As I have blogged for over a decade now .....
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| A Daguerreotype Of A Young Woman 1857 (California Gold Marketing Group) |
.... I have developed an interest in photo repair, colourisation and creation.
This was because I wanted, where possible, to create unique photo accompaniment to the blog copy text. This also helped me from using copy righted material in the main, because once altered the images become new original content (or so I would argue). Of course this wasn't always possible, but even lightly cleaning up, and or colourisation, at least made enough difference to ensure that the image was different and usually better.
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| Daguerreotype Cleaned/Repaired |
But I often just perform these fixes for my own amusement (although I am the first to admit that I am not an expert by any means, as you will see 😀), and not for posting in my blog .... but usually they make it to a post. Take for example the image above. It has an interesting history. In 1857, the SS Central America, also known as the "ship of gold", sank off the coast of the US state of South Carolina during a category 2 hurricane, with the loss of 425 poor souls out of a total of 578 passengers and crew.
The wreck, was known as the "ship of gold" because many of the passengers had been returning from the Californian gold fields, with an estimated 21 tonnes of gold coins and nuggets, and was found in 1988 over a mile down on the ocean floor, and salvaged in 2014.
Amongst the items found and recovered was a lot of gold which led to claims of fraud amongst the investors, and of more interest to me were the
passengers daguerreotype and Ambrotype photo plates. This fairly new art
form was very popular in the 1850s ....
These were still intact even after lying on the seabed for more than a century. They were sealed off from the watery environment in a case, and this and the cool temperature of the Atlantic waters, meant that they survived where modern images would have perished.
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| Daguerreotype Repaired - Coloured - Final Adjustment |
So just for my own amusement (and now yours), I have tinkered with the original image. Just a bit of fun, but an indication of what can be done, even by amateurs like me, to old damaged family photos, using paid for, or even the fully functioned free software available such as Gimp.
Whenever I do this, I kind of think that in some strange way I have restored these long lost people to the world .... I know its not really doing that, but I can't help thinking it.
Actually coloring the repaired image does make them seem modern. So I guess you are kind of bringing them back. Good job.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I know its an odd thought, but they look like the dead in B/W but alive when in colour ... somehow. Thanks for the comment.
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