Can this be improved?

[alistquin]

hoobaloo, Many thanks for your contribution! 

Prue,
That'll teach me to remember my gender and not to try and multi-task!! 
I was trying to do 3 things at the same time and one of them involved an 1893 DOB. You are quite correct, the baby was born in 1929.

I'm quite happy to photograph the photograph and upload, but I won't be able to do it until late tomorrow or Saturday morning.

Alistair

[Gadget]

Hi Alistair

Here's mine. I've thrown nearly everything at it and then drawn/painted it back in and added a tiny bit of texture 


gnu

[alistquin]

gnu, Many thanks for that - I'm certain it wasn't a 5 minute job! 

Prue,
As promised, here is a photograph of the photograph. I've taken over a dozen as the light this morning is very bright and I can't seem to get one just right. I'm posting one of the lighter ones but if there is too much light bleeding in I can post a darker version.

Alistair

[onetiger]

My effort, when it's all boiled down, is a compromise between blur and noise.

[Gadget]

Just turning Alistair's photo around so that we can all see it more easily.

gnu

PS - Alistair it was more like a day's work if I add in all the inspections before I touched it - but I always do that with images   

[PrueM]

Thanks Alistair (and gnu )

It's a curly one.  I'm still not 100% sure, but I think having seen your photo of the photo, that it might be a print on uncoated paper - something like a salted paper print (see here http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/589_salted.html).  That makes me think that it's a home-made photo, done by someone experimenting with old techniques.

I could be completely off the mark with this but that's what the surface appearance suggests to me!

The other option would be a paper with a matting agent (such as fine silica) applied to the surface, but I've only ever seen this type of paper used with fine studio prints, and the surface is much finer with the grains only apparent using magnification, so I don't really think this is the answer.

So, in short, I'm still puzzled    But thank you for letting me indulge my curiosity    And you have had some great restorations done too, on a difficult photo 

Cheers
Prue