PhilS

Perhaps this has been discussed, but I didn't find the topic when searching the forum, so please bear with me.

In the olden days (when I was young!) the prints we got back from the film processor had a white border. These pre-dated the advent of borderless printing.

Sometimes the border was plain white all the way around. Sometimes it was also contained the date - perhaps only the month and year - that the print was made. (Remember that this was in the old film days in the 1950s and 1960s before metadata existed - at least in any camera that my family could afford!)

Sometimes commercial processors used paper that had a scalloped or some other decorative edge, although the border edge that touched the image was always straight. These decorative edges never had a date in them (as I recall).

Here is my question: When scanning old prints, is your preference to include only the image? Or do you include the edge and the potential date as archival evidence of its provenance?

Bill P

The jagged edge was called a deckle edge (not a dektol edge) and you used to be able to buy scissors and paper cutters do do this. I think the chain craft stores still sell the scissors. I wouldn't do that in the scan, if You want the look, print with a white border and trim.

I wouldn't be concerned about the provenance of a copy of an old photo.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

I don't think there are any actual rules about this. Personally I might include the edged if they have any writing on them but I would probably print any "new" prints from the scans as plain white or borderless prints. That is pretty much what I've done in the past.

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

I still have my deckle-edge guillotine, so I can add a fresh deckle edge to a plain white border.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Personal preference.

One can always remove the border by cropping later.
I have lots of photos left to scan. I go with the speed (not cropping the scan) and crop later if I wanted to use the image.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I agree. Scan to the high quality / pixel resolution your scanner supports and edit the results. Worry about removing any legacy borders after the image is digitized.

NBBPH Loc: Indiana

When I scan old photos I keep the white edge and use this to set the white balance in Photoshop. It is amazing how it will make the old photos look much better. I keep the border when printing just to maintain the old look. Not sure why, it is just the way I like to look at it. Speaking of dates - the date is the date of processing and is often quite different from the date the photo was taken. Remember film in the camera at Christmas with exposures remaining and then you get it out for summer vacation to shoot up the remainder of the film?

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Dektol? You are dating yourself. Ah, the aroma of the darkroom. Lightroom never smelled as nice.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

What a good idea about color balance. Thanks for mentioning it. The value of the date may not be in its precision but we now know the latest date it was taken. People make a hobby and living out trying to date a photograph from the clues it has.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

I keep the border most of the time. I use old pictures in family tree books to convey the age and agelessness of the picture.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

If the work is for someone else, I give them a choice:

* entire paper border (deckle edge against a neutral gray)
* entire image area (no border)
* my judgment of the best crop (some image area discarded)

If I have the latitude and budget, I'll scan only the portion of the image which makes the best composition. I charge extra for that, and for any color correction, image adjustment, spotting, and retouching requested.

If the work is for family, or for a family, school, or company documentary video, I crop creatively, color correct, adjust tonality, spot, straighten, etc.

I just finished watching Ken Burns' excellent 8-part series on Country Music. He digitized a TON of old photos, and it looks like he cleaned up nearly all of them. Even family snapshots appear to have been edited for best appearance.

I occasionally do a sales award video for corporate clients. Those usually involve scanning selections from the family albums of the award recipient, along with any corporate historical photos of them. I always clean up the images and provide the company and recipient with copies of the JPEGs used in the video. I do the same for school class reunion retrospective videos.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Deckle edge is dated, too. I actually have a deckle edge trimmer I bought in the late 1960s. By then, its popularity was fading, but I got it on sale, and figured it would be a special retrospective effect in the future.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Don't we all wish we could edit to that quality! I recently did a video with some stills. Those zooming and panning effects make a world of difference.

I am a bit surprised that you edit to different levels. I cannot show anyone a picture that I have not edited "all the way". However, I respect your experience and expertise. As business people, we all have to deal with giving away something free unknowing that it may not be appreciated and the cold, hard fact that time is money.

Thanks for this and all your posts.

Leitz Loc: Solms

Those of us who are capable of doing our own thinking scan them the way we prefer.