Glass photo?

[Britsdad]

Hi all,
A friend of mine has this old photograph on what looks like very thin glass (about 1/2 mm thick) it almost looks like mica. He's scanned it, but in greyscale, and asked me if I would see if I can do anything with it.
My first question is, what type of photo is it? as in why it's on this thin glass? and what, if anything, can anybody do to enhance it?
I have attached the pic below just as I have been given it.
Regards.........John

[Britsdad]

Well this is about as far as I can get, there's not much info left in the pic that I can find. Can anyone give me any clues?
John

[jansandahl]

Well, there seems to be very little to work with. Almost a total repaint by someone very skilled person. Illustration skills will come in handy.

A look at the histogram shows the low range of info. You could try different adjustment layers (curves) to exaggerate contrast through the greyscale to investigate details to better guess what to add to the image in order to fix it.

If you post a link to a higher resolution, maybe someone could look a little closer?

[Kraellin]

alan, i believe what you there may be an old 'glass negative'. you can do a little research on that on this site: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Photograp...-negatives.htm . see if that matches with what your friend has.

i've looked at this image and it's quite a mess. you did well to get what you got, alan. it appears you compromised a bit on image integrity when doing the noise reduction, but i can say as i blame you. it really is a mess. doing all that clean up by hand would take hours. one thing i'd suggest would be to borrow or paint in some eyes. that would add back quite a bit and shldnt take that much time to do.

[Britsdad]

jansandahl, Thanks for the input, I totally agree with you, there's barely any info at all in there. As for re-painting, that's going to be left to someone far more artistically inclined than me
Craig, who's this Alan (just kidding) This "glass negative" yes I've had them before, but this is a positive not negative, I've never seen that. It's really strange, such a thin section, almost as thin as a modern negative but rigid like glass!
As for the noise reduction I agree, but it was the lesser of two evils, and to me the background looks almost like an oil painting now. I've added some eyes in the second attachment (very faint) and to my suprise it's printed out pretty good really.
Going to have to do a little research now to see if I can come up with any answers.
Cheers.............John

[Cupcake]

Well this was a challenge!!!!

Burn & dodge tool;
and
some painting to fill in spots.

[Britsdad]

I think I've found it here; http://willows95988.typepad.com/tong...hy-plates.html
However it seems they were fazed out by the 1860's and this photo looks to be from the 1950's ish by the look of the buggy the child is in. (am I wrong?)
By the way Cupcake, are you an artist?
John

[Cupcake]

Yes I am, John.
I'm an oil painter.

[Britsdad]

That explains it then

[girlsfather]

Originally Posted by Britsdad

...but this is a positive not negative, I've never seen that. It's really strange, such a thin section, almost as thin as a modern negative but rigid like glass!
...John

Hallo Britsdad, I own a larger amount of glass-positives. I think they are contactsprints from negatives. Most of them are in poor condition, too. They are maybe 75-100 years old. They are mounted with a second glass, the edges glued with a black paper-tape. They were projected I suggest. Outer size maybe 7x7 or 8x8 cm.

Good Luck!

[0lBaldy]

Had to give this a try
Levels
copy layer
Polaroid scratch and dust light setting on another layer copy, hide all masked, then a whole bunch of clicks on each white spot combined the top two layers then copied the new layer and ran Polaroid scratch and dust again with the light block unchecked to repair the dark spots.. hide all masked, then a whole bunch of clicks on each dark spot
combined
copied top layer then did a bunch of levels and curves layers using the mask to isolate areas I was lightening or darkening and finally some healing in some of the really dark areas found some eyes that sort of fit then faded them out to look real to me..

lots more to do but I gave up after three hours in frustration as to how much more there was to be done... Good luck Britsdad

[Britsdad]

0lBaldy: you must have the patience of a saint
John

[Kraellin]

john, sorry about that. not sure who 'alan' is either. lol.

glad to see so many renditions being done on this one.

[learninlady]

Well I gave it a go. If I were to be doing a restore on this one I would be using quite a bit of artistic flare...lol
but heres my attempt. I used a high pass sharpen neat image and a few mid/highlight adjustments.