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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Topic started by: jinks on Sunday 31 July 05 12:52 BST (UK)
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I have in my possession some colour slides
from the 1940s of a Wedding.
Most of the photographs of the Wedding are
in Black and White.
I wondered if it is possible to get photographs
from colour slides.
At the time you could view them through a
slide viewer.
If it is possible where would I take them?
A specialist photographic shop?
Jinks
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The colours are likely to be very faded on the slides, and usually there is an odd cast to the colours.
Best to have them scanned in and the play with the colour balance before getting them printed.
Contact me by PM if you can get to Halifax to have them scanned here (unless you trust the post!)
Pauline
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Jinks, I agree with Pauline. Many scanners have built in (or add on) slide scanning fittings these days, and it is a simple job to scan in the transparencies, adjust the colours if they have changed over time (usually the magenta/pink colour goes before the cyan and yellow do) and then make a nice new digital file, and print outs if you want.
Prue
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Pauline
When you put them up to the light, they
are very bright.
I had not realised from the b/w photos that
all the bridesmaids dresses were different
colours.
The slides have been kept in a dark cupboard
in a box, so I don't know if this as helped
preserve them.
Jinks
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Prue
I never thought of scanning them?
Do you mean on a normal scanner?
I might try later.
Jinks
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Hi Jinks,
That's what Pauline was suggesting; yes, a normal flatbed scanner will do, but for best results you need to have the built in slide scanning attachment. When you scan a normal document or photo, the image is formed by having a light shine up from the scanner and reflect off the surface of the photo back down into the scanner, which forms a digital image. With slides, the light has to be transmitted, i.e. it has to shine through the slide and down into the scanner - no reflection. Apparently it's possible to use a fluro lamp or torch to shine through the slide from the top while operating the scanner normally, but I've not had very much success with this.
Dark storage of colour materials can help to preserve the dyes very well. Sometimes though, they fade or change even in the dark! Colour dyes are inherently unstable, so the sooner you can scan them, the better your images will be.
Cheers
Prue
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I have found as Prue says. I've scanned colour slides, but you need to have a light source from above rather than below. The settings are also different (don't ask me how, I just select the corect setting for this) - the results are generally very good. Admittedly the slides I have scanned have only been up to 30 years old, but always kept in the dark in a box.
Nell
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Hi there
When you say slides do you mean 35mm slides 0r 6x6 slides – 35mm are the same as our standard negatives of today while 6x6 are Quiet large by comparison – two and a quarter inches square and were quite common forty or fifty years ago, it is even possible that they could be 2 ¼ x 3 1/4 or larger.
To get either done by a photo lab would be an expensive exercise. However if you can get them scanned or some kind person could scan them for you. try to have them scanned to a CD as a jpeg: A 35 mm slide would want scanning at 1200dpi to give a reasonable postcard sized print, while a 6x6 would want scanning at 600dpi to produce a reasonable 7 ½ inch square print.
After scanning the image would then almost certainly need some rectifying, now I live in Australia so unless you can send a large file over the net it would be better if once again some kind soul there in England can offer to do such a job. However if you can send it as a jpeg file I am more than willing to have a look and see if I can do anything. Once adjusted all you need do is take the disc into your nearest digital shop for printing
By the way please don’t build up your hopes too much because without seeing them first it is impossible to know weather or not they can be improved.
All the best
Denn
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I have just tried to scan one of the slides with
a light source above.
I fused the computer on the first attempt, I had
unplugged the wrong plug.( fuse changed every
thing OK)
I can not get any resemblance of the colours from
the slideto my scanner.
The bridesmaids dresses are yellow, pink and
lilac.
The Mother of the bride has pink accessories.
The Mother of the Groom has yellow accessories.
Ive just worked out the date 1940s ???
more like early 1960s.
The slides are two different sizes.
One has the words 'kodachrome transparency'
and can be wiewed on a Halina Viewer.
The other slides are much bigger and are glass?
with metal around the outside.
Size? If you count the cardboard around the
outside of the smaller ones. They are two inch
square.
Jinks
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Ours were done (at home) at 3200dpi, and you can see the woodgrain on the church pews when you zoom in. If you can get over here (Halifax) , I can scan a couple as a trial, and then you can see if it is worth having the remainder done.
Pauline
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The Kodak transparency sounds like a normal 35mm slide. The others sound more interesting, are you sure they are all of the 60's wedding? It's unusual to find glass transparencies so late, but having said that I have some of my dad's from the early 50's (but they are only the ones that he used as "intermissions" between actual photographs during a slide show, i.e. he wrote on them, they weren't photographic). Plus dad's are 35mm, not large ones like you have.
Hmmm...haven't helped much have I!
Prue
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Okay
If your dates are correct, and I suspect by the sound of things, they are. Your smaller ones are certainly 35mm and anyone with a transmitted light scanner should have no problem, but as I said previously scan at 1200dpi (or more). The other slides sound like 6x6 and no they aren’t a glass slide – they are actually sandwiched between 2 pieces of non reflective glass to protect the actual film. Due to the physical size of these slides there are few scanners capable of scanning the whole negative. Notwithstanding the availability of professional scanners, with these larger slides you may want to remove the actual slide from the frame (one edge should click and swing out) and then possibly scan only the centre or most important part of the picture.
As for the colours they may or may not be able to be fixed with a digital
Photo’ programme. If not you may decide that it would be better to convert them to grey scale or sepia toned (the old brown coloured photos.
All the best
Denn
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The photos enclosed in glass sound intriguing. I wonder if you could take a digital photo of the slide so we could see what it looks like.
If as Denn says, you may have to convert it to greyscale, they may be able to be colorized depending on the quality of the scan.
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A quick word of warning as an afterthougt
The Glass enclosed slides were as I have said to protect the actual slide from scratches and to keep it flat. but whatever you do - if you post them anywhere please remove the slides from the glass. I posted some many years ago and the result was a packege of broken glass and severely scratched slides
Denn
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slide as requested
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hi jinks,
Is that the 35mm or the framed glass slide?
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OK
see the tab at the top right hand corner? that will click out and the whole right hand side swings outwards, after which you can slide out the slide and two pieces of glass sandwiching it.
Denn
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don't take notice of the attachment tht'ds just me fiddling. your slides being 6x6 shouldcome up quite good quality - better than a 35mm but having just messed around with the web image do you know the colour of the dresses, were they coloured.
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Yes the Bridesmaid dresses were all
different colours
The Older Bridesmaids (4) Yellow, Pale Blue, Lilac
and Pink. The Page Boy is wearing Pale Blue
Trousers and the two small Bridesmaids( I think)
are wearing blue & pink floral design dresses.
The photographs are very colour full. The
Bestman, and brothers of the Bride are all in
dark suits, as well as the groom and both fathers
So the contrast is great.
Especially with the bride being in White.
That why I would like a colour print.
My Mother was the first one to suggest it, and
NOW she tells me she had copies done a few
years ago, and seems to have forgotten the conversation a few weeks ago! (I wonder if you
can get copies ::)).
If she had them copied, I do not know where
the prints are, but I have all her photos in my
possession at present.
Dead Ants - the attachment of the slide was the
larger one. The writing down the side says
Paterson Made in England.
Jinks
and
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The name Paterson is only the manufacturer of the slide frame and I was still buying them untill late in the sixties or possibly even the seventies.
The reason I asked about the colours is because I had a quick look at your scan and although there is no way with that image anything can be sure the fact that the green background came up very easy suggests that it would definately be worth scanning.
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I have scanned it.
I am in the process of manipulating the scan.
At the moment its only available in
.MAX and .BMP files when I transfer to .JPR
I will post a copy.
Bear in mind it not very good.
Jinks
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A couple of points of interest, firstley the glass mounts are still available today, secondly and of more importance, I have just looked at some of my old glass mounted ones and unfortunately to fit a transparancy into those mounts it was nescessary to trim the edges of the film therefore rmoving any relative information that may have been along the edges ( I had Forgotten after all those years)- but just check to be sure; if you're very lucky you may find a date.
Denn
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The glass slide image looks like the old (I think it was) 2.25 x 2.25 transparency film ... which were usually used by professionals .... which I think would also explain the enclosing in glass .... yet another means of protecting that "professional work"...
Regards,
Gary Wilkinson
www.restoring-photos-made-easy.com
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The photos, I do not think were "professional",
the photos all are numbered on the reverse,
but their is no photographers name, so maybe
the photographer was semi-professional....
When I took the slide to pieces to scan, the
two covering certainly felt like glass.
The size is 2.5inches square.
Jinks
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Attempt at scaning slide