated or altered in any way, all work is done on the "workprint" (from a copy negative - the bigger the better).

If Photoshop is used in cases where the original is severely damaged you'll still need a final silver gel fiber print, especially if toning or handtinting is needed to match the original.