Before & After: McLean

Mike Serpa

Lt. Colonel
Joined
Jan 24, 2013
Brigadier General Nathaniel C. McLean - National Archives photo #528579

NCM before.jpg

NCM after.jpg

He's been waiting for more than two years for me to finish restoring him!
 
Well done Mike. I know from having done a number of these that the light/dark changes from the streaks/splotches on his uniform can be the most challenging. You did a great job. Two years was worth the wait!

Edit: Realized that you posted this in 2014, glad that you are finally getting recognition for it.
 
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20 some years ago I Photo Shopped Chamberlain's early war picture and thought that I had done a "GREAT" job. Seeing your work -- Well, I jut put my dots away and wait for your next piece of work.
For those who do not know, it's a LOT harder to clean a photo to this degree than it looks.

Good Job!
 
Phooey - McLean's would've been a snap compared to a real mess like this one from my collection! This poor corporal was my very first hard image, and as you can see, the emulsion has cracked, and worse, separated from the tin body making this now VERY fragile and probably impossible to restore except possibly through digital imaging.

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Phooey - McLean's would've been a snap compared to a real mess like this one from my collection! This poor corporal was my very first hard image, and as you can see, the emulsion has cracked, and worse, separated from the tin body making this now VERY fragile and probably impossible to restore except possibly through digital imaging.

dsc01778-jpg.jpg

I agree with you, from what I can see here doing a physical restoration may completely destroy the image. From a digital restoration standpoint I think it could be accomplished easier than you might think, but would require a higher resolution version of the image and a little bit of time.

The real challenge I see with the image is that most of the uniform (particularly on his right) is very dark and does not have a lot of detail visible, so a restoration might only look "OK", but not great.
 

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I agree with you, from what I can see here doing a physical restoration may completely destroy the image. From a digital restoration standpoint I think it could be accomplished easier than you might think, but would require a higher resolution version of the image and a little bit of time.

The real challenge I see with the image is that most of the uniform (particularly on his right) is very dark and does not have a lot of detail visible, so a restoration might only look "OK", but not great.

Sadly for this image, since he's essentially a nobody it wouldn't be worth the time and effort necessary to restore it.
 
Sadly for this image, since he's essentially a nobody it wouldn't be worth the time and effort necessary to restore it.

Personally I think all images are worth restoring. I think the thing with this image is not so much that he is a "nobody" but that the image itself is not very compelling. There is an image of Captain Schwartz, who probably would also have been forgotten, except that his photograph is very engaging.

It too suffers from severe damage and particularly when you look at the full size TIF file on the LOC here that you see that the extent of the repairs needed.

I have had this one on my radar for 5-6 years. Would love to take it on sometime, but just don't know if I have the time.

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Personally I think all images are worth restoring. I think the thing with this image is not so much that he is a "nobody" but that the image itself is not very compelling. There is an image of Captain Schwartz, who probably would also have been forgotten, except that his photograph is very engaging.

It too suffers from severe damage and particularly when you look at the full size TIF file on the LOC here that you see that the extent of the repairs needed.

I have had this one on my radar for 5-6 years. Would love to take it on sometime, but just don't know if I have the time.

01691v.jpg

To be honest, I can't wait to see the result! I hope that whenever you will have completed it you will show us!
 

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Personally I think all images are worth restoring. I think the thing with this image is not so much that he is a "nobody" but that the image itself is not very compelling. There is an image of Captain Schwartz, who probably would also have been forgotten, except that his photograph is very engaging.

It too suffers from severe damage and particularly when you look at the full size TIF file on the LOC here that you see that the extent of the repairs needed.

I have had this one on my radar for 5-6 years. Would love to take it on sometime, but just don't know if I have the time.

01691v.jpg

The good Captain was himself likely unimportant in the long run - what makes his image compelling is that he was a member of the 39th New York - the notorious Garibaldi Guard (note the GG on his hat) - and the luscious and wonderfully silly-looking Pettingill revolver he's aiming!
 

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