Restoring Old Mountaineering Photo

[BottomBracket]

I am restoring some old pics of mine from the early 80's. Which do you like better? The original is full of scrathes and dust, and it took a lot of cloning and healing in PS.

[Leorooster]

Definitely the 1st one. It looks more like film. I love the composition btw. Great restoring job!

[jfrancho]

I'm with Leorooster. The second one may appeal to those that aren't familiar with older photography, So I would hang on to both, they are both very nice. I've tried this in the past, and it isn't easy. Sometimes you get lost in the pixels. It seems like you need to step back and look at the picture and work on the worst sections first, repeating this process over and over. BTW, who was the original photog? Is there any back story for it? I like to hear about a picture's provenance.

[Michaelmjc]

much much better, it looks actually pretty darn good now. What were they doing?

[jfrancho]

Do you have a copy of the untouched scan to post?

[BottomBracket]

Thanks for the kind words, folks. This was taken more than 20 years ago, back when I was still quite young and brash (still am at times). Climbing mountains was (and still is) a passion of mine, and during the 80's we used to climb wearing jeans and combat boots, and sleep in canvas tents that leaked and absorbed water when it rained. We didn't have any of the high tech equipment that we are used to nowadays, and in a way I am glad that I have experienced old school trekking and climbing.

This picture was taken during a trek from the peak, where it was very windy, back to the sheltered base camp a quarter of a kilometer away. I am not sure what camera was used (I have a rangefinder and several SLR's), but most probably my old Leica rangefinder, a IIIc. It is a meterless camera and back then I set the exposure from reckoning. I had to think out every exposure, which I based mostly on a memorized chart based on 1/1/25 shutter speed and adjusting the aperture depending on the light condition (cloudy, sunny, etc). Sometimes I had a cheat sheet taped to the back of the Leica. I felt really spoiled with my 'newer' SLR's such as the Olympus OM-1 and 2, Canon A and F series, and Nikon F series, what with their TTL metering and either shutter or aperture priority modes. Today, it's a breeze with digital stuff, with all the modes and even auto focussing - it is so much easier to fire away most of the time without thinking about developing expense. When I was younger, my dad bought the cameras (he loved to collect them) but the film and developing was entirely up to me and my meager budget.

The film used was either Kodak Tri-X or the cheaper Necopan, both black and white, I'm not even sure if they are both available today. I kinda missed those days! I'll try to post the original digitized pic later.