A little piece of History.

I can clearly remember this photo hanging on the wall of my Pa and Nans homestead on their property at Cryna, just outside of Beaudesert, Queensland. 

It is a photo of my Mum and her sisters and her brother John.  John died suddenly when he was 12 of meningitis and this is a rare photo of him. My Mum is on the left, then John, Laurie and Fran.

I had wondered for years how to reproduce this photo.  I did not want to take it out of the frame to scan it.  Photos from this era often faded badly when not framed properly. The chemicals used for printing old photographs sometimes turn to  a fine powder and just brush off the paper.  My father had a photo of my grandfather in his Light Horse uniform that was not framed. I remember that that photo had faded badly and that if you touched the image, there was a fine powder that used to come off in your fingers.  The frame for this photo was very well made and is the reason for the photo maintaining its condition over the years.

Mum would have been in her early teens when this was taken. She was born in 1928 so I am estimating that this was taken around about 1940 (?)

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology (can you believe; my iPhone 5 !) I think I have solved the problem. I took a photo of the photo with my iPhone and then processed the image in PS.  I had to crop out the frame and sharpen it a little. I also had to adjust levels slightly and use the clone tool in some places as there was some reflection of light in the glass covering the photo. I also used the  burn and dodge tools on those areas where the ambient light in the room was reflected off the glass cover.

It is a little piece of family history that needed to be preserved and then distributed amongst the family.  I am off to the printers on Monday for some copies to post off to my Aunties. I'll update the blog to let you all know how it went!

Hope you are all well and in good health as I am!

Regards

Jordy