WWI Photographic Negatives

[Amy]

Does anyone have any experience with developing photographs from old WWI negatives? I'm looking for information on how to develop such negatives into pictures, if it's still possible.

Please reply or email.
Thanks!

[mike_baram]

Most high schools and junior colleges have photography clubs or courses. The instructors should be able to give you the info you need.
Good luck.

[Michael]

Amy,

I had some of my grandfather's done, old Kodak negatives about 3x2". I took them into a camera store that does its own photofinishing. Most places that do developing only do colour on-site, and send the b & w away (in one case Montreal!).
So make sure that they are done in-house.

Or, learn to do it yourself.

Michael

PS: any update on your trip?

[Ira_Silverman]

Hi Amy:

Michael pretty much gave you the key info. Find a relatively local professional grade photo-finisher that processes B&W on site and request hand-finishing rather than machine processing.

Also, make sure you tell them the film was (most likely) orthochromatic. Knowing this ahead of time will allow the processor to select his paper and developer to give the best results.

A 3x2 negative taken with the small (f/6.7 or so) apertures of the time should have wide depth of field and a good range of sharpness. Don't be afraid to enlarge them. And a sepia toner can provide a very nice "vintage" look.

Hope this helps,

VBR,

Ira

Amy; I'm assuming these are black and white negatives that you're talking about. Wether they are glass plate or film you should be able to develop them in the normal manner of any B&W photo. BE WARNED however that when old negatives become very "dry" the films "emulsion" will have started to seperate from the base (Glass or Gel film). If you try to develop such a Neg. any liquid, including water, will strip the emulsion off and your Neg. will be ruined. Go through the Negs, find the least important one, and use that as your "Guinea Pig". If in fact the worst does happen you will need to get the Negs processed by a lab that specializes in Archival and Restoration film processing. Hope this suggestion is some help. PS this assumes the negs are flat. If they have curled corners or edges there will be greater problems caused by dryness of age.

I forgot to mention that if you havw already developed negatives and want to make prints from them, there should be no problem. Once again keep them away form liquids including water.

Mount your negative in your enlarger's glassless negative carrier. Most likely you will have to crop the subject area to fit a standard size carrier or make a black paper or ruby plastic frame for a larger cutout.
You will find, in most cases, that there is enough fading present that you will have to either be sarisfied with a partial rendition of the subject matter or take a chance on running the negative through an intensifier bath. You can do all of this yourself, unless you are rich, in which case any custom photo lab will do it for a very large chunk of cash.
If you happen to find a roll of undeveloped film, it will be orthochromatic, and the film can be developed by hand under a red safelight. This is called "developing by inspection" and you can find complete instructions in some older darkroom manuals.

[Amy]

Thanks guys. Your replies were a big help.

Hello Amy; I'll be glad to answer any questions I can on the photo work. Yes I've been down that road seversl times. If you have undeveloped film its best to have a lab that specializes in old film work. Yes, It'll be expensive, but the alternative could well be the loss of priceless photo documents. Good Luck.