Photo printed on tin

[Mungbeans]

I have been attached a scan of a photograph which was originally printed on tin. 

The original is 360kb in jpg form or 2.9mb as a bitmap.  My few attempts at photo restoration have been rather lame (to say the least), so I would appreciate any help I could get in restoring this photograph.

Contact me by PM if you would like to be emailed the larger files.

Thanks
Leonie

[saddles]

Hello.

Can you obtain another scan at 600dpi, if so it would
help in trying to restore/repair or enhance the image.

Mike.

[PrueM]

Blimey Leonie!!! 
I just read the caption that goes with that photo - the owner is SOOOOOOO lucky the picture didn't fracture right off the metal when he hammered it flat!    PLEEEEEEEAAAAAAASSSSE tell him to keep hammers away from photos, even ones on metal.  You had me - a photo conservator - in conniptions there for a while   

We can probably do a reasonable job on this but it would definitely help to have a higher-res scan to start with, if that's possible.

Cheers
Prue

[tomkin]

Hi Prue,
              Well that had me reaching for the dictionary.
I don't think that I've seen that word before.
Fun and education at the same time.Love it.
Tomkin

[Mungbeans]

I've never seen the original.  I imagine its located in Canberra (where my distant cousin lives).  From what I can gather he photographed it after hammering it flat. 

The bitmap I have is larger than the photo on my blog and is rather more detailed - its 3mb - and can be dowloaded from here:
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/price/cooper_unidentified.bmp

[PrueM]

Hi Leonie,

The bmp isn't too bad, I will have a go at it but hopefully someone else who's better at cleanups will also attempt it. 

Unfortunately, tintypes lack alot of tonal information so it will be difficult to get much out of the black and highlight areas in your pic, but at least it might come out looking a bit neater.

I live in Canberra so I might pop round and take the hammer off your rellie! 

Prue

[Emmeline]

Well Prue - like Tomkin you had me reaching for the dictionary too. A word I had never heard. One learns something everyday. Mind you - I can have a conniption any day of the week  and probably will now I know what it means.

[PrueM]

  see, you learn something new every day!! 

Prue (conniption-free today  )

[Mungbeans]

>conniption-free today

Can't say the same here.  I have several a day - usually male-child related.

Prue, thank you for having a go at cleaning the picture up.  Its a pity that no one marked where it was taken and who the men were.  I suspect they are some of my Cooper ancesters.

Leonie