Photograph Oxidization Is A Challenge To Photo Restoration
Copyright (c) 2013 Ken Mindar
Of the many challenges that restoration of Photograph damage pose to the restorer one in particular stands out to be most difficult. A customer came to us with some 8"x 10" Black and White Photographs from roughly the mid 1940's. Photographs of formal posed wedding groupings that had been improperly fixed, stabilized, during processing. The silver element of the processed emulsion had oxidized badly rendering the image unrecognizable.
The emulsion had by now assumed a shinny appearance. When scanned with a flat bed scanner the appearance was liken to scanning a piece of tin foil, black with highlights representing the reflective nature of the oxidized silver. No resemblance of an image was present not to mention any part of the image that could be restored. Numerous attempts at scanning as a transparency produced the same results. In Photoshop the exposure tool manipulated what portion of the image the scanner was able to define but far from any thing that could be restorable.
Relying on my darkroom experience producing Sepia toned photographs I consulted with Eastman Kodak Technical support and my remedy was confirmed as workable. I would bleach the image as if preparing for a toning with a potassium ferricyanide bleach but in the place of the toning I would substitute the toner with a print developer followed by a stop bath and a fixative and final wash of the redeveloped prints. The improper fixed prints reveled the original image under the heavy oxidation that was transformed into an almost sandy grit once the bleaching process was completed. The original exposure was still present when the redevelopment was completed. After the prints were properly washed and subjected to a print dryer.
They were again scanned with a flatbed scanner and adjusted with Photoshop and the visible image restored with the Photoshop tool chest.
Many examples of restoration and damage recoveries are obtainable at the restoration web site Photo-ER has 50 plus years of darkroom experience that is a invaluable asset when confronted with Photo Restoration problems the excees the capabilities of just the digital age. This experience coupled with the computer experience manipulating digital images brings the best of both worlds together to salvage the priceless images damaged by the most hostile of unexpected enviorments, fire, floods, tornados and hurricanes to name just a few. The team of Photo-ER are intent on thepreservation of preciou memories and find few if any instances that surpasses their previous experience.
About the Author
http://www.Photo-ER.com is a combination of hands on experience as well as educated art experience to combine those talents for the restoration of the most difficult of damaged photographs.
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