Digitizing and Enhancing Dry Plate Glass Negatives

A Guide for Under-Resourced Archives

Abstract

This case study breaks down the process of digitizing dry plate glass negatives with detailed steps that were developed via careful practice and observation. Archivists in small, under-resourced institutions may find this process particularly useful, as it requires only a few tools and offers instructions for preserving a photographic format that is commonly found in archives but can be intimidating to approach. The article discusses techniques for capturing high-quality digital photographs of the negatives, as well as methods through which the images can be significantly enhanced, namely, a combination of camera RAW settings and Adobe Photoshop. In this collection, each photograph of the glass plate negatives had a total of five adjustments, resulting in a polished product that is ready to be uploaded to a digital repository and otherwise shared with the public. The two camera RAW filters, Shadows and Clarity, restored a sizable amount of detail in each of the photographs; the remaining three adjustment layers, Invert, Black/White filter, and Levels, worked in cohesion to reverse the negative state of the images and increase overall clarity. Through these processes, this small Archive has supplemented original, delicate glass plates that cannot be exposed to light for extended periods and are largely undiscoverable to research communities into polished digital files.