Here you see a ferrotype, commonly referred to as a tintype—an iron plate, painted black and coated with emulsion, that was exposed directly in a camera. These images were always reversed left to right.
Tintypes often have serious dust problems, as well as darkening of the image caused by aging of a protective coating that was applied to the plate after developing. They also often will have suffered considerable physical damage, possibly because they were inexpensive and considered "throw-aways." The image above measures approximately 2x3 inches for a standard-size photo. Some tintypes could easily be enlarged up to an 8x12-inch print, if not for the damage. To restore, the brightness and contrast were corrected, then the dust was removed. Next, the minor damage was repaired. Last, the area across the center of the image needed to be rebuilt from scratch. A dark brown, sepia-like tone was applied to the final print to retain the “old picture” look. Tintype restoration almost always falls under the Severe Restoration category.