Photo Retouching - - Hair or Hat?

Billfields · #1 08-21-2005, 05:28 PM

Hello,

I wonder if I can get an opinion from folks here about his photo. It is of my Grandmother taken about 1908. I've worked on it before but decided to start all over with a new scan. This time when I looked, I started to wonder. Is she wearing a hat? I always thought it was her hair but this time when I look at the top of her head to the right (her left) it struck me that it could be not hair but a hat with a feather or fur pattern to it. She died about 10 years after the picture was taken so I only have one other of her as an adult. In it her hair is pulled back in a bun. She is wearing an overcoat in the photo so perhaps it is a hat. I'm hardly up on the fashions of right now let alone a hundred years ago but I have always thought the hairstyle was odd. I just can't tell and I wonder what y'all think.

Thanks!

Bill

Caitlin · #2 08-21-2005, 05:39 PM

It is a little hard to tell, but I think it is hair. Don't hold me to it though....

ps. how old was she in this photo - she looks like she was just a teenager?

Cameraken · #3 08-21-2005, 06:46 PM

Hi Bill

Well just to confuse things I think you could be right.

There is a shadow which does not seem to be part of her hair. Also the white area does not seem to be accounted for by the background and her clothing suggests some sort of uniform.

I could be wrong.

Ken

doonee · #4 08-21-2005, 08:04 PM

a spontaneous vote for hair ..

d

Swampy · #5 08-21-2005, 08:05 PM

Mmmm... I think hair. Knots and "rolls" of hair were the style. Seems a hat would have a hard line edge somewhere.

Billfields · #6 08-21-2005, 08:21 PM

Caitlin, according to what I was told, the picture was taken around the time she got married in March of 1909. So she would have been a few months short of eighteen. She died in 1920 in the influenza epidemic. By that time she had six children---the oldest turned ten the day she died, the youngest was three months old.

Ken, that is exactly what I was looking at. For years, I just assumed it was hair but when I looked really closely, the size and shadows don't look right. (I think the hard edge you mentioned Swanpy would be in the shadow on her forehead if it exists) If you look closely there is almost a feather texture to that area. And it has never really struck me as a turn of the century woman's hairstyle....maybe a fluffy flapper sort of thing but that was the 20s I think.

It would be nice if I had a clue as to the fashion of the times <G> How big were hats around 1900-1910? If it is one it is small.

If it would help I have earlier posted two pictures of her as a little girl in other threads, they are at the links below but she is much younger, about 3 or 4 (the smallest girl in both pictures)

Bill
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/sho...ght=billfields

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/sho...ght=billfields

Kraellin · #7 08-21-2005, 08:57 PM

i dont see any evidence of a hat. i do see evidence of hair, and like swampy said, tucks and rolls. this was VERY common back then. the hair was pulled tight in a roll so that the strands were very close together and then were often either braided or tucked in and out.

you've also got damage in the photo. that area directly on top of her head (in red) is photo damage, nothing more. the area to our right is tight hair (blue). the reddish just over the blue is more damage, but not as bad and some hair showing. the green is very tightly rolled/banded hair. the red below the green is more hair with some damage streaking. the yellow or gold is difficult to say, but i believe it's more hair that the green area is tucked into and under.

Craig

Flora · #8 08-22-2005, 05:43 AM

Hi,

I'd also opt for hair .... After lifting the shadow and zooming in, in spite of the scratches, I think I could see hair strands .... I agree with Swampy about the complex hairdoes of the times...

Billfields · #9 08-22-2005, 06:53 PM

I think y'all have convinced me it is hair. At least for now I am going to leave it hair.

It;s probably for the best. If I turn it into a hat I would probably catch the devil from my sisters and cousins for "changing" grandma!

Thanks all for your thoughts!

Bill

Kraellin · #10 08-22-2005, 08:59 PM

bill,

there were feather hats that would fit this picture. my mother or grandmother (i forget which) had a short small hat made of pheasant feathers. and i could almost see it in this picture.

you're welcome.

Craig

MaryLynn · #11 08-22-2005, 10:55 PM

It's most likely hair. Hats in that era were very large and women's hair was poofed to help support them. See the photos attached, borrowed from Dating Old Photographs. These are from 1908-1910.