Tag: photography

The Majesty of Side-Lit Gravestones

September 27, 2015 / tim / 1 Comment

“The biggest improvement in my photos since I learned to take the lens cap off.” ~ ajmexico

The next big thing, not only in my own genealogy, but also for the genealogical research services that I will begin to offer this fall, will be gravestone photos lit from the side by an off-camera flash. I’m hard pressed to imagine a better method for photographing gravestones. This method produces higher contrast without recourse to smearing foreign substances onto the fragile monuments with grubby hands. No chalk, no flour, just pure white light. Continue reading

Major Restoration: Replacing missing parts

August 19, 2015 / tim / 0 Comments

Here is one of my better efforts. I’m guessing is that this one got wet in a picture frame and stuck to the glass. If you have a photo stuck to glass, you’re better off leaving it stuck. Don’t try to peel it away. You can scan the photo while it’s still on the glass and send it my way for a quick clean-up. If however, you’ve got hold of a photo that’s had some portions peeled away, not all is lost. With some time and imagination, I can set it right. I’d quote this one in in the upper range: $60 for a major restoration.

Moderate Restoration: Creases, Cracking, and Tape

November 26, 2013 / tim

This is a picture of the client’s mother and uncles in Virginia in 1942. The original was small, only about 3¾ inches tall. Don’t let that deceive you. It was more work as my previous moderate restoration because I had to clean a lot those little cracks out of intricate places, like the care and the baby’s white outfit.

Moderate Restoration: General Cleaning and Repair

November 23, 2013 / tim

The original image of this young gentleman did not look quite so bad, but getting up close and personal with a scanner at 600dpi revealed an accumulation of dinge to wash away, the byproduct of many loving hands over many years. The cleanup was not so difficult against the solid background, and the result was worth the effort. This image took about an hour to restore.

Moderate Restoration: Replacing Small Features

November 14, 2013 / tim

I had thought this restoration might be a challenge because the young man’s nose was missing, but before I knew it, I had free-handed him a new one with little trouble. The restoration took one hour to complete.

Moderate Restoration: Cracked Ceramic

November 8, 2013 / tim

The cracked ceramic is a much more straightforward restoration that the weathered ceramic. As before, the original ceramic photograph was presumably attached to the gravestone of this gentleman upon his death in 1927.I took a close-up photo of the image with a handheld digital camera.The restoration clocked in at about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Touch-Ups: Color Enhancement

March 26, 2012 / tim

This soldier is in the thick of his basic training for Vietnam.

Adding color where there is none is a trick, but teasing out colors that are there and hiding is not too difficult. Playing with a few sliders and trying on a few automatic color enhancers can quickly produce striking results. In this instance, I bartered a little extra work for permission to post the picture here. Creases and negative dust specks have been removed.