Deep Dive Gallery
These samples offer a "deep dive" to provide background information as well as the retouching challenges. Original prints are shown first, followed by the retouched digital version.
Some of these samples are larger than the viewing window, so scroll left and right to view the entire image.
1947 - Ray Schalk's Fernwood Junior Baseball League, Chicago, IL
About Ray Schalk:
Baseball Hall of Famer Ray Schalk (back row, 4th from right in large photo) played the majority of his career for the Chicago White Sox. Schalk was one of the "Clean Sox" in the scandalous 1919 "Black Sox" World Series catching all 8 games (best of 9 series). He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955.
“Schalk is unquestionably the hardest working catcher in baseball as he is doubtless also the brainiest, the nerviest, the most competent. He presents the unique distinction of performing more work than any other catcher and at the same time performing it better. Both in quantity and in quality of service Ray Schalk is unquestionably the premier backstop in baseball.” (Baseball Magazine, 1920)
How image was made:
This photograph was taken with a panoramic camera, likely a Cirkut No. 8, to make a negative that was 8 inches high and 23 inches wide.
Condition of photograph and retouching notes:
This panoramic photo, 23 inches long, was stored rolled up causing several vertical ruptures of the photo's emulsion surface. Unrolling and rerolling over time caused further damage at these rupture areas. There is also overall extensive vertical micro-cracking of the emulsion, likely due to the photo being rolled and the drying of the emulsion over time. The tones of this photo seem to have preserved very nicely.
The great majority of the digital repair was "painting" over the damage to simulate the correct imaging. Two of the ballplayers' faces were severely damaged. These two faces were reconstructed in part by "borrowing" facial features from other players in the photo.
1941 - Naval Boot Camp, San Diego CA
About this image:
This panoramic image below was taken in San Diego in 1941. It is not known what month this photo was taken, but deployments were made in peacetime. Within several months, the U.S. was at war as were all of these recruits.
One sailor, Richard Leroy Bell, Seaman Second Class, shown in this thumbnail image and in the front row, left side of the enlarged image, served on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor and is emtombed there. His name appears on the Memorial Wall at the USS Arizona Monument. It is not known at this time if others in the original photo (132 men shown) also served on the Arizona.
How image was made:
Original print is 7 x 35 inches. This photograph was taken with a panoramic camera, likely a Cirkut No. 8, to make a negative that was 8 inches high and 36 inches wide. Though the image makes it look like the sailors were lined in straight rows, they were actually lined up in concentric arcs. During the exposure, the camera is rotated on axis about 90° over several seconds. The sailors on the left were actually recorded several seconds before those on the right. The diagram here shows how the trainees were lined up in an arc so that everyone is the same relative distance from the camera. The camera sweeps from left to right for the duration of the exposure. Notice also that the shadows fall to the right on the left side of the photo and fall to the left on the right side of the photo. This is further indication that the trainees were not lined up in straight rows.
Condition of photograph and retouching notes:
This image, 35 inches long, was stored rolled up in a fairly loose roll. As such, the inner portion of the roll was more exposed to air and light. This exposed area shows accelerated yellowing and bleaching. The roll was compressed at some point which left the image with three vertical ruptures along the width of the photo. The bulk of the retouching was to these ruptures and to equalize the density and contrast of the overall image.
1918 - Thomas Deveau, Halifax, Nova Scotia
About Thomas Deveau:
Condition of photograph and retouching notes:
Original print is 3.5 x 5.5 inches. Photographer: Cox Brothers Co.
This image had serious condition problems, primarily corners that were torn away and a fold across the image at Thomas' shoulder height.
