What causes photo fading to white?
 

Hello,

what causes signed 8x10's to white fade on the edges like on these two ebay listings? Im guessing it might be the photo paper quality? your thoughts on this as ive seen alot of photos that on the edges of the photos they begin to fade.thank you for your help.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cleveland-I...70b6%7Ciid%3A1

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Shotgun-Geo...ss!91021!US!-1

I don't think it's fading - I think it was printed that way intentionally.

Agreed that it was intentional. Think of it like watching a widescreen movie on tv, where the picture is filled up from side to side but it has black bars on the top and bottom.

If a photo fades unintentionally it's probably an issue with the quality of the paper the photo was printed on not being able to absorb and hold the color.

Photos, or anything printed, fades if you leave them in the sun, but I assume these were made that way.

Not an expert but could it be because they were not printed from the original negative or slide? Someone took a picture of the original picture to get a negative and then used it to print out these copies, like a copy negative? Just a guess.....

You can burn or dodge effects of shades into photos when they print. A good dark room guy would use paddles (tools) to achieve desired photo malipulation, others would just use a piece if cardboard or what ever was laying around. It was fun being in a darkroom with someone that really know their stuff when it came to special effect or restoring old photos.