Antiquing photos.....

[casil403]

Over a glass of wine a couple of weeks ago, I had this conversation with my dear friend John. We were talking about photography and the subject came up about using techniques to make a photo look old. I personally like the process and have been doing it on and off again with several photos...especially since I got the Silver Efex program.
John is absolutely against the idea/technique. |He knows about using tea to give a sepia tinge to images. He is a Master Librarian/rare book collector and he told me that the practice it so goes against what librarians/paper preservationists/archivists are about..which is to preserve and save as much the photo as possible and avoid things like sepia/fading/darkening and all the other things that cause damage to images over time. Antiquing photos highlights all the things preservationists/archivists/librarians are trying to avoid happening to an image/book/document over time. He finds the process a bit abhorrent....lol...and cringes every time he looks at my Flickr and sees one of my antiqued images.

I was just curious to know anyones thoughts/input on the subject.
Do you antique photos? What do you think of John's comments?
Do you like the look or no?

[Bambi]

I guess it's where 'art' and 'archivists' collide.

I am thinking the processing photos to make them old in software will likely not impact on their ability to be preserved. But maybe not spilling tea on them.

[casil403]

Hmmm. .... was hoping to get a conversation started here.. interested to know what people think on the subject.

[casil403]

I guess it's where 'art' and 'archivists' collide.

Good point taken B...I think John has failed to take note that aged photos are indeed a form of art and manipulation of images is the same. John is a bit stubborn and I don't ever think I could convince him of that.