Heathrow 1957 - Colour Photos

[PeteP]

I did the original scan of G-ALYF, taken Heathrow in 1957, for John (RAF_Quantum) for his DC3 repaints but as it came out so well I thought others might enjoy seeing it. I've added a few more taken on the same day to give an idea of what Heathrow (or London Airport as I think it was still officially called then) looked like half a century ago.













Pete

[Garry Russell]

WOW Pete

Those are special.

It is very rare ....almost unknown to see colour pics of LAP taken at that time of such high quality and clarity :yipeee:

Pics of the G-ANH* Viscount 701C are rare as well as along with some of th G-AMO* series were sold to VASP in 1962 before mass photography came about.

That was the summer I was born........I wonder if he photographed the stork :think:

Whoever took these had good equipement and knew what he was doing they are very well exposed

Thanks a lot

Garry

[cstorey]

PeteP : wonderful photos - really capture the atmosphere, although the field looks suspiciously quiet! I am fascinated by that row of Connies in the distance

What scanner do you use to scan the slides ( assuming that is what they are) , and what do you use to clean them first please?

Chris

[Garry Russell]

Some of the Connies maybe part of the Skyways fleet :think:

Garry

[VEGAS]

Lovely shots. Tks for posting.

[PeteP]

Some of the Connies maybe part of the Skyways fleet :think:

One of these, maybe, Garry? Complete with York in the backgound, too.


Skyways L749A, G-ANUP at Heathrow, date not recorded.
PP

[Tomliner]

Great pictures Derek.As has already been said,they are crisp and well exposed.Very evocative.ATB EricT

[Garry Russell]

Lovely Pete

I wonder if that Dan Air York was being used by BEA? :think:

Garry

[PeteP]

wonderful photos - really capture the atmosphere... What scanner do you use to scan the slides ( assuming that is what they are) , and what do you use to clean them first please?

Hi Chris,
I'm glad you're enjoying the slides - rest assured there's plenty more to come.

I'm using an old Epson Perfection 2400 flatbed scanner with an Epson Film Adaptor lid and Epson Scan 2.65A scanning software. The replacement lid contains the overhead light source necessary for scanning slides on a flatbed and also a mask which allows me to scan 4 slides at a time directly into Photoshop. I enlarge the output using the Epson Scan software by about 400% to give me a decent size to wok with and then reduce them to the required 800 px wide before uploading to the forum. Although a dedicated film scanner would, I'm sure, give better results, with the restrictions on size for the forum, the Perfection 2400 is adequate.

As they're not mine, the only cleaning I do on these slides is surface dust removal for which I use a large artist's paint brush which is just soft enough to avoid damage to the emulsion but stiff enough to be effective. It's a Crimson and Blake 12, filched from my wife's brush collection to be exact.

Once they're in Photoshop, I resist any temptation to crop or otherwise manipulate them. All I do is attempt to match the scan to the original colours and exposure of the slide - both of which are often lost or altered during the scanning process. Occasionally, if the colours on a slide are badly faded, I let Photoshop loose to try to restore the colours but, generally, I try to present these slides "as-is".
Pete

[cstorey]

peteP - many thanks for all that info - I shall have a go using a borrowed scanner!

Chris