大象传媒

Old photographs are a window on the past. They can tell us so much about people鈥檚 lives years ago and whether they were similar to our own.

It was a question that Rachel Treadaway-Williams pondered when she visited a charity for the homeless in Bridgend for X-Ray鈥檚 Photography programme.

Earlier this year, the Emmaus charity discovered a stack of old photos in furniture donated to them.

Chief executive Tom Clarke told Rachel: 鈥淯nfortunately we do a number of collections in one day so we didn鈥檛 know which particular house it came from.鈥�

Now Tom wants to trace relatives of the people in some of the older black and white photos to see if they want them back.

He said: 鈥淲e have some photos here that look like World War One and that era - about a hundred years ago.聽 So we have a gentleman clearly dressed for action - one of the Welsh regiments by his uniform. We have the Margam Cottage Hospital, and we also have a twin of pictures - one man dressed as a guardsman, the other dressed as a mayor. We think it鈥檚 the same person and it would good to reunite the photo with an interested party.鈥�

Among the collection are lots of old school photos. Tom added: 鈥淲e have pictures of staff and pupils, hockey going on here - maybe an educational theme emerging - but many people living today will recognise the people in these pictures.鈥�

X-Ray decided to help the charity by doing some history hunting of our own, and found out that the teacher who appears in many聽of the school photos is Betty Smith. A former headmistress of Cowbridge Girls' Grammar School, Betty never married and passed away in Porthcawl in June 2016, just before her hundredth birthday.

There also appear to pictures of Betty鈥檚 relatives with notes on the back referring to her parents Evan and Olive.

As for some of the older photos, we learned that a few date back to the聽early 1900鈥檚 and were taken on Jersey.

Tom is optimistic that the images will聽jog some memories. He said: 鈥淢y hope is these pictures will be reunited with people who will love and cherish them, because there is a link with the people staring back at them. That鈥檚 why we keep photos 鈥� they鈥檙e a connection with the past.鈥�

Take a closer look at our for more photos from the collection and email xray@bbc.co.uk if you think you can help.

If you鈥檙e taking snaps of family and friends, the chances are you鈥檙e doing it with your camera phone.

Some mobiles are better at taking photos than professional cameras were a decade ago, so it pays to know how to get the best out of them. That鈥檚 why X-Ray鈥檚 Rachel Treadaway-Williams joined the Cardiff South Tenovus Choir for a mobile phone masterclass.

The ladies all admit that they find smartphone technology a challenge, and judging by the photos on their phones it鈥檚 clear they need help. Some pictures are over-exposed; some are even upside down.

Time to call in an expert - Tom Barrance has been teaching film and photography for more than twenty years, and coaches children right up to pensioners how to take photos and record films on their phones.

He tells the ladies: 鈥淚t is very easy to just pick up and snap, but actually your camera isn't just an extension of your eye - you need to think about it as a picture frame.鈥�

Tom starts by showing them how to compose a picture by demonstrating with his own phone. He says: 鈥淭oo low, too much space, and my eyes are almost in the middle of the frame so we really need eyes a third of the way down the frame, a little bit of space above the head and a little bit of space in the direction the person is facing.鈥�

His next tip is to pay attention to light. 鈥淏ecause the background is so black, I get under-exposed,鈥� he says. 鈥淪o how do I adjust exposure?

鈥淚 hold (on the screen) until a yellow box pops up and then if I stroke up and down to the right of that box it will get darker and brighter, so we can compensate and adjust.鈥�

Tom鈥檚 final tips are just as simple. He recommends holding the camera straight and still to avoid wobbly pictures, and to make sure the lens on the back of the phone is free of dust and dirt.

With that, Rachel joins the choir members on a visit to their local park to put Tom鈥檚 advice into practice. They snap sunlight shining through trees, they snap close-up photos of leaves and they snap each other.

Tom agrees they鈥檝e all improved 鈥� and so can you, now you know how.