John's Great Granddad

I’ve been scanning and restoring old family photos for John to send to his second cousin in Scotland. This one of John’s great grandfather was taken when he was best man at his sister’s wedding. Love the top hat, don’t you?
The interesting thing is that when you scan a photo that’s over 100 years old, you can see what the passage of time does to the emulsion. Even though he was only about twenty in this photograph, Great Granddad’s face was all wrinkled up like a prune completely obliterating his nose. So I gave him a new one and also removed the pencil thin eyebrows that the photographer had added with a tiny brush.
Photo restoration is a painstaking business, but I really enjoy it because it’s so satisfying. When I finished, I decided to update Great Granddad to the 21st century by ATC-ing him with some layer effects and collage elements in Photoshop.