Detail Photography

Is it possible to improve poorly taken, old photographs, from times gone past?

A question I get asked regularly. Most of the photographs I get given to work on are special. Special – important, in that they are often the only copy of a particular photograph in existence and the original negative gone or lost It is not uncommon for me to be told that this is the ‘ONLY’ photograph in existence or this family.

Often these photographs are just not good. Often poorly taken by someone who just snaps away rather than carefully working on composition and so on. On top of that there is also the usual time, poor storage and a fair bit of neglect that ‘does-in’ most old photographs.
Did you know that often, I can take an old photograph, digitise it, renovate it and then enlarge the new file to make a bigger photo suitable for framing?
My photograph today shows a before and after.
What do you think?


Photographs may not be copied, published, or stored without express permission of the copyright holder.
©2025 Pete Jenkins @ Detail - Photography – Old photographs fade and get damaged, but they can often be digitised and repaired.

Old photographs fade and get damaged, but usually they can be digitised and repaired, and even enlarged and nicely framed.

As we know back in the days of hand-processing and printing, mNY photographs were actually made rather skilfully.

It is usually time, poor storage and a fair bit of neglect that ‘does-in’ most old photographs.

Today’s photographs were competently taken, processed, and printed but have suffered light damage. At least half a century old, time has not treated it well. There is little physical damage – often prints of this age are scuffed, torn, creased and suffered other ‘use’ marks, however there is a lot of less obvious collateral damage, the most obvious being the fading.

A deep scan to a high resolution will often capture back some of this detail (undetectable by the human eye).

My photographs today show two sets of before and after. I have also included a second ‘after’ print. Some onlookers mistake the browning of the paper for ‘sepia-toning. This is not the case. The originals have suffered aga and light damage of the chemical silver halides.

Back in the days of chemical printing sepia toning (as it was called) was not a colouring of the print, but rather a secondary tertiary chemical process which replaced the silver halide of the original print with a sulphide. The reason for doing this originally was to give the print a longer life as the sulphide compound was less susceptible to light damage. The warmer ‘brown’ tone was simply a pleasing side effect.

What do you think?



Photographs may not be copied, published, or stored without express permission of the copyright holder.

©2023 Pete Jenkins @ Detail - Photography – Old photographs fade and get damaged, but they can often be digitised and repaired.

Take a Wedding photo album and fix the problems!

Much to my surprise one of the most common requests I get is to take an old wedding album and cure the many faults. Sadly, not everyone who markets themselves as a wedding photographer is actually up to scratch. Very common when so many young couples are after a ‘value’ package, and this was as much the case forty years ago as it is today. If you are only paying £500 for a complete wedding photo package then it may not turn out to be as wonderful as one would like.

Sometimes of course it is simply age that does the damage. It is very common for machine prints of the 1970s and 1980s where speed was valued above quality, to take on a sepia like tone as the machines often did not fix the prints thoroughly or even more common did not wash them adequately. Over time and with exposure to light (even in small does) the prints became less than one would want.

My photographs today show two sets of before and after.
In the first pair the distracting chairs in the background have been removed, and in the second the discolouration of the print has been corrected.

One the individual prints have been repair the album can be created more imaginatively from the new digital originals (if this is required).
What do you think?



Photographs may not be copied, published, or stored without express permission of the copyright holder.
©2020 Pete Jenkins @ Detail - Photography – fixing problems in old wedding albums – yes it can be done!

Take a Family photo album and create memorable wall art!

Family photo albums are a wonderful thing yet are often abandoned to boxes in the attic or garage. Lost and forgotten.

However, these old albums can be complete treasure troves, and should be kept to delight and inform, future generations. Beware, benign negligence is not enough, as with all film-based photographs there are many ways the picture or photograph that we see today can be damaged, therefore making any recovery more difficult. Light and chemical damage are common on prints, chemical damage (usually through lack of washing at the processing stage), dust trapped between film and print, often in the enlarger or on the film surface, and of course the ever so common physical damage on the print itself.

The photos I am showing you today came from a wonderful collection of albums going back top before the Great War; however, they were in a sad way. There were lots of snap shots and very ordinary scenic views.

My job was to rescue the albums but at the same time edit and curate them to produce a rich source of family photographs that could form the base of a new family digital archive.

The best were cherry picked and made into wall art

Today’s featured photos show the starting originals and the completed images.
What do you think?



Photographs may not be copied, published, or stored without express permission of the copyright holder.
©2020 Pete Jenkins @ Detail - Photography – Wall art from photoalbums – yes it can be done!