Spent last night printing old negs

[pobe]

Last week I visited my dad and stepmother since it was her birthday. I've just gotten started with wet printing and brought a couple of pictures, one of her and one of my one year old son. My grandmother mentioned some old negatives she'd found and wondered if I perhaps could print them - what an honor!

Yesterday I printed a few of them, pictures from the 1950s when my dad was a little boy. Amazing! Such a great feeling to work on those old pictures and getting a glimpse of their lives some 55 years ago. All they had were some contact prints (6x6) - I'm the first one to see enlargements of these!

I don't want to turn this into film-vs-digital, but I somehow doubt my sons children will be able to do that with my digital files. Good thing I've got him captured in silver as well!

 

[ibcrewin]

That's really cool.

Did you scan any of them? One good thing about being able to scan your negatives is that you can share them with us!

 

[pobe]

No scans, might do that later on. I don't have a scanner at home, but I work in a camera club darkroom and we do have a scanner there as well.

 

[pobe]

I can of course take pictures of the prints with my dslr

 

[Tom A]

From Goteberg I see (The B prefix on the Renault's plate). I did something similar for a Swedish Immigrant Society. Scanned and printed over 200 pictures from between 1880 and 1940 for two local exhibitions. Amazing how good they turned out. Most of these shots were done with Kodak box cameras and either contact prints or small enlargements. Most were removed from Albums ( remember those!) stored in basements, attics and in one case in a card-board box on a patio (for years). Yes, it was not easy, and some final scans still left a lot to be desired as to "photographic quality" - but being able to pull a scan and a print from something that is close to 110-120 years old is amazing. Watching people finding long gone relatives is even more amazing.
I doubt that, unless some major changes occur in image storage in the next while, nobody will be able to document our life today (might be boring to us now - but historically important in 2210!).

 

[dfoo]

It looks like they've turned out great pobe! I love printing old negatives... I did some of my mother in law after she passed away. The earliest one is probably not as old as yours. Most likely from around 1970.

http://silverprint.posterous.com/shen-xing-di

 

[ibcrewin]

wow..just wow. Those are fantastic!

 

[Andy Kibber]

Thanks for sharing. I'm sure your family is happy to have a printer around.

 

[pobe]

Thanks everyone! I actually don't know who the people in the lower picture are yet, but the one on top is my grandmother, father and aunt. Just north of Stockholm, I'll have to ask about that car from Göteborg!

 

[nikon_sam]

I love the old look of photography done then...we don't have a ton of shots when we were young mostly because that was a luxury and not something that one would do if not very very important...plus we really didn't have a very decent camera...I love the old stuff...Thanks...

 

[tj01]

I loved the split window shot. Not many these days.

 

[shadowfox]

I somehow doubt my sons children will be able to do that with my digital files. Good thing I've got him captured in silver as well!

Be sure to leave a lot of negatives for them to print then

I agree, prints from a darkroom are unique and congratulations for the honor and for creating family heirlooms. Frame those and display them proudly.

 

[pachuco]

Wow! Very cool.

 

[mwooten]

I can of course take pictures of the prints with my dslr

^ I like this much better than a scan of a negative.