Anyone good with Photoshop etc?

Clockworkmark31

Greetings all,

Just wondering if anyone is good with photo editing or Photoshop etc.

Been doing some research in to how my Grandad ended up here (no longer with us). Know he went to a POW camp and know which one. Anyway came across a picture online from the same camp and am sure he is in this.

Pic isn't great quality if I'm honest and when you download and zoom in its pixalated, can it be improved on or anything done?

This is the picture him circled



And this was him in his uniform



can they be over laid or the poor quality one improved?

Photo editing etc is not my thing, any help would be great.

Clockworkmark31

Bumping as someone decided to bump the dyson.

apreading

First thing would be to see if you can get higher resolution version of that photo from the source where you found it. You have also presumably downloaded it, altered it and saved it as a jpg here = that will have incurred extra losses on top of what was already in the photo. Do you have a link to the original, unedited version? We might be able to help more with that.

Clockworkmark31

Hi thanks, yeah sure I have a link to the original.

All I did was enlarge the image then save. Tried getting in touch with them E-Mail before to ask for more info but heard nothing, they are in Australia though.

Me and other family members are almost convinced it is him, but we can't get a higher quality photo to confirm. The info on the site lists the photo was taken at a POW camp where he was. When I was first shown the photo nothing was said to me, I just looked at it and said where did they get it from. I'm 95% convinced.

Any other info needed or could you provide me with any?

Thanks for the reply too.

bompington

That group photo had has been saved at some point as a jpeg with too much compression - the "heat haze" lines you can see when you zoom in are known as jpeg artefacts. If there is a source that has not been over-compressed then you should be able to get much better quality out it. Proper image editing software (i.e. Photoshop and such like, but there are lots of cheaper and simpler apps that will do just as well) will give you the option of how compressed you want it, some apps will give you the choice of 3 quality levels - go for the highest. Assuming that it is scanned in from a print, see if you can get it rescanned at a higher resolution.

As for your suggested Photoshop, it is quite easy to blend one face on top of another, but much harder to stop it from standing out due to different tone, texture etc.

Clockworkmark31

Thank you for the response, photography is not my bag at all.

Understand the basics of it, but not enough for what I am wanting.

Here is the original link from the site

http://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/1833017

Have a feeling that they don't have the original, so hence no reply for me from them.

Looks like this maybe the highest quality photo I may be able to find. Could anything be done to enhance it?

A few family members are 100% certain, and a few including myself are 90% the outline and figure is the same but the photo is not in high enough detail to confirm. But the details of the photo line up with the history.

Find it interesting, know his life before, why he joined, then there is a big gap until he came to the UK. Don't know where he fought, how he was captured etc only that he was in that POW on those dates in that camp.

As I said photography is not my thing, but I know many things can be done with it, was just hoping someone here could maybe enhance the photo or offer advice.

apreading

Try this: http://collections.museumvictoria.com.a ... iginal.jpg

Might be better?

Clockworkmark31

apreading wrote:

Try this: http://collections.museumvictoria.com.a ... iginal.jpg

Might be better?

Wow how the hell did you do that?

apreading

Googled the photographer name, followed the trail.

Or maybe I am a whiz with photoshop...!

Hope it helps.

Clockworkmark31

It does help.

Thankyou. I tried following the same route as you.

Everything seems to match accept the ears.

Clockworkmark31

It does help.

Thankyou. I tried following the same route as you.

Everything seems to match accept the ears.

FishFish

...is that really a POW camp?

Clockworkmark31

Erm not in the sense sense as Auschwitz, but he was captured by the Italians. And spent time in Slazgitter that was ruled by the Germans.

But the Germans had "there" ideal plan. He did forced labor and after it all ended it was classed as a displaced persons camp.

The Rookie

Auschwitz was a concentration camp for "undesirable" persons, that is undesirable to a Nazi, so Jews, coloured people, Homosexuals, Romanies and internal political dissenters such as communists for example, not a POW camp.

The POW camps most people think of (Colditz and Stalag Luft III in the great escape) were for officers, other ranks (based on the photo and description he wasn't an officer) were not treated the same as, for example, they did not have the same 'duty to escape' as officers, so they were often put into labour camps were conditions were closer to 'internment camps' in Neutral countries than the stereotyped POW camp we often see in films etc.

That said, it's all rather acedemic as that photo isn't of a POW camp at all, it was taken after WW2 when the 3 German labour camps in the Salzgitter area were being used to look after displaced (civilian) persons, it's very unlikely an English POW had been kept on as staff and hadn't (as was usual) been repatriated after being liberated by the September (about 7 months after that area had been taken by allied forces) of 1945 when the photo is said to have been taken.

"Summary

Black and white photograph of large group of men and women posing for the photograph, displaced persons and staff from Camp A1 Heerte displaced persons camp, Salzgitter region, Germany, September, 1945. It was taken on a trip to Theide in Salzgitter.

This is one of a collection of 24 photographs taken by English staff members"

Clockworkmark31 wrote:

Anyway came across a picture online from the same camp and am sure he is in this.

Except it's not of a POW camp at all I'm afraid.

According to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_p ... in_Germany
there was no POW camp in the Salzgitter area only labour camps.

This one is the nearest I can find to Salzgitter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oflag_79 which did contain transferees from Italy.

Herdwick

This started to get interesting and I don't know why, and seems like there are people here that can point you to a direction...

Hope you find a lead mate!

Clockworkmark31

The Rookie wrote:

Auschwitz was a concentration camp for "undesirable" persons, that is undesirable to a Nazi, so Jews, coloured people, Homosexuals, Romanies and internal political dissenters such as communists for example, not a POW camp.

The POW camps most people think of (Colditz and Stalag Luft III in the great escape) were for officers, other ranks (based on the photo and description he wasn't an officer) were not treated the same as, for example, they did not have the same 'duty to escape' as officers, so they were often put into labour camps were conditions were closer to 'internment camps' in Neutral countries than the stereotyped POW camp we often see in films etc.

That said, it's all rather acedemic as that photo isn't of a POW camp at all, it was taken after WW2 when the 3 German labour camps in the Salzgitter area were being used to look after displaced (civilian) persons, it's very unlikely an English POW had been kept on as staff and hadn't (as was usual) been repatriated after being liberated by the September (about 7 months after that area had been taken by allied forces) of 1945 when the photo is said to have been taken.

"Summary

Black and white photograph of large group of men and women posing for the photograph, displaced persons and staff from Camp A1 Heerte displaced persons camp, Salzgitter region, Germany, September, 1945. It was taken on a trip to Theide in Salzgitter.

This is one of a collection of 24 photographs taken by English staff members"

Clockworkmark31 wrote:

Anyway came across a picture online from the same camp and am sure he is in this.

Except it's not of a POW camp at all I'm afraid.

According to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_p ... in_Germany
there was no POW camp in the Salzgitter area only labour camps.

This one is the nearest I can find to Salzgitter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oflag_79 which did contain transferees from Italy.

The Rookie, some very good points you have made and maybe I didn't give enough information to start with.

And I have just been corrected as there was some loss in translation.

My Grandad was Yugoslavian and was a Yugoslav soldier (chechnik) he was captured in his home town by the Italians and some fascist group then taken to Italy. He then ended up at Salzgitter as a DP and then was allowed to come to England to work and become a citizen.

The information we are are looking for, is from when he was captured to the point where he arrived at Salzgitter. We have all the paperwork from Salzgitter, but how he got from Yugoslavia to Salzgitter over three years is the information we are looking for, hope that makes sense. He said he went to Italy but that is all he told anyone.

And when the photo was taken he was there as a DP and my mum is 100% it is him.

Tried contacting the tracing services with his "number" on the paperwork and so far all have come back saying try this other service.

Clockworkmark31

Also I see the confusion I have caused in calling it a POW camp instead of a DP camp. Now I understand the difference and it would be good if we can trace what happened from when he was caught to when he arrived at Salzgitter.

The Rookie

That makes a lot more sense now!

Yes as a civilian after the end of the war he would almost certainly been put in a DP camp, it's also likely he would have been in a labour camp - often after a spell in a POW camp as I believe that was the usual way the axis powers determined risk before moving to 'softer' camps - it would have been a labour camp or a concentration camp and he would certainly have mentioned that.

Clockworkmark31

Glad that makes sense now.

Like I said three years are a complete unknown, getting caught to Salzgitter.

He never spoke about the war at all, not to my mum etc. The most I got from him was when he arrived in the UK really cold and snowing and picking potatoes in Scotland. So no one really knows what happened, we only know how he got caught and taken to Italy through his brother.

apreading

My wife's grandfather was like that - he was POW in burma but didnt talk about it until a few weeks before he died, he suddenly opened up, just a little. He was fortunate because he was able to fix machinery so he worked on the car that belonged to the camp commander and the trains, so was relatively 'well looked after'. What he saw was so unspeakable that he couldnt tell anyone for just about all of his life and we didnt hear much of it, even at the end.

The Rookie

I know some this as my old next door neighbour was in Germany at the end and after the war, he worked on the start of the rebuilding and included working as staff at a DP camp where he met his German wife, he actually stayed in Germany until 1948 marrying her and bringing her back, he was a carpenter by trade so was much in demand in Germany and had no worries about getting back to 'blighty' late and not getting a job.

Best I can suggest is look for similar stories as the process would be similar for many of the occupied country military who were captured, the camps may be different but the process the same.

Clockworkmark31

Good point rookie,

Never looked at it like that. I thought each persons process would be individual. But I guess a system would have been in place. I wanted to hear more from him, like what he did as a soldier etc, but he just never opened up about it and was always too scared to return home even when it all ended.

The Rookie

If he ended in a labour camp he wasn't branded as either a communist or other trouble maker, as such his process would have been similar to the majority in his situation, those labelled as trouble makers wouldn't have gone to a labour camp due to the risk of them sabotaging the work they were doing.

FishFish

A relative of mine (a bit older than me) was captured by the Germans after one of these dreadful WW1 battles. They did the medical thing and when he was better they made him stay in a house with a family in Holland allegedly because he was an officer. So he stayed there for the duration and married the daughter!