Ambrotype Repair Final: part 5 of 5

I finally finished the broken ambrotype right before Christmas. I needed it for a Christmas gift for my Aunt. She had broken the photo when she was a little girl about 60 years ago - and for Christmas she got it back looking like new - maybe even better than new.
The process required lots of clone tool, heal tool, and artistic patience. Obviously if there was a crack you have to cover that crack up with parts of the image that aren't damaged. Repair takes time and a good eye.

I think the final outcome was pretty good.

Below is the original damaged photo

Ambrotype Repair: Part 4

I've spent the majority of the time cloning healthy parts of the photo to cover damaged parts. My main photoshop tools are the spot heal and clone. I've also had to use the dodge tool to lighten shadows created by the glass cracks. This is gonna take some time!

Overall now:

Ambrotype Repair: Part 3

Crack Repair

The most obvious damage to the photo is the enormous cracks that came when it was broken. Additionally there are some scratches and general wear that has occurred to the photos sensitive image. All of these things will be fixed as I use photoshop to clone and replace damaged parts of the image with parts that are not damaged. It is kind of like how a plastic surgeon might graft healthy skin to repair scarred skin. This process is rather laborious so there may be some delays in posts.

Ambrotype Repair: Part 2

The first step was to run adjustments and curves on the photo. Ambrotypes don't have much contrast in them by nature, so running curves on the photo really allow much more depth to the photo. I also added a desaturation layer to pull out some of the weird colors that came with pumping up the contrast. There was a little rose pigment added to the original on the cheeks and chin of my great great grand parents. I want to leave that in, however I don't want the ugly greens and browns that seep in from the background. Adding the adjustment layer allows me to reduce some of those ugly colors without degrading the original photo.

Ambrotype Photo Repair: Part 1

Mary and Aaron Kinslow were my Great-Great Grand parents on my Grand Mother's side. They had Ambrose Kinslow who had a daughter Ma (Not her name) Kinslow who married a Nunn who had a bunch of daughters. One daughter was Susie Nunn who married Gill Harbison. They had two kids, Kay and David Harbison. David was my dad. SOOOOOO yeah, I'm related to the old folks and I'm going to be fixing this picture. I'll post the progress here.

About the Photo

This Ambrotype was taken around 1840-60. Ambrotypes are a type of photograph that is taken on glass. The light-sensitive chemical compound is put on the glass, then exposed to the light through the camera lens. The actual picture is a positive image that is white. You wouldn't be able to tell much by holding the glass to light. In order to see the details you must put the glass over a dark background like black cloth or paper.
This particular picture was broken and therefore was in many pieces. Since the photo has to be lit from the front, scanning was not an option.
To get the photo digitized I piece the broken picture together over a piece of black cardboard. I put a florescent light directly above the glass at an angle and took a picture of the photo using my Canon 6D. To repair the photo I will be using Photoshop.

Brachiopod 419.2–358.9 million years ago

Devonian, Silurian Period or Ordovician fossil of Frankfort kentucky. Probably found in limestone. Brachiopods were marine animals. Brachiopod wiki
Kentucky fossil Regions

Crinoid 358.9–298.9 million years ago

Mississippian Period of South Central Kentucky. Crinoids and blastoids are echinoderms. There still are crinoids in the present day oceans however over 600 varieties are extinct. The Mississippian period would have been Early Carboniferous which was 358.9–298.9 million years ago.
South Central Kentucky would have been shallow sea with lots of shallow sea plants. Crinoids are the fossil remnants of stems of flower like animals. Carboniferous period
Crinoids
Missippian Period of Kentucky

Syro Hittite Idol: 1180 - 700 BC

Small Syro Hittite Idol 1180 - 700 BC. Sadigh
Ancient Resources Syro Hittite on Wikipedia

Celtic bracelet 400 BC - 600 BC

This celtic bracelet served as both adornment as well as money. Celtic tribes used various items like rings or bells as currency. A bracelet would have served as well.

Sadigh Gallery
Ancient Resources Celtic

Moqui Marbles

The iron oxide concretions found in the Navajo Sandstone exhibit a wide variety of sizes and shapes. Their shape ranges from spheres to discs; buttons; spiked balls; cylindrical hollow pipe-like forms; and other odd shapes. Although many of these concretions are fused together like soap bubbles, many more also occur as isolated concretions, which range in diameter from the size of peas to baseballs. The surface of these spherical concretions can range from being very rough to quite smooth. Some of the concretions are grooved spheres with ridges around their circumference.^[4][5]

The abundant concretions found in the Navajo Sandstone consist of sandstone cemented together by hematite (Fe₂O₃), and goethite (FeOOH). The iron forming these concretions came from the breakdown of iron-bearing silicate mineralsby weathering to form iron oxide coatings on other grains. During later diagenesis of the Navajo Sandstone while deeply buried,reducing fluids, likely hydrocarbons, dissolved these coatings. When the reducing fluids containing dissolved iron mixed with oxidizing groundwater, they and the dissolved iron were oxidized. This caused the iron to precipitate out as hematite and goethite to form the innumerable concretions found in the Navajo Sandstone. Evidence suggests that microbial metabolism may have contributed to the formation of some of these concretions.^[12] These concretions are regarded as terrestrial analogues of the hematite spherules, called alternately Martian "blueberries" or more technicallyMartian spherules, which the Opportunity rover found at Meridiani Planum onMars.^[4][5]

Prehistoric Indian Gorget - Brookville IN

Meteorite sliver. Sweden 800,000 YO

This fine specimen is an Octahedrite meteorite. It gets its' classification due to the crystal patterning of the iron in the meteorite. "Octahedrites are the most common structural class of iron meteorites. The structures occur because the meteoric iron has a certain Nickel concentration that leads to the exsolution of kamacite out of taenite while cooling." --view wikipedia This specific meteorite is probably a sliver from the Muonionalusta meteorite that struck northern Sweden around 800,000 years ago. Here is an awesome link about meteorites in the region, along with pictures of pieces being excavated.

Clay pipe conglomeration 1880s

Purchased in Metamora Indiana Fall 2012 - The pipe is originally from Point Pleasant Ohio. It was discovered in a creek in Clermont County Ohio. Here is a paper over the pipes from that region

Trilobite

Purchased in San Antonio May 2013.