Beken Of Cowes Archive

In order to make silver gelatin photographs today using the original glass plate negatives in the Beken of Cowes archive, which are over 130 years old, first the glass plate negatives needed to be cleaned and then scanned to produce a digital file. Here's how the arduous task of digitally restoring the Beken of Cowes photographs was completed by Paul Brett in 2015, by way of an example using Alfred John West's iconic photograph of Meteor II Aground in 1899. Glass plate negatives were originally 'wet coated' at the time...