Tintype restoration starts with a photograph of the plate
A tintype is not a print. It is a photograph made directly on a thin sheet of iron coated with a dark lacquer or enamel, and the image on it is the one that was in the camera. There is no negative anywhere, so the plate in your hand is the only copy that has ever existed.
That changes what restoring one means. You do not repair the plate. You make the best copy of it you can, and restore the copy.
Leave the plate as it is
Do not wash a tintype, wipe it with anything damp, or try to straighten a bent plate. Rust, flaking varnish and lifting emulsion are all made worse by handling, and a bend that is pressed flat can crack the image along the fold.
If it is in a case or behind a brass mat, leave it there unless it lifts out with no force. The image is safer framed than loose. A plate that is actively flaking belongs with a conservator before it belongs with any app.
Photographing a tintype without the glare
Tintypes are dark and glossy, which is the worst combination for a quick phone snap. Overhead lights reflect straight back into the lens, and the dark ground fools the camera into overexposing.
- Use daylight from a window to one side, never the flash and never a lamp directly above.
- Tilt the plate very slightly away from the light until the sheen disappears from the screen, then hold the phone square to it.
- Tap on the face in the camera view and drag exposure down a little if the dark areas look grey and washed out.
- Take several shots and keep the sharpest one. A tintype face is often small, so focus is what decides the result.
Restoring the copy in Clara
Upload the copy to Clara on your iPhone or in the web app and tap Enhance (Render on the web). Tintype faces tend to be small and soft, and enhancing rebuilds their edges and clears the speckle and haze the plate picked up. Compare each face with the original using the before and after slider: the smaller the face on the plate, the more of it is being rebuilt.
Then open Adjust. Tintypes are low in contrast and often a little murky, so raising contrast and bringing brightness up slightly does most of the work. Many tintypes have a brown or olive tone from the varnish, and taking saturation down neutralises it if you prefer a grey image. Rust spots and flakes across the background can be painted out with Remove, which fills the area from its surroundings. Keep that brush off faces.
Why the people may be the wrong way round
Because a tintype is the camera original, the image is usually a mirror image, reversed left to right. A man who parted his hair on the left will appear to part it on the right, and any lettering in the picture reads backwards.
You can flip the copy back in the iPhone Photos app, in the crop tool. Do it only if you are sure, for instance when there is lettering in the scene, because some photographers used a mirror or prism so the plate came out the right way round.
More guides
Questions
Can a rusted tintype be restored?
The plate itself should be left to a conservator, but a good copy of it can be cleaned up. Rust spots across the background can be painted out with a fill tool, and enhancing can firm up a soft face, as long as the rust does not cover the face itself.
Should I scan a tintype or photograph it?
Either works if the glare is controlled. A flatbed scanner lights straight on, which can turn the varnish into a sheen across the image, so a phone photo in angled daylight often gives a cleaner copy.