Archived Color

Color photography did not really become widespread until the late 30's when Kodak started producing Kodachrome and Kodacolor and Agfacolor from Agfa. There had been color photos however since the Lumière brothers patented the Autochrome process in 1903. I have always loved the almost mystical quality of Autochromes and have in fact tried to duplicate the appearance without much success. There are many Autochromes still in existence including a wonderful collection of photos from World War One which can be found here.
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Art and Restoration

There are times when an old photo has simply too many condition problems or simply was not that good to begin with to do a standard restoration. That doesn't mean you can't create something you could display. The picture on the left is of great historical significance to my family. It is a picture of the original family home in Idaho taken about 1907. The original is small and has some condition problems. The first thing I did was to separate the structure from the rest of the picture. I added a sky for some drama and used PhotoShop's dry brush filter on the foreground. The result below makes a nice 11 x 14 that I proudly display.


In addition to have pictures of family members this photo taken around 1905 is also a fine work of art. It reminds me of a Maxfield Parish painting. The original had too many condition issues to make a "straight" restoration possible. I first did as much retouching as I could. Next I used the Photo Shop dry brush filter to smooth the image. I then had added a vignette. The result below also made a wonderful 11 x 14 image that could be displayed with pride.




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