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Adobe Photo Restoration

Restoration of Philadelphia Police 1932

I met with my client earlier today, as I delivered one of my latest restoration projects.

This was an image taken on May 4, 1932, of the Second Platoon, 40th District Police station in Philadelphia.

Originally, I was presented with a rolled up image that was approximately 8 x 10 inches wide, and had a 3 inch tear on the left side, which made unrolling the image for viewing, let alone scanning, rather difficult.

Once opened, one could easily see that there were cracks in the emulsion in several areas on the image, and that the left side had also undergone severe fading from the way it was stored.

Looking at it with more detail, and listening to my client, his grandfather is the left most person in the image.

“Think you can fix this picture of my grandfather?”

Restoration of Philadelphia Police 1932 - Second Platoon, 40th District
Restoration of Philadelphia Police 1932 – Second Platoon, 40th District

I said that was going take some time, and gave him a rough estimate, which he accepted and I was on with my challenge!

After finally being able to carefully layout the print onto my scanner, and doing a high-resolution scan, was I able to actually see black scratch marks, that had appeared to have been on the original negative.

What I also found very interesting about this image, from a historical perspective, is that there are at least two black officers and I believe there is a third, and shows how the Philadelphia Police department was ahead of its time when it came to racial diversity.

Thankfully, I was able to listen to several good books while I worked on the image, and after about 15+ hours of work, I was able to meet with him today, to return is original image and he was thrilled with the prints that he had ordered.

Based on watching my client scrutinize the prints I had done, and his reaction during the meeting, and think it is safe to say, I saved grandpa!

So if you have any images that you wish to be restored, please feel free to contact me for free quote.

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Adobe Announcements Awards Chester County Photo Restoration Software West Chester

Best of 2015

Thumbtack Best Pro of 2015I was reading through my email this morning, and was happy to find out that Seymour Digital Imaging was voted Thumbtack BEST OF 2015!

Needless to say, I want to Thank First and Foremost, my customers!

It’s YOUR pictures and stories behind the images that really keep me going!

A great unsung History in each image!

I would also like to thank the folks at Thumbtack.com for helping to connect the Customers looking for quality Services!

– Andrew
§ § § § §


PS – I’m still located in Downingtown, near Lionville!

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Adobe Announcements Chester County Featured Malvern Photo Essay Photo Journal Photography Tone Mapping

Special Malvern Supplement

I had a chance to work with the good folks over at County Lines Magazine again for their August special Supplement – “Stroll a Royal Mile… Malvern“!

Back in the beginning of June, I got an email from Jo Anne Durako the Editor of the magazine and the writer, Emily Hart about the idea of the supplement, and during the course of the thread, we had an outline for the issue.

On the First day of shooting, I took my two kids with me, as we walked King Street.

It was especially fun for me, because when I first moved down from Boston in 1993, I moved to Malvern, and lived there for a year.

Since then, there have been many changes to the town, and it very much seems to being in a growth mode!

Here are some images of:

  • Christopher’s Restaurant
  • Grazia Spa
  • Julie Anne’s Place
  • Kimberton Whole Food
  • Knots and Weaves
  • Louella
  • Nation Bank of Malvern
  • Posh Collections
  • Restaurant Alba
  • The Picket Fence
  • UpHome Ltd
  • Wolf’e Baldwin Brass Center

that were used in the Malvern Supplement!

So, if you get a chance, pick up a copy of the August issue of County Lines Magazine with the Special Malvern Supplement!

If you are interested in seeing a PDF version of the article, Special Malvern Supplement.adobe-PDF-icon[1]

Hope you enjoy, and if you have any comments, please let met know!

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Adobe Blogging Equipment How to(s)? Information Photography Reference Tech Talk Tips Utilities

Using Lightroom to buy a Lens

I’ve been thinking about buying a new lens for several years now, and I can never figure out what I want to get.

At the moment, I only carry three lenses:

I lost my EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM last spring, when it decided to go for a swim, and picked up the 75-300mm as a quick replacement.

I must say there is a noticeable difference between those two lenses.

Anyhow…

In my effort to figure out what Lens I wanted to purchase next, I needed to assess my style of photography, again.

In my film camera days, I carried 5-6  fixed length lenses, but in the digital age, I’ve gone down to three.

Mentally I had an idea, but I had no data to back up my real work environment.

Or so I thought…

While in Adobe Lightroom, I realized I could use the EXIF data contained in the metadata of each file – Lens and Focal Lengths!

This is a very fascinating look, at all of one’s images, over 31,000 in this one catalog!

Using Lightroom and the embedded EXIF metadata information, I could clearly see:

Most Used Lens

  • 18mm-55mm –  8168 images (25.79%)
  • 28-135mm –  16332 images (51.56%)
  • 70-300mm –  3798 images (11.99%)
  • 75-300mm –  1996 images (6.30%)

Most Used Focal Lengths

  • 18mm – 4258 images (13.44%)
  • 28mm – 4363 images (13.78%)
  • 70mm – 1339 images (4.23%)
  • 135mm – 2626 images (8.29%)
  • 300mm – 1888 images (5.96%)

Needless to say, sorting by every focal length alone is a large grouping, but in my case, I looked for any Focal Length over 1000 images or spikes.

Oddly, there is no spike around 55mm (473 images), which suggests that I never really used the 18mm-55mm all the way zoomed in.

Here is an exercise: What if your Lens happens to cross over in their Focal Length?

In this case, simply isolate/select a given Lens and Record the Focal Length numbers, which can reveal which Lens you actually used for a similar situation, and Thumbnails, just below.  It’s a great way to remind you of what you did!

I wish there was a way to export the data and bring it into a spread sheet for my geeky fun! (Note to Self…)

In my case, it turns out to be the Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, which is now verified with actual Lens data.

That did not surprise me in the least, but which side of the Lens should I consider for my next Lens?

Clearly, my next largest ranges are 18mm (13.44%) and 28mm (13.78%) — about 27.22% of the images.

At the same time do I look at the 70-300mm range, which is 18.29%, because I a shot 70mm+ 18.46% of the time?

If this confuses you, don’t worry, because the more you dig into the data, the worse it becomes!

Try some of these!

  • Sort by Year – See how your Capture needs have changed
  • Sort by Body – Most used combinations to compare results

The list goes on.

I just wanted to highlight another aspect of Adobe Lightroom that might help you in your decision-making.

Now if you have any ideas on what I should do about my Lens dilemma, please let me know via email.

Update(s) –

07/17/2015 – In my morning reading, I ran into this site lightroomdashboard.com, in which you upload your Lightroom catalog file (.lrcat), and it will visualize your shooting habits. With a backup of my live catalog (1.27 GBs), I tried the “Drag-n-Drop” interface, and Chrome crashes. There is a Note that says they are aware of issues with 2+ GBs LR Catalogs. I would not be surprised their server(s) are being hit hard today. Need to check later.

>>> “Commenting Off” because of Spammers – send email! <<<

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Adobe Chester County Christmas Downingtown Downingtown Christmas Parade Events Photo Essay Photo Journal Photography Projects Tone Mapping

2014 Christmas Parade

It is that time again! The annual Downingtown Christmas parade!

More images can also be found on my Flickr account – 2014 Downingtown Christmas Parade.

It was a little cold, but plenty of warm spirits!

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