Is this Waffen SS soldier wearing a temporary rank on his epaulettes?

[yarmouth]

I must ask - have you 'retouched' these photos or
manipulated them in some way ? They look grainy
and too dark, I'm thinking they are reprints.........

Yes, I have fixed them up a bit. The first photo was very faded and both had a lot of white dots I had to remove. On both I added contrast. I guessed that you guys would like to see them fixed up. Are they too dark though?

[Walkwolf]

They look like they have been copied from the pages of a book,
where the ink bleeds into dark areas. Original, untouched
actual photos would be best, IMO. Simply scanned,
they should look ok - even with the white specs.

The watermark is a good idea.........

[yarmouth]

I will in the future put up both untouched and touched photo's. I find the touched up photo's make it easier to see details. I don't have the original untouched photo's on my computer but I did check the photo's themselves. They both have different types of paper and sizes. One is passbook size with no printing on the reverse and the other is a small snapshot taken at home I guess and is marked several times with Agfa Lupex with two lines underneath. I haven't done the UV test yet.