Tag Archives: photo preservation

Keeping Your Photos Safe: The Scientific Side

The scientific side of keeping your photographs safe goes far beyond just keeping your photos away from water, dirt, high temperatures and making sure not to leave fingerprints and scratches. Although those are important, there are some more scientific things to be aware of. Most scrapbookers have heard the word acidic and the words lignin free. Perhaps you’ve even heard of buffered. But what does all this mean to a scrapbooker and how do you take proper precautions to make sure that the supplies you are using won’t damage your photographs? The first rule is always to look for supplies … Continue reading →

Keeping Your Photos Safe: Fingerprints and Scratches

Fingerprints can quickly diminish the quality of your photographs. And although a fingerprint can be avoided or wiped away, a scratch is permanent and it is a costly situation to have repaired by a professional. These are two additional ways that your photos can be damaged and two situations that need to be addressed. When handling your photographs, you should hold the edges. Some experts recommend wearing a special type of glove, but I have found that unnecessary. As long as when holding photographs, you attempt to hold the edges, you should be alright. You can place your photos in … Continue reading →

Keeping Your Photos Safe: Extreme Temperatures

Continuing on in the Keeping Your Photos Safe series, another large contributor to photo damage was listed as temperatures and climate issues. In this regard, temperatures can play a huge part in how fast or how slowly your photographs fade. This isn’t just the case with photo storage, but in album storage as well. The sad stories I heard at a photo preservation class I taught, told about photographs ruined from basement storage, attic storage, garage storage and even storage units at non climate control companies. People have lost precious memories due to completely controllable circumstances. First, attics and basements … Continue reading →

Keeping Your Photos Safe: Water Damage

Recently, I had the opportunity to teach a scrapbooking class about photo preservation. The hot topic of the night seemed to be protecting your photographs. Almost every question asked was about how to properly store your photos, how to protect them when putting them into your albums, and what to place near and not place near the photographs on a layout. All good questions, as well as ultimately important to the longevity of your scrapbooks and memories. Although it seems obvious that someone would not store their photographs near water, you’d be surprised at how many people do not realize … Continue reading →