What filter/process was used.

[Nacoya]

I was given a number of photos from the 1920-1930's (i'm guessing here, but as they are of my grans brothers etc that must be close). I was told I was getting some old sepia photos and could i scan and copy them etc etc.
Now these images look more salmon coloured (pink ish) than brown. So what filter or process was used. OR am I confused and they are representative of early 20th century sepia. The reason I ask is that i was going to retouch and recolour them as sepia in photoshop, but when i did they look nothing like the originals.
I have a few and they all exhibit the same tint and were taken by Barr Bros (whomever they were).

I've added just one that I scanned and resized for this post. I haven't touched it other than that.

cheers,

nacoya

[MaryLynn]

Nacoya, I'm not an expert by any means on the process that might have been used but I've encountered the pinkish cast in photos as early as the 1870s. A couple of sources on historical photographs say this variation of tone was common in salted paper prints and albumen prints.

Photographers also toned images with a solution of gold or platinum to improve color and permanence.

Perhaps some of the photographers on this forum can be more definitive.

Great picture!

MaryLynn

[Ken Fournelle]

Nacoya,

What you might try is to scan the prints in RGB into Photoshop. Convert them to B&W, ( there are many ways, tutorials to do this), and then sepia tone them yourself.

In the Tutorials section of Retouch Pro there is a tutorial on Toning Black & White So That it is pretty...... This is in The Basics section. This is the method I use and am very happy with it.

Ken

[Ken Fournelle]

Here is an example:

[Nacoya]

Hi folks,

thanks for the replies.
MaryLynn that's great info, very interesting, thanks.

Ken, that's actually what i did to the first of the photos i scanned. I ran a D-MAX B&W action to make an emulsified black and white image then cropped and cleaned a bit (though with these photos there is not much to do other than remove blemishes in the original scan). Then i just applied a standard PS sepia filter. That's when i realised that the originals were not sepia as I knew it.

This was the first image (attached) I have decided to just scan , crop, tidy up and slightly enlarge (using 110% method) and reprint as original colour. But i've attached the original and my sepia standard PS version. I did find a number of other filters and actions for sepia, each a little different from the others. But as i say , as the originals i now know aren't sepia then i decided not to convert them.

[cinderella]

Interesting discussion. Why wouldn't you keep the original color if it is determined that it is accurate in the time period????

What is 110% method of enlarging?