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The next "what would you do" question...

QuiltyMom

QuiltyMom

I'll never run out of things to do!
Joined
Feb 3, 2012
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I'm finally getting around to scanning the 100+ photos that my Grandpa took when he returned to Sweden to celebrate his 75th birthday back in 1955. It was the first time he had been there since he left at 16 years old. It was a really big deal.

I want to posthumously strangle someone I've never even met.

I'm now remembering my mom telling me that he borrowed someone's camera since they didn't own one, and that he didn't know how to use it. That's why 99% of them are out of focus.

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Except for the ship's first mate. :groan

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See why I want to strangle him?

So, I've almost finished scanning them. They're meticulously documented. Do I make a photo book out of them? Scan them and forget about them?

What would you do?
 
Oh, I wouldn't discard them so easily. Yeah, I understand the strangle factor, but the first mate is an attractive guy at least. :-;

Being as sentimental as I am I would probably make them into super simple pocket pages, call the album "out of focus" and have it printed as a soft cover or whatever the cheapest option is.
 
Rikki said:
Oh, I wouldn't discard them so easily. Yeah, I understand the strangle factor, but the first mate is an attractive guy at least. :-;
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:compcoffee

Being as sentimental as I am I would probably make them into super simple pocket pages, call the album "out of focus" and have it printed as a soft cover or whatever the cheapest option is.
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I love that title! I'll have to do this.
 
lol! I understand... but that first picture of the barn is really cool! I'm not sure how to fix. I would scrap them anyway, and share that story about the camera! It would lead to a wonderful little story of a man you hadn't met, recorded memories and you both have that in common!
 
jk703 said:
lol! I understand... but that first picture of the barn is really cool! I'm not sure how to fix. I would scrap them anyway, and share that story about the camera! It would lead to a wonderful little story of a man you hadn't met, recorded memories and you both have that in common!
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I love these ideas!
 
Rikki said:
Oh, I wouldn't discard them so easily. Yeah, I understand the strangle factor, but the first mate is an attractive guy at least. :-;

Being as sentimental as I am I would probably make them into super simple pocket pages, call the album "out of focus" and have it printed as a soft cover or whatever the cheapest option is.
Click to expand...

Oh my Yes!
 
I agree with all of the above. And the barn really looks pretty artistic, almost like a Photoshop filter was applied to it.
 
How many photos are in focus/otherwise considered "useable"? If it's like half the total pics, then you could use the blurry-but-pretty photos as the background for the in-focus images. That would make the pages more personal while also letting the focus (ha!) stay in the photos in better focus.

A lot of photos from back in the day aren't exactly HD quality, so you aren't the only one with blurry pics on your hands. :) But I get the frustration!
 
Tree City said:
How many photos are in focus/otherwise considered "useable"? If it's like half the total pics, then you could use the blurry-but-pretty photos as the background for the in-focus images. That would make the pages more personal while also letting the focus (ha!) stay in the photos in better focus.

A lot of photos from back in the day aren't exactly HD quality, so you aren't the only one with blurry pics on your hands. :) But I get the frustration!
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It's about 95% of them that are blurry, except for non-family peeps. Like the Greyhound bus driver. The First Mate is definitely wins the cuteness factor.

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But the family photos? This is what I have to work with. I can lighten them up some, but that's about it.

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I did find two group photos from his farewell that turned out. I've sent them to my family in Sweden to try and identify the people. At least I have those!

Oh, and the barn? The slide said it was an old hayloft on the family farm that was built in 1635. Pretty cool if that was actually the case!
 
Rikki said:
Being as sentimental as I am I would probably make them into super simple pocket pages, call the album "out of focus" and have it printed as a soft cover or whatever the cheapest option is.
Click to expand...
You've given me a great idea for my grandmother's photos! Thanks. :)
 
Blurry or not ...that's your history and I wish I had something similar of Lithuania. I might go with full page prints or close enough to full page with most of the blurry and do a text overlay in the least obtrusive spot. Or do a fairly big image and journaling down the side of each page, linen paper background - simpler than this one of mine because the photo and the text are all you need.

 
I would feel blessed that I even had them no matter how out of focus they might be. Because when you think about it (and you did touch on it in your first post) back in those days not everyone could afford a camera and the cost of processing the film so a lot less photos were taken.

If it were me, I would totally do a book of them without trying to clean them up and include the story of the borrowed camera.

JMHO.
 
I think you'll be able to work with what you have and it's definitely worthy being put together in an album. Have you tried some of the techniques for high pass filtering and smart sharpening in Photoshop? I think that would be worth a try on the family pics. As far as the landscapes, I think it gives them an artsy/watercolor quality that you could possibly run with by using photo masks on those pics.
 
I'm with Laura. I'd play with the sharpening/clarity (Wait, maybe clarity is lightroom?) and see what you can see. But the others, let them be. Sure, it's out of focus, but you can totally see the barn!

I know you don't have Adobe, but maybe it's worth a trial download to try it with the photos? I think you can have 30 days free? And you could see how it does for you.

I've been pretty impressed at how it's handling bad negative scans (the negatives are bad).
scan.jpg
 
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