Damaged! 1956
I found a group of early Disneyland slides a while ago; they were a mess! Faded, covered in mysterious orange blooms and blotches, and generally awful. I got rid of about half of them, they were beyond salvaging. But I think that there is still something worth looking at in the rest.
This shot of three cute kids on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is probably the worst of the bunch that I kept. I didn't even bother to try to fix any of the damage; too extensive.
See what I mean? What the heck?
BUT... some of them were still relatively OK. With a bit of time and a lot of help from Photoshop's cloning tool, I wound up with this charming shot of the Teacups.
Stay tuned for more next week!
11 comments:
That first pic looks like flames are dancing about as the car exits the "Hell" scene!
The picture/color quality is way more important to me than damage / flaws. They are vintage shots you're coming across in all kinds of condition, so some imperfections go with the territory. That's my way of saying, I appreciate seeing all these vintage pics, I appreciate the efforts you take to present them looking good as reasonably possible and I'd feel kinda guilty if you feel obliged to spend much time fussing with the "clone tool" and such. Plus, there's always the point that sometimes it's better to see the "real thing" warts and all than an idealized facsimile.
Dissertation on that point aside, I enjoyed all these fine. Is that a happy family or what? That's what it's all about! I like that ramshakle window on the raft's motor cover and the row of "dynamite" for the guests to sit on is so funny (to me, blame the Road Runner cartoons of my youth). There's a certain blissful fun zone aura to the last one, again the happiness is so clear, and contagious - thanks again Maj!
I agree with Chiana...the subject matter is of more importance to me! LOVED these!
Having worked in the photo industry for quite a few years I would say that it looks like water damage. If you let water stand on a slide long enough you can get blotches like that. In addition, heat (as in up in an attic) can really do a number on them as well, but that is usually general fogging, not blotches.
That being said I commend your efforts to save them! The bottom one is beautiful!
By all means, put up the bad 'uns! But may I offer a suggestion? I agree with Chiana about showing the originals as well as the 'shopped-up restorations, but for a very specific reason: You never know when someone may want to use one of these old shots as historical evidence, perhaps with regard to some absurd detail in it that you would never have guessed anyone could be interested in. Hey, sometimes the truth ain't pretty, as they say. Just a thought.
In a way - these are better than "perfect" slides. I love a good Kodachrome slide (thank you for hundreds of them!) but these have their own charm. The second one really looks like flames and your tea cup restoration looks super!
Here's an absurd detail: Do the rubber devils in Mr Toad's Hell have cloven feet or toes?
.... Come on. You really didn't think I had anything important to contribute?
For some reason, my computer logged in on under my real name. Curses, I am unmasked!
Speaking of TNT barrels, the damage looks like a fire effect on the raft (dangerously close to those barrels!)
LOL, the raft caught fire passing the settler's cabin.
These are great, thanks for the hard work.
JG
Nice pics. I'm like you...I'd rather see the shopped pics than the ruined ones. Keep up the good work! BTW I was at a thriftshop last week that had about 50 boxes of old slides. Some were marked "Disneyland '62", "Los Angeles -64", etc including other now defunct So. Cal theme parks. I opened the boxes and they were ALL EMPTY!! ARRG! What happened to the slide? No one working there could tell me..."Oh, they came that way..." Bummer.
rosie
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