Why are some defense attornies idiots?

[astanley]

If they are important to you, I would make contact negs off of them on 4x5 sheet film. I haven't done any in over a decade so I don't know what the best materials/chemicals are right now but I could find out. Sad thing is that with the digital revolution, it's hard to find a good wet lab. I guess good digital scans would be ok, but I have yet to see any good archival digital mediums. Get your prints out of the albums they are in, and go to a good photographic supply shop and buy some albums labeled "Archival Acid Free" and don't use any glue.
You can do several things to them depending on what paper they were printed on to wash them and get the glue off (if you're considering this, while you're at the photo shop, get a bottle of "Photo Flo") and secure the silvers using things like selinium and/or refixing them. (most commercial lab machines do not properly fix and wash prints which is why they degrade over time.)

Contact conversion to neg is becoming a dark art... most of the time, with superb software and a great scan, you can do yourself a little better (than the contact conversion) and then re-print on papers like Museo Rag or Portfolio Rag for great hand and archival properties, using pigmet inks (e.g. LUCIA inks from Canon).

Photo-Flo is an absolute must. It's cheap and I always have a few bottles around; it's probably the best product out there for cleaning up and stripping unwanted gunk from pictures.

Dave, I'll drop you a PM, maybe I can take a look at a few for you.

Cheers,

-Andrew

 

[Henning]

Contact conversion to neg is becoming a dark art...

Yep, as is most darkroom technique, I learned the "Dark Arts" back in the early 80s where "Photoshopping" images meant pin registration 10 enlargers set in a room and a bunch of litho overlays to do composite work. Not to mention hours and hours of time cutting things out with Xacto knives and covering pinholes in the lith with opaque... Digital really has changed the industry. With my S2Pro, I can make prints on par with my old Hasselblad holding up well to 24"x30" and I can do all the photo manipulation on a cheap computer. However, I still don't have software that allows me to do a quality burn, and for a standard non composite print, I can do a better and faster job dodging and burning with my hands than on a computer.

 

[Richard]

Yep, as is most darkroom technique, I learned the "Dark Arts" back in the early 80s where "Photoshopping" images meant pin registration 10 enlargers set in a room and a bunch of litho overlays to do composite work. Not to mention hours and hours of time cutting things out with Xacto knives and covering pinholes in the lith with opaque... Digital really has changed the industry. With my S2Pro, I can make prints on par with my old Hasselblad holding up well to 24"x30" and I can do all the photo manipulation on a cheap computer. However, I still don't have software that allows me to do a quality burn, and for a standard non composite print, I can do a better and faster job dodging and burning with my hands than on a computer.

As another indication of just how much things have changed, do you realize all of what you just said wouldn't amount to a hill of beans back then. It would have been like, so what?

 

[Henning]

As another indication of just how much things have changed, do you realize all of what you just said wouldn't amount to a hill of beans back then. It would have been like, so what?

No, there were only a few shops in the country that had the ability to do commercial grade composite chromes and prints. That skill kept me in $$$ and jobs while I was putting together my time for my captains license. Back then, anywhere I went, I could walk into any commercial lab and have a job, and I could bring clients from around the country with me. Where I learned the main accounts were Anheuser Busch and Ralston Purina, we handled most all of their marketing and packaging art.

 

[t0r0nad0]

A-B and RP? Did you live in St. Louis?