Problem Photographing Old Photographs

[Martyn]

Over the last few weeks I've been taking photographs of pictures from a friend's family album. I've been passing the full size digital images to my cousin who is working on the family history. It's been a real eyeopener for me because I spotted my own parents in many of the pictures before they were married. It's a small world!

I've been placing a photo on the carpet in the living room, and with natural indirect light and the camera on my tripod, just clicking away with great results. However, there is one photo that has given me trouble. It looks ok viewed in poor light, but as soon as I move into light to view it properly it almost glows; it has an almost luminous property.  I know the picture has been fingered and passed around a lot, I can see fingerprints and grease marks all over, but the luminous parts are directly related to the dark parts of the photo. Can anyone tell me if it's something to do with the chemicals used in the printing that causes this luminescence.

The pictures below show my results, the last picture being a 3 second exposure with the curtains closed. Then processed in Darktable to try to bring out details in the faces.

 

 

[johntwo]

It might even be the chemicals used to sensitise the printing paper.  I do a lot of this for the family from time to time but I scan the prints rather than photograph them.  The same problem hasn't materialised that way (so far).  It might also be a problem caused by the polarisation of the reflected light from the print surface.  Have you tried using a polarising filter to cut through the luminescence. 

Edited May 24, 2020 by johntwo

[Clicker]

Silver halides are the photo sensitive chemicals present  on old photos and if they were not completely fixed , and incompletely washed after the process  they do seem oxidise to and start to silver after a few years   . I always scan old photos at a really high resolution so that I can then retrieve the information that is present even if faded later in processing in photoshop and repair where I have to . .. you’ve done a pretty good job on de silvering that one Martyn and it looks like you’ve removed the crease. Are the copies required for printing or just to attach on a digital family tree where the size is only required to add to see on a monitor .?

Edited May 24, 2020 by Clicker

[Martyn]

Thanks John & Clicker, that makes perfect sense. The images are not being printed, just attached to a digital family tree. Being able to see the pics greatly magnified on a big monitor is a boon to my friend who has poor eyesight! It's funny you mention the crease Clicker, the photo is perfectly flat and shows no sign of a crease until I copied it, but it's clear from the presentation card that it has been folded at some time. 

[Martyn]

It's amazing the response I get from folks on social media about all these old photographs. Someone just pointed out that none except the oldest man is wearing spectacles. And, "is this a picture of the trophy cabinet?" All the men seem to have prominent ears!