The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-26
ARTISTIC SKILL
 IN PHOTOGRAP PHY Some Wonders Accomplished
 With Old Pictures BORN ARTISTS SUCCEED Unsatisfactory Likenesses of Dead Persons Turned Into Living Por- traits by Few Photographers
 of Skill and Patience.
BORN ARTISTS SUCCEED
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
 The making over of photographs, as it may be described, has opened up a dis tinct field of photography, but field with great high walls that only the born artist can climb.
 To get down to facts: A man lost his wife after many years of happy journey ing through life together. He had no satisfactory picture of her The nearest was a photograph of days long gone by.
 She wore hat and veil and her halr was arranged in fashion long discarded by her. The problem put up to the pho tographer was to make the picture of the dead woman look as the husband last re- membered her. 4 The hat must go, for it was out of date, and the veil, too, since that ob scured the all important face. Then there was the hair, which was down over the forehead when it should be arranged high.
 The photographer did take off the hat and veil and remove the hair from the forehead, arranging 1t just as the hus band said she last wore it. When the husband saw the completed photograph considerably enlarged he said nothing, put DurSI lHIO tears. w nat greater lTtD- ute could any artist ask?
 Plenty of Cases.
 Even in this age, when everybody seems photographed to death there are no end of cases in which a family finds itself lacking a. good picture of a member who has died, Thus q little child died with no record of her pretty face excepting three small, ehe0 photographs that had been taken by aTstreet photographer.
 None was goodN though each had some redeeming feature and the parents were in despair. Nevertheless the photogra- pher went ahead, and merging into one plate the designated good points of the three photographs made such resem- blance to the original that when the par ents got up enough courage to look at it-which was not until after a long strug- gle-tearS and silence were again the tribute to the skill of the photographers
 In another instance the photograph of dead son that was most liked by his parents-was seriously marred by the eyes.
 It was one of a group of three, in the first place, and then the bright sun had caused him to squint bit. Moreover ne wore a cap which threw a shadow across his face.
 To eliminate the two other figures was
 easy enough, but to make the eyes nor mal and after removing the cap to sup
 ply the hair as it was in life was a task calling for endles pains. It was done and done to the satisfaction of those most concerned in the result.
 A Rescued Daguerreotype. Again a fire raised havoc with room in a dwelling. In the debris that found its way into the ash barrel was daguer reotype. A member of the family saw 1t and rescued it.
 ha oh ha tO a daguerreotype turned blue by the heat and seemingly beyond recognition the rest of the family were for reconsgning 1t to the ash barrel. But the man who res cued it was not satisfied to discard 1t
 until he had found out what photo grapher could do
 The deguerreotype was taken to the photographer and a complete restoration of 1t made by repeated reproductions the final result being, of course, photo graphic print It was group daguerreo- type about 10 inches wide and probably one of the largest ever made, with half q dozen figures, one of which was almost beyond recognition excepsrong to the trained eyes of a photographer. 1hus a valuable relic has been preserved for all time.
 To take another instance, a mother
 died leaving only an oil painting of her self. Tn life this hand seemed satisfactory enough to the children, or perhaps they iia> been indifferent to the faults of the painting. When the mother died each 'one of these faults stood out. It was undoubtedly a good painting. but it was not satisfying likeness This feature was not right, and this, and this, and so 'on.
 Correcting a Painting. photographer was asked to repro duce the painting, as it was said he could remedy the faults By frequent con sultation with the family he worked out the faults one by one, including de- 1 feet in the pose of which the family had I been conscious but could not define until, | by repeated questioning, the photographer was able to see what the trouble was and | pointed it out.
 Plate after plate was made until finally | the family had something that was al l the painting was not. The photograph oi