Another restoration..

[Fumesucker]

Did another restoration today, my scanner bought the farm right at the beginning of the job, started getting hum bars in the scan.. Fortune was with me though and I picked up an Epson Perfection 3490 for a great price on Craigslist and managed to get the job done on time. This portrait is about 35 years old and was so faded I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get anything useful out of it. Apparently there was a small portion of it sticking out of the plastic it was under because there is a discolored strip along the bottom edge, it was a pain to touch that up.

The Epson is nice, a 48 bit (16 bits/color) scanner that will do 3600 dpi in hardware, it made this job a lot easier having that bit depth on the image.

Before...



After...



Monochrome version..

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. proto-B52's!... seriously, though

good work

[Fumesucker]

6. Love Shack, eh?

Thank you.

[Mira]

2. Isn't technology in the right hands wonderful. I am so very impressed. If this is

what you do for a living I will put you in my files as a resource.
WOW
I have photos my Dad took, slides, in a metal case.
He was a gifted photographer, he had a Leica and shot b/w and many of his photos got published.

I plan to open that case, and see what can be done.
You are inspiring me.

In my work I have learned : It's all in the scan. But you must have the knowledge and the equipment, and what you accomplished is phenomenal.

[Fumesucker]

7. Thank you..

I'm retired, I do this for walking around money and to help my daughter build her photography business.

I really get a kick out of bringing people's memories back to life partly because I lost almost all my own family photos in a house fire not long after my parents died many years ago. The look on their faces when they see a faded and damaged heirloom restored is very rewarding. Anyone with money can give people things, I can give people their memories back to some extent, not all that many people can do that.

Up until now I have been taking multiple scans at different exposures of faded images and combining them in order to increase dynamic range, now that I have a 48 bit scanner it's a lot easier since I can get all my levels in one scan.

[Callalily]

3. Great restoration.

You have again reminded me that I should scan old family photos. This is truly something that I should be doing too.

[Fumesucker]

8. Thanks..

I've found that the scanner makes a big difference, more than I would have credited until I got this one.. As I mentioned it was entirely serendipitous that I happened on the Epson when I did, this unit also has an adapter for slides and negatives and I'm looking forward to trying it out on some old slides that came from my wife's family.

[Callalily]

10. Please let me know how

your slide restoration turns out. I'm probably one of the few people on earth that still has slides.

[Fumesucker]

11. I'll post a few shots here from the slides..

Slides generally hold up pretty well and don't fade out like prints do since they rarely get left exposed to a lot of light. Also the frame on slides tends to protect them from a lot of the scratches and other blemishes that negs and prints get.

I'm pretty sure the slides are in storage not at my living location so it may be a while before I get around to it.

[pipoman]

4. Great job on the restoration

That there is some serious hair!

[Celebration]

5. LOL it is a "beehive" n/t

[Fumesucker]

9. Kind of reminds me of Sarah Palin actually..

:)

Thanks..