2016 PHOTO RESTORATIONS
I love this photo so much. the woman has such a gentle and loving expression focusing on her beautiful chow. I wonder if this is a blue as the face is lighter than the coat even in the original version.
LATE 1800’S Eton Schoolboy and his chow – Rare set of albumen prints.
These two sepia “albumen prints” you see in the collage are in my private collection. Both of the same Eton School boy with his Chow, in two different poses, presumably from the same photoshoot. To add to this rarity, I purchased each of these photographs from 2 different sources , years apart…both from the United Kingdom.
Eton College, often informally referred to simply as Eton, is an English boys’ independent boarding school located in Eton, Berkshire, near Windsor. It educates over 1,300 pupils, aged 13 to 18 years. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as “The King’s College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor”
I did a lot of restoration work on these two prints using Photoshop to bring out the details, however with images this old and rare, I like to show both the original albumen photos in the condition they were found, and the restored version. I like them both for different reasons
Thank you so much Riitta Ropponen for allowing me to restore your photo of this very happy chow and owner, going for a ride in their fancy schmancy wheels!!!
The left side of the original photo you can see needed a lot of work. I literally had to rebuild this area from looking at other similar cars of the era. I’m not quite done but couldn’t wait to share!! And check out the details that popped in on that house in the background once I worked on the contrast.
Private collection of Sandra Miller
While this particular photo was not difficult to restore with only a few scratches and specks, in converting to black and white and making some contrast adjustments I found so much detail was there in all parts of the photo.I hope to identify this beach some day. Those buildings in the background were very typical on the east coast in the 20’s and 30’s. The “pier” to the right may give some clues.
And now a sequel to the photo above “OUR HAPPY PLACE”. These two images are of the same dog and I’m assuming the man and woman are a married couple. I really love getting more than one image of a dog with their family and this one has such charm and warmth. I didn’t even know there was a kitten in the mans lap until I scanned and enlarged the image and sharpened it up. Priceless!!
Do you see who I see or am I totally imagining things???? Here is an amazing photo I purchased just for the obvious subject matter alone…first the chow…then the car. This teeny 2×3 photo from the 1920’s was very hard to see the details until I scanned it in at 1200 dpi then proceeded to do some restoration work on it. WOW what an amazing image.
The thing that struck me right away was the man between the driver and the woman. Could this be James Cagney???? What do you think????
This tiny photo was a real puzzle until I got it scanned in and “counted tails”. It reminded me of when we would ultrasound to do a head count of puppies in an expectant chow mother.
The dog in the boy’s lap at first I thought to be a chow but upon closer inspection I can see its a spaniel of some sort. It makes me curious if this is a Thorn Lodge guest with his dog. The 3 teenage chows are sure giving him the once over.
When I received this amazing photo I had a couple of big surprises. One, is that it was such a large format on very heavy backing like a cabinet card. Two, when I converted this damaged sepia toned image to black and white and brought in more contrast, not only did the detailed leather harness show up, but some sort of matching head gear was revealed in the process.
It doesn’t seem to be a muzzle per se, as on both sides of the face (see enlargement below) the leather straps seem to lead into the mouth like a “bit” a horse would wear. I see no obvious signs of retouch had the leather gone over the muzzle as well.
This photo was in terrible shape but I decided this would not discourage me since I love the subject matter so much. My mom made me a little dress just like this and its become “personal” to me
I dove in head first and gave this photo a brilliant colorized lens flare effect along with countless other adjustments to bring the details of the chow and girl forward. I could totally see doing a series like this. The photo seems so full of life now.
Once I fixed the damaged areas I brought “Nell and the Dogs” back to life through multiple layers of contrast and highlight adjustments. I just can’t get over that hourglass waist and how tight her corset must have been to achieve the ideal “Gibson Girl” look of the times.
The chow seemed distracted and what a long tail he has as he waves it in the air. My guess is this dog is either a Chinese import or just one-two generations away from it at most. This is a great example of the earliest roots of our breed outside of China
It is amazing how a photo of someone you never met , can speak to you so clearly from the past. It helps that my daughter’s name is Liz of course. The original photo had writing on the back Liz and Fanny 1929. I can’t stress enough how important it is to write on your photo backs with a soft lead pencil…not just on scrapbook pages
Most photos I acquire have been removed from once treasured family albums and have lost their “identities” if there was anything written in the albums to start with.
This stunning 1920’s antique gelatin silver print I restored this week from a very faded original. It was a larger 6×9 image…possibly taken by a professional. This will be a part of my 2017 ChowTales antique photography/quotes wall calendar coming out in early November 2016
All funds from the calendar sales will be dedicated to the expenses of archiving the physical and online ChowTales collections for the future
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