Cameras

Depending on how damaged the photo is, you can get a program called "photoimpressions" which I use. I am actually redoing some old family photos and you can do all sorts of tricks with this program: Tears, discoloration, lighten, darken, touch up smudges, old spotting on photos, etc. If you are interested please post again and I can give you more info. Also, if you don't want to bother with this, just phone up a camera shop and they can tell you where you can take these photos to be touched-up. You can't harm the picture itself as you have to scan the picture into photoimpressions. You still have the original photo, but have put the scanned image into 'pictures' to work on. I restore many pictures for family and friends and haven't had a complaint yet. They get the original photo back and the scanned photo that I have amended.

Marcy

I would add that this is not restoration in any correct sense, but corrective manipulation of copies. The potential for physical restoration of a photograph depends on the nature of the damage, but in most cases is very limited. Scratched negatives can be retouched to a degree. The potential for scratched paper prints is much less (in truth, virtually impossible), so they may require the manipulations decribed above. Daguerreotypes are often found tarnished. There are chemical processes for restoring them to their original state, but cleaning should only be done by experts. The lightest touch of even a butterfly wing to the surface of a Daguerreotype will scratch it irreparably, so no physical contact should ever be made with the surface of the plate. In a few cases, cleaning chemicals can have long-term adverse effects on the image, so cleaning should be undertaken only in the most extreme need and only by highly qualified restorers. Photo restoration is something around which academic degrees are built, so it isn't something to be taken on lightly .

You should use someone who has a lot of expertise with this so they don't ruin the original picture.

Addendum: If you're talking about an old B&W photograph, retouching 'colors' and a 00 brush were used before digital manipulation came about.Spotone was available in neutral,cold,and warm black liquids, which was diluted with water, and a few drops were put on an impermeable surface to dry.Once dried, you'd wet the 00 or 000 brush with your tongue,take up some colour on your brush, test the intensity on your thumbnail, then apply toner with the very tip of the brush, a pinhead-sized bit at a time,(hence the term"Spotting)SLOWly building up intensity until the spot was the same tone as the original.If the photo was of any value and likely to be reproduced again, the retouched print was then copied, giving a 'new' negative.B&W negative retouching was done, but was more difficult, and the risk of further damaging the negative was always present.Colour retouching was also done, using Kodak Retouching Colors, but was far more involved, and best left to professional retouchers .

Depending on the condition of the mechanics of the machine, as well as the cosmetic appearance of the machine, a range of $50.00 to $300.00 would be the going price. I have seen this item at a thrift shop for $27.00 intact. Although this is a rare find, over the years I have seen them at yard sales and pawn shops as well. Replacement bulbs and tubes are sometimes problematic. If you happen to locate a machine that is up and running when you buy it, you run the risk of blowing a bulb or tube each time the machine is switched on. The hardest thing a tube has to do is turn on. The initial power surge is usually what kills the tube. When I was in the military, we had lots of tube powered electronic devices, which we never switched off. This extended the life of the tubes for years as opposed to weeks when switching off/on. Of course you can't leave your projector on for this amount of time, I include this information about tube technology as most folks today do not have experience with tube devices. A few Fender Guitar Amps still use tubes, as the sound is preferable to transistor amps. Tubes were last manufactured in China, after the USA companies discontinued production. A quick internet search for bulbs and tubes might be in order before investing in a projector that you intend to operate on a long term basis. These machines are great fun and as a kid inspired me to going in to the motion picture business.

To me the Kodacope Projector is priceless!

I think you should take both. It's important to know where photography came from to fully appreciate it in it's entirety. I'm currently taking a film class. I'm finding it very beneficial and I've always shot DSLR. So I don't think one is better than the other. Plus film is the sharpest image you can ever achieve and its made with silver halide crystals, so it will last hundreds of years longer than anything you print off at Walgreens.

A digital is faster, smarter, handy, easy to use, and I think altogether better. You decide what you want to take.

Film Photography is passe'. Stay with digital and study Photoshop editing.

There is no reason to take a class about film photography unless you want to learn about the historical aspect. Digital photography has completely overtaken film. Soon, it will be difficult to even buy film, and it is already getting hard to find processing. Digital and Photoshop are the answer.

Digital photography makes your print processing easier and cheaper. You can choose your photo paper, which printer type to use or choose an online printing service to print your photos.

Here are some of your printing options:

• Online printing services. The ease of an online printing service often outweighs the expense, since at home you also have to consider the expense of toner and a printer. Most services allow online uploading of your prints, and mail you your prints for pennies on the dollar. Some even provide online cropping and noise reduction tools or the ability to store your photos online.

• Printing on photo paper. Buying a printer, toner and good photo paper can be expensive. However, you have more control of the quality of your prints and you don�t have to wait to find how your prints will appear.

1. Photo printer at home-there are quite a few home photo printers that have the memory card slots right on the front of it so you can either download the photos to the computer and then send what you want to the printer (allowing you to edit and save the pictures first) or you can simply remove the memory card from the camera and insert it into the slot on the printer and hit the print button. Some of the printers even have an LCD on it so that you can scroll through the photos and do simple editing on the printer.

2. Photo processing retail-Almost all of the photo processing shops that you used for your 35mm film will now have equipment for digital processing. You can drop off your memory card or some shops have you select what photos you want as well as the quantity off of a computer monitor like device.

3. Online printing services-very low cost-you just upload the photos to the site and make your selections and then they send them to you in the mail. Also great for special occassions because most offer space on their website for your pictures and give you a password that you can send to your family and friends so they can view your pictures and order what they want, pay for them and then have the pictures sent directly to them.

Digital printing offers various options and your creativity will make things better. There are templates that are available online to fit your different specifications. There are photo booths that would do the printing job professionally for you, and of course, photo printing at home is a hobby that is gaining so much popularity because of the satisfaction that emerge out of the efforts exerted by the ordinary people.

It is certainly possible to make your digital photos look as good as film photos. Follow a few simple rules for frame-worthy results:

• Make sure you download your images at full resolution. Image quality is highest when photos are at full resolution.

• Review the file properties: 300 dpi, 400K, and 1600 x 1200 pixel count is typically good for printing up to 8x10s.

• Use archival paper to create long-lasting prints. Be sure to store it out of the sun and humidity, as both will degrade the paper.

The resolution that the photo is taken at is important but just as important as that will be the was that the photo was printed. Although the home photo printers and improving, I still feel that the photo going through a chemical process (like at a photo lab) will create the best results as well as having the best archieval quality. Also important to the outcome of the photo will be the quality of the camera itself (some have better lenses than others, some will have better color and some will have better allowance for low light situations) I prefer to stay with brands that specialize in optics.