Most houses have them....boxes of old photos. Often they are creased and faded and yet they hold clues to our past and the story of our family. As part of our photography courses, I ask students to bring in old photographs to scan into their Pictures.
Using PICASA, we edit out the scratches and creases, improve the colour and crop out distracting ragged edges. All of a sudden, images throw up little secrets and details that you hadn't noticed before. These spark the kind of conversations I love....insights into a lost world.
One of the most interesting of these finds was a photo of Helen's father. He had been a sailor in the navy and, along with two of his friends, he had a studio photo taken in full uniform. When the photo was first scanned into the computer, it was badly creased across his face. With patience we removed not only the crease but also the scratches and a tear in the corner.
And as we were looking at the photo in so much detail, something we had overlooked suddenly became very apparent. All the men looked pretty relaxed...and all had cigarettes in their hand...in a photographic studio. A very different era.
So, rather than just being a computer lesson, the hour we spent working on the photo became one of nostalgia and reminiscence. How true it is that every picture tells a story...
For some useful tips on bringing old photos back to life, have a look at Scanning old photos.
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