Plastic going to liquid.

[Jaag]

Please help. The plastic sheet protecting 1970s B/W and some colour photographs in an album is deteriorating (brittle, powdery, liquid) and is destroying the photographs. What should I do?? Thanks.

[cazza59]

Hi Jaag

Welcome to Rootschat.

Oh Dear...you should store these things in acid free paper, stating the obvious get them out of plastic asap!  If you go to the top of the restoration board, you will see there are threads on the best way to store and preserve photos.

Have you scanned all your photos and documents...I would and store them on a CD.

If you  have any in need of repair, then by all means post them on here and we will see what we can do for you.

Cheers
Caz

[cazza59]

Just had a thought, I hope these photos are not "stuck" in the album...could be tricky getting them out without tearing them, perhaps you should scan the pages first in case the worst happens.

Caz

[Jaag]

Thanks Caz,
We were digging them out to scan (TIFF I believe is best , at 600dpi?) Is there a safe way to wipe the liquid from the photographs?
Regards
Jeff

[Jaag]

Caz,
Some of the plastic had stuck in places to the photographs. The plastic was brittle at these points so we did scratch it off there, although it had discoloured the photograph underneath already.
Jeff

[cazza59]

I would definitely scan as .tiff at 600 ppi for storage. That way they will not loose quality when you open, save or email them.

If you want to post the scratched ones on the board for restore, then the minimum you should scan them at is 300 ppi and preferably as a .jpeg.   One thing to bear in mind when posting on the board, the pics cannot be over 500kb in size, so after scanning you may need to resize them to make them fit on here.  One other thing, to post them on here, the photo must have a totally unique name, that is one that has never been used on the board before by anyone.

Always scan black and white pics as colour, you will get better definition that way as the scanner interprets the different grey tonings as different colours and gives you a better image.

As for the best way to remove the plastic that is stuck, my strongest advice is to talk to PrueM here on the photo restore board for what method to use.    Prue is a professional photo conservationist and is more than willing to share her expertise.

I believe the tutorials about conservation have been written by Prue.

I will send Prue a pm and ask her sweetly if she could have a chat to you about this.

Cheers
Caz