Custom Work on 100+ Yr Old Photo Developed from an Old Judge Glass Plate Negative

[GasHouseGang]

I'm glad you made a video, because I can't image how you created something like that. Really nice!

[wolf441]

Amazing work, Tanner!!!

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

makes me wish I had though of paying someone to develop the glass plate negatives I had of Jack Johnson and Abe Attel!

[GasHouseGang]

What kind of machine put that embossed gold print on the paper? That was fun to watch.

[GaryPassamonte]

Great!

[the-illini]

That is great - you do some really cool stuff with your collection

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by the-illini

That is great - you do some really cool stuff with your collection

+1 agree amazing

[BobC]

Originally Posted by the-illini

That is great - you do some really cool stuff with your collection

+2

[oldjudge]

Fantastic job Tanner! You are bringing the set to life.

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

makes me wish I had though of paying someone to develop the glass plate negatives I had of Jack Johnson and Abe Attel!

For future reference it is quite easy. In the past you would either make a contact print; laying the negative on the paper then exposing and printing, or putting it in a holder, placing in an enlarger and making a larger print. With modern technology it is not that difficult anymore. A glass plate negative can be scanned on a pro model flat bed scanner like the Epson V850 or Expression 12000XL. It can be done at various resolutions (dpi's). Once you have the file (jpg) it can be printed on digital, preferably archival, paper. It can also be printed on traditional silver halide paper. One of my photo labs, Digital Silver Imaging in Belmont, MA can take a digital file and print it on regular photographic paper. They are not cheap, but the results are incredible. Interestingly, you can see the exposure of the clip that held the glass plate negative against the paper in Tanner's photo. It is the white mark in the lower left that looks like a collar stay.

Here are a few scans using my 12 year old Microtek pro scanner:

Magic Lantern slide of one of the heats for the 100m dash at the 1896 Olympics.

1896-100m00007.jpg

Glass plate negative circa 1932. The man on the right, George Calnan, took the athletes oath at the opening ceremony of the 1932 Olympics. Winner of 3 bronze medals in fencing (1 in 1928, 2 in 1932). A lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, he died in the crash of the dirigible U.S.S. Akron off the coast of New Jersey in April 1933.

levis-calnan-100013.jpg

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Michael B

For future reference it is quite easy. In the past you would either make a contact print; laying the negative on the paper then exposing and printing, or putting it in a holder, placing in an enlarger and making a larger print. With modern technology it is not that difficult anymore. A glass plate negative can be scanned on a pro model flat bed scanner like the Epson V850 or Expression 12000XL. It can be done at various resolutions (dpi's). Once you have the file (jpg) it can be printed on digital, preferably archival, paper. It can also be printed on traditional silver halide paper. One of my photo labs, Digital Silver Imaging in Belmont, MA can take a digital file and print it on regular photographic paper. They are not cheap, but the results are incredible. Interestingly, you can see the exposure of the clip that held the glass plate negative against the paper in Tanner's photo. It is the white mark in the lower left that looks like a collar stay.

Here are a few scans using my 12 year old Microtek pro scanner:

Magic Lantern slide of one of the heats for the 100m dash at the 1896 Olympics.

Attachment 501936

Glass plate negative circa 1932. The man on the right, George Calnan, took the athletes oath at the opening ceremony of the 1932 Olympics. Winner of 3 bronze medals in fencing (1 in 1928, 2 in 1932). A lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, he died in the crash of the dirigible U.S.S. Akron off the coast of New Jersey in April 1933.

Attachment 501938

All you're doing is making me feel worse for not doing it! The Johnson was a huge 8 x 10 glass negative too, would've yielded great results I bet. The two Attels were more like 4 x 6ish

[mouschi]

Thank you for all the kind words, people! It is definitely a far cry from the new Canseco stuff I've done, and a new skillset is needed to make this work with 19th century stuff, but I'm just wholly in love with this time period.

I didn't post about this one here, but this may be fun for some folks to take a look at - it involves a 1914 Cracker Jack Christy Mathewson ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0g_pnfonPM

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

All you're doing is making me feel worse for not doing it! The Johnson was a huge 8 x 10 glass negative too, would've yielded great results I bet. The two Attels were more like 4 x 6ish

Do you have any scans or pics of these at all? If so, PM me and I'll see if there is anything I can do

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by mouschi

Do you have any scans or pics of these at all? If so, PM me and I'll see if there is anything I can do

fairly decent image, let me know if emailing it would be better