[pure-silver] Restoring faded prints

The idea that faded prints are not recoverable has always
annoyed me.

The silver is still the in paper.  It may have combined with
other less savory elements, but it is still there.  The image
has not gone away.

If one can't recover the image chemically then it should be
possible by other means.  There must be an absorbance band
in the UV or IR (or even in the visible) spectrum.  I would
think it is possible to scan it with a laser or photograph it with a narrow band filter (narrow being 1 or 2 nanometers) and get the image data back. I am sure Raman imaging could recover it but that is not (yet) practical. 

A blue or green filter is traditional for photographing
stained prints for restoration as it recovers density
in the yellow-brown stained silver.

In today's digital post-modern age the original no longer
has cachet and an improved copy should be considered just as good. Though 'improvement' is often anything 
but.

==
Nicholas O. Lindan
Cleveland Engineering Design, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio 44121

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