Editing 19th century photos, ctd

Here's another example of editing a very old photo. It's from the Civil War, of a group of Union soldiers playing cards. Photos of that time were taken on glass plates; the first image, unedited, shows a crack in the glass plate that has caused an offset in the image. This is corrected in the second image.

My philosophy for editing old photos is "the perfect is the enemy of the good." To get an image "perfect" (whatever that may mean) would be both time-consuming and, frankly, would probably burn me out pretty quickly. So I have my personal standard of "good enough."

Petersburg, Virginia. Officers of the 114th Pennsylvania Infantry 

playing cards in front of tents. 1864