Nostalgia & History > Bad scratches? Wahsatch August 1953

I'm working my way through just over 100 rolls of 35mm black and white negatives, exposed from the late 1930s through the 1950s, each tightly wound into rolls of about 3/4 inch.

Here is one of the first scans, taken at random. The subject is a UP 2-10-2 helper at Wahsatch, Utah, on August 26, 1953.

Are the scratches really that bad? Rather than trying to fix the scratches with Photoshop, I think I'll just leave them alone. They add charcater, and carry their own history concerning the many hands these negatives have passed through.

Don Strack

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Wow! Classic UP shot! The way it was when I was a mere "Yonker", and Hector was a pup!

If it was mine without photo shop and you have the neg, I would fix it as best as I can with that stuff called "no scratch" or something like that. Just has too many scratches. It is a classic and if its all you have, then leave it.

Thanks for presenting this excellent image. More, please, sir!

I am bothered not in the slightest by the scratches. I doubt if I would have even noticed them had my attention not been called to them. If I were working with such negs, I would be much more concerned about getting scans of the images before that film gets to be so tight that you won't be able to safely unroll it at all (it can happen, trust me).

In general, while I appreciate a perfectly presented historical image, I am almost never bothered by slight degradation, especially if it is not in key content areas of the image.

I would probably not retouch a given scan unless the image was going to be used in a presentation or a printed in a magazine or book.

Cheers,
Jack

The minor flaws are not even worth mentioning for such an invaluable historic photo. Thanks, and can't wait for some more such beauties. AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

The scratches are insignificant for as old as it is. I graduated in 1951 and this photo brings back memories. I am familiar with the area also. This is at the Wye which to this day is still visible. Let's see more.

In all candor, Don, had you not mentioned the scratches, I never would have noticed them. My eyes were immediately drawn to the pusher. Scratches or no, keep posting these magnificent images of a time long past. I love 'em.

Bob Callahan
Monticello, IN



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/12 18:51 by rcall31060.

My preference would be.... spend the time scanning and posting MORE great photos... LOL

Thanks for posting... really nice photo there!

In the darkroom when all else failed, I used a little "nose oil" on negs like this. Seems like you always have some skin oil on the sides of your nose and it did a good job. Learned that from a photofinisher.
I've had rolls of these negs which I call Blue Spring Steel negs. What finally worked for me is I bought a box of 100 plastic snap together slide mounts, cut them into singles and mounted each one in the mounts which snapped together. Worked like a champ. Try it on a couple that are pure junk and get the hang of it. Even Kodak couldn't tell me how to uncurl theml.

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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> I've had rolls of these negs which I call Blue
> Spring Steel negs. What finally worked for me is
> I bought a box of 100 plastic snap together slide
> mounts, cut them into singles and mounted each one
> in the mounts which snapped together. Worked
> like a champ. Try it on a couple that are pure
> junk and get the hang of it. Even Kodak couldn't
> tell me how to uncurl them.

Blue steel, for sure. They would really snap if I let them.

I tried your slide mount idea on one of many, many (many) that are light damaged. I think it worked great. The photo was taken in Salt Lake City on January 3, 1948.

But using the slide mount idea will make the project very slow, since it's a bit hard to hold tightly wound roll straight while each negative is cut off.

The negative holder for my Minolta scanner holds six nagatives, so that's likely how I'll store them.

Don Strack



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/12 15:28 by donstrack.

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I thought I'd share how these rolls of 35mm negatives were received, and previously being stored. Each roll is indivually wrapped in a paper label. I'll be changing them, at a minimum, to individual ziplock snack bags for each roll. I'm looking at some PrintFile binder pages, but I'm afraid that the curl will be too much to store them in strips of five negatives.

Don Strack

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When I scanned original negs at the UP Museum I always did them "as is" for the record. If a customer needed something I could clean it up as needed. JEB

Archival plastic sleeve sheets, I have never had a curl problem. Find a heavy object like a couple books to lay on top.

I like the Wahsatch photo, scratches and all, because it was taken two days before I was born! And I've got a few scratches I can't photoshop out... Thanks for sharing a great old photo!