Using Magic on Old Photographs

Using magic on old photographs looks at my work with old photographs to bring them to life.

Using Magic On Old Photographs

What Photographs Are We Talking About Here?

In this case I am talking about old photographs that I took many years ago, before I bought my first digital camera. Whilst many are just snapshots that are great just for memories, some have an artistic or pleasing composition that I thought I could do something with. Unfortunately I didn’t have the negatives for them so had to work with the printed versions which were not all in good condition.

A Little Recap On Life Before Digital Cameras

This is where I have to explain for those young enough not to know, that before digital cameras you took your maximum allowance of 24 or 36 photographs on a roll of film you inserted in your camera. You then sent the film off in the post or took it to a shop to be developed.  If you were a serious photographer, you could develop them yourself in a dark room. Yes, really. You would get back from holiday, then wait a while until the photographs were ready. (This is how ‘An Autumn Walk’ was first developed).

There was something quite nice about getting them some time after you had got back from holiday and then sitting down to reminisce over the photographs. That is unless you had your thumb over the lens or they were out of focus, then things got a bit miserable (speaking from experience). With digital cameras as well as taking large number of photographs of which you have instant access, you can actually see if the photograph is okay and take another one immediately if not. I think it is safe to say it is a change for the better (though there may be some serious photographers who disagree). This image ‘A Candle in Memoriam’ is another salvaged photo from the times before digital cameras.

How Did I Go About Reworking The Old Photographs?

I scanned the photographs in to my computer and then started working with them. It was not an easy process and several times I wished I hadn’t started! A couple of the photographs had damage that I had to deal with. Some (like Church of the Nativity)  had been taken in extremely low light with a camera not really up to the job and needed to be adjusted to allow for that. The four that feature in this blog took many hours of work and at least one of them drove me crazy in the process! Well, more crazy than usual. It was time consuming but worth it to see a few of my old memories in photographs take on a new, colourful shine as you can see.

It Is Exciting To Revisit My Thinking Behind My Old Photographs

I have to say that whilst time consuming it has been very exciting to revisit my old art photographs and be reminded of the thinking behind them. I have a whole folder full of these to work through, some will work and some won’t.

Barnet Boy has also allowed me to sift through his collection of photographs which has given me more to work with. Like this portrait of his cows from when he had a farm.

I think it is a great use of old photographs – and brings back memories.

This was originally posted in 2017 and reworked and republished on 12 April 2022.

Before you go

My name is Dorothy Berry-Lound an artist and writer. You can find out more about my art and writing at https://dorothyberryloundart.com.

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Thank you for reading!