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Post by michelb on Mar 18, 2020 21:11:28 GMT
I'd like to tell about the oldest photography testimony of my family heritage. We found a box with a glass plate. On closer examination, it appeared to be a glass plate, an old negative. First look shows a rather dirty plate, suggesting a crowd with musicians. Must be very old, maybe 100 years old? It's a typical 16 x 24 cm dimension. I hoped to get a good scan, but I only got a very bad and awfully blurred result. Not useable despite all my editing efforts. Realizing that just look at that plate before a flat white background did show a sharp and contrasty result, I just tested to apply the plate over a white screen on my display with one finger and to shoot one handed with my smartphone. Here is the result.  After inversion and distortion correction:  I would gladly welcome suggestions about the best practical way to use that plate (That's twenty years i have packed anything in my silver darkroom, a contact print is no longer and option...) |
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Post by blackmutt on Mar 18, 2020 21:17:40 GMT
I have no suggestion, but what a treasure!!
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xairbusdriver
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 109 
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by xairbusdriver on Mar 18, 2020 21:26:23 GMT
Looks great to me!  Maybe try a couple of pieces of 'painters' tape to hold the negative to the monitor... Not sure why the scanner didn't work, you did have the emulsion side toward the glass, right? I've used scanners to duplicate slides, even the original negative colored film. This might be a good time to go through those; nothing pressed involving leaving the house!  |
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Post by michelb on Mar 19, 2020 8:41:12 GMT
Looks great to me! Maybe try a couple of pieces of 'painters' tape to hold the negative to the monitor... Not sure why the scanner didn't work, you did have the emulsion side toward the glass, right? I've used scanners to duplicate slides, even the original negative colored film. This might be a good time to go through those; nothing pressed involving leaving the house! I did have the emulsion side toward the glass... I just tried the other way. Surprise! much better result, though not as sharp as my previous attempt and with a lot of dirt visible. I don't understand why. I might also turn my 23" display horizontally and use my macro lens on the Canon. My guess is that this photo was taken just after WW1. It's not impossible that my grandfather was playing the clarinet... |
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Post by cats4jan on Mar 19, 2020 13:21:02 GMT
Amazing photo. You were very clever finding a way to make this photo from your negative.
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Post by kdcintx on Mar 19, 2020 20:47:02 GMT
It looks great! I had a very old negative on a metal plate that I scanned and inverted and it turned out very good. The only thing I can suggest is to play with levels a bit to see if you can improve the contrast without loosing detail in the highlights and shadows. You did a good job.
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pontiac1940
CE Members
Posts: 6,361
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by pontiac1940 on Mar 20, 2020 4:20:55 GMT
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Post by michelb on Mar 20, 2020 13:41:20 GMT
"La nuit porte conseil"
This idea came to me last night: why not use a laptop as a light table?
No problem to sit the glass plate in front of a white display, or even to lay flat the display and just put the glass plate on it?
Less acrobatic than trying to keep the plate with one finger and shooting one-handed with the smartphone. I am really amazed at what I can do with the smartphone, especially with close-ups.
Thanks all for your other ideas.
I have since tried the negative conversion with the ACR module: I highly recommend it. Otherwise, my favourite process would be a B/W gradient map adjustment layer (non-destructive and re-useable).
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