Friends Janice and Richard have hired moi to restore this 1907 photo of Kansas City... Richard found it at a garage sale. The original is in terrible shape with just about everything wrong with it that you can think of from water stains to microbes... the overall tone of the image has changed also. A silver halide image it was probably originally plain old black and white. Detail in it is incredible from people on the street to clothes hanging on backyard clotheslines.
I'll post updated pix over the next few days to show the restoration progress. this will take a while. Original size is 18 1/8 inches tall by 47 11/16s.
I took three separate, full frame, photos of it and them stitched them together in Photoshop... the working size image is 7 3/4 by 20 and I will upsize it when completed.
Above the original, below the restored. Both are 18 1/8 by 47 11/16ths.... Restored version is 353 mb. The original photo was taken "1,000 feet above 13th and Summit" using Lawrence Captive Airship. Lawrence, the photographer, used a set of seven kites to raise the 49 pound camera into place. Google the airship name for more info.
Above, step one, remove the damage in the sky and some of the microbial dots.... remove the stain in lower right corner. Below, step two, eliminate fixer discoloration and increase exposure in upper right and top. The "smoke" in the upper left corner, I've decided, is from a train... the same feature is on the Library of Congress copy of this picture. Started removing the horizontal lines. If this shot encompassed jus 7 blocks more to the south I could see the homes of my paternal grandmothers and grandfathers.... but, alas.....
Friends Janice and Richard have hired moi to restore this 1907 photo of Kansas City... Richard found it at a garage sale. The original is in terrible shape with just about everything wrong with it that you can think of from water stains to microbes... the overall tone of the image has changed also. A silver halide image it was probably originally plain old black and white. Detail in it is incredible from people on the street to clothes hanging on backyard clotheslines.
