white film on old photos

[webcher]

I have some old photos that are from 80-100 yrs old. Some of them have a whitish film covering the surface and some have a metallic coating. How can I best remove these digitally. I have Photoshop 7 and PSP 7.
Thanks for any help.

[gland]

Could you possibly post an example?? A picture to work on would help a lot.

[roger_ele]

Metalic coating - when it shows up in the dark areas is usually something called "silvering" - this shows up when scanned but not so much when copied with a camera. Give it a test if you have the resources, or find a lab to make a copy or a negative for you to scan. A professional color lab that copies paintings for the artist community will be the best choice for being sure that they can handle it.

Good luck, Roger

[Neal Piek]

I had large farm photo and when I scanned it a white film seventy year of dirt was all over it.I test a small corner with a damp q-tip dip in water and gently rub one small corner of the photo. Wait for the corner of the print to dry completely before you evaluate. Do not dunk the print into water. Do the background first let it dry if all is well then the bodies and facial features or the main part of the photo. If you see that any of the "color" on the print "runs", stop immediately there will be nothing you can do, short of restoration.
The damp q-tip dip water test work so I went on to a cotton ball and water changing the cotton as soon as it soiled. Make sure you are not removing any of the original photographic emulsion. Be gentle. I rescanned the photo zip it together and printed it.
Neal