GLASS NEGATIVES...A POSITIVE HEAVEN!

[FUJI]

HI, Folks,

 

Here are the latest results from a pair of processed Glass Negatives from my project:

 

I am sill at the experimental stage, but seem to have got the hang of lens and Camera Settings...a 50mm lens...ISO...200...F 5.6....S 60 in my daylight lit Attic/Junk Room...I tred my 2.8-100 Macro lens....it might be flatter but my tripod has to be so far back I couldn't work:

 

After shooting a set of 6 negatives on the LIght-Box, I save them to disc (3) then Invert and Convert to B&W then adjust Exposure, Gamma and Offset...after that I use my usual soft brushes and layers method in CS6 to tease out all the tones, then a final targetted sharpen to lift textures and sharpness:

 

I have just done two hours, and find that it doesn't do the old eyes much good, especially as my monitor faces a window in my tiny office...the light opposite me can be very irritating even through a closed bamboo Venetian Blind:

 

This is obviously a project for dull and winter days:

 

It is clear, that I wont be able to post every one of the 400 on here, but I will upload a number of the more interesting as I progress...I feel a boook or publication coming on...I'm not sure if I'm up to that???

 

Enjoy my latest pair...A Blushing Bride ...and...Harbury Windmill (long since gone) ....Ladies...enlarge the bride pic to see all the incredible lace on that dress........The Windmill is enough excitement for the men ;-)

 

Best viewed LARGE....click on Pics:

 

FUJI

[annie]

wonderful Fuji.

 

love these old pics, makes you wonder who these people were. 

 

that's some bouquet the bride has...!

[NannyFerret]

Fantastic!

[bugmeister]

They are so interesting, and provide contrasts even between the different pictures, never mind then to now.

[Kobione]

The bridal dress and bouquet are just wow, Fuji!! It is just fascinating to look back through your work, love it, thank you, two more interesting pictures

[Black Pearl]

What a fascinating projects, a worthy project and a great way to experience the past. Keep them coming I love looking at old photographs.

 

Couple of points.

 

1. I would be tempted to shoot them in larger batches - might be easier as you would be 'in the flow' and could just blast through them. The camera is set-up, the exposure is set so all you are doing is swapping out the plates.

2. I know you love your method of working with monochrome images but are you saving original files? One should be the negative and one the positive flip - save them as 16bit TIFF's as these are uncompressed and best for archiving. 

[Guest]

Good stuff Fuji. Any plans to research the locations and people? Or do you have the details for most of them????

[FUJI]

Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement......Thankfully the project, in earnest hasn't begun yet, so I can take on board what BP suggests .....I will shoot much larger batches when I get going........and will save TIFFS, I can see the sense in that....it means that my drives are going to take a hammering, the RAW files are circa 4500 mp on the longest side.

Robin, I need to process a version, because on many, the whites look blown out and, because of me shooting them in RAW there are lots of tones existing that can still be teased out to make them pop.......I will post a positive as it comes.

.....then post the same after I have worked on it ........for your observations and comments.

I

Maybe I aught to slow the shutter or lessen the aperture so they look darker, in camera?......Yes?

This project really should be a two, or three person one, that would mean that the photography could continue at the same time as the processing.......

My workflow, should be.....Wearing approved gloves, remove then blow loose dust off the glass negative, I'm not going to use liquids, I'm not expert enough.....each negative will then be placed on the light box to be photographed......afterwards it must be wrapped in Acid Free Paper and labelled to match the thirty year old Records Office list.....Apparently the original mahogany boxes can be detrimental to archive storage so I need to find suitably strong containers, before getting underway.

Bill.....The County Records Office took all the negatives for initial research thirty years ago.....they were only interested in the known local ones ( circa 200) , each of these was contact printed, numbered then labelled.....I have that list plus three contact prints.....the remainder circa 260 negatives and Lantern Slides feature photographs from Wales, Scotland, Africa plus a whole box of medical negatives of patients with deformities ....then a box recording the restoration of the Leamington Spa Pump Rooms during the late 1950s.......none of these have been formally identified or listed....... A huge task.

The contact prints kept in the County Records Office is called.....THE HOBBINS COLLECTION...so anyone can research the local views........I have done personal research into the photographer and his family.....he was an doctor/ surgeon working at the Pump Rooms, he and his family were obviously gentry, many pics prove that.......sadly he was killed instantly when his car hit a tree in 1965.......it was a year after that when I was offered the boxes of negatives and slides by a SH dealer buying furniture from me.....we made a swap on the spot......my Missus went mad....we had just moved into this almost derelict Victorian House with three kids in the middle if winter....I was about Robins age now I think?......Except for the Records Office plus a few Lantern Slide Shows the boxes have been in my attic since........I would be totally against separating the collection.

So it is little me Vs almost 500 negatives and slides......What am I taking on???

FUJI

[NannyFerret]

It's really interesting to find out how people come by such collections. It would have been hard for me to resist them too.
I often wonder what happened to my dad's magic lantern and cartoon slides after he gave them to a scouts group to raise funds with.

[Kobione]

Fuji, if it hadn't been for your 'impulsive' swap, this collection may have be split up and effectively lost in more ways than one. What you are doing is fantastic and hopefully will preserve both the images and relative information for future generations.