Include 1-5x7 print with CD of completed work. Delivery is usually 2-3 weeks,  complex orders may take longer. Orders are shipped via USPS Priority Mail.

Level 1 ........$35
Level 2 ........$59
Level 3 .........$85
Level 4 ........$115
Level 5 ........$175

All orders are subject to shipping & handling charges, plus any applicable sales tax. Payments are accepted via e-mail through PayPal.

History of Portraiture and Copying Photographs

      In 1837, a Frenchman named Louis Jacques Mandés Daguerre created the first photographic portrait image permanently fixed onto a copper sheet plated with silver – known as the Daguerreotype photograph. By the time of Daguerre’s death in 1851, daguerreotype photography was practiced throughout the world and was established as the primary process for portrait photography. In the United States, the daguerreotype photograph was used more than paper processes.

      Copying original photographs began as a photo mechanical process using ink in a printing press. The idea for using photographs to supply the press was part of the earliest photography experiments undertaken in France. Workable techniques for printing photographs with ink began in the 1850s and 1860s.
      

      Copy negatives were very common after Frederick Scott Archer introduced the collodion glass plate negative in 1851. Negatives needed for mass production of carte photographs were routinely copied. The original negative was lit from behind and re-photographed with a second glass plate, resulting in a positive transparency – known as an inter-positive. The inter-positive was then re-photographed again to make the final copy negative. Using this system, the photographer could make the final negative larger than the original, allowing the enlarged negative to be used for contact printing. 

       In the United States, the earliest American chamfered-box daguerreotype camera was a popular tool used to copy photographs. It featured a special slot for the glass plate holder that was designed for copy work.
      

      The general adoption of the gelatin dry plate, from the late 1870s, was the last radical change in the basic chemistry of photography which has remained the same ever since – with many improvements and refinements along the way.

       A major advance came in 1889, when George Eastman introduced the first commercial transparent celluloid roll film. In 1895, Eastman adopted an invention by Samuel N. Turner which used a black paper strip attached to the film, protecting the film while it was loaded and unloaded, and bearing white exposure numbers, that could be read through a red window on the back of the camera.
 

      Throughout the 20th century, copy negatives were always made with film rather than glass plates. Controlling contrast was always an issue to deal with when making copy negatives. Overtime, photographers developed techniques to solve the problem. During the 1980 s, improvements in film and printing papers made the quality of copying original photographs better. By the late 1990s, the beginning of digital photography, film and flat bed scanners were improved in their technologies for digitizing original films and photographs. Eventually by the year 2000, traditional film copy negatives became extinct in favor of scanning originals and burning them onto CDs.
 
        Photo retouching dates to the early inception of photography. Photographers always developed new techniques for retouching their original work to create the most perfect photograph. Before computers and image editing software, photo retouching was done manually by hand. First, a copy negative was made and a work print created. As a precaution, retouching usually was never performed on the original photograph. After retouching the work print, a final copy negative was made and printed into a newly restored photograph.
      

        In 1987, Thomas Knoll, a PhD student at the University of Michigan, began writing a program on his Macintosh Plus computer and named the software Display. A year later, Thomas collaborated with his brother, John, on making the program into a full editing software, which they renamed ImagePro. Later that year, Thomas renamed his software Photoshop and worked out a short-term deal with scanner manufacturer Barneyscan to distribute copies of the program along with their slide scanner. Adobe Systems purchased the license to distribute Photoshop 1.0 in September 1988. In 1990, Adobe Photoshop 1.0 was first released exclusively for Macintosh and in November 1992, version 2.5 was available for multiple platforms.

       Photoshop and other image editing programs have made photo retouching easier than traditional methods, however, not everyone can use them as effectively with precision as a professional photographer who has many years of darkroom experience. Darkroom knowledge is essential for mastering digital retouching to create the most flawless, natural, and realistic photograph.