Print restoration

[Runscott]

• Warpage-Has anyone tried to get warpage out of a matt-finish photo? I have a Burke that I really want to improve if possible, but it has a well-defined circular warp right in the middle of it, about the size of a fat beer bottle. I was thinking of maybe getting it wet on the back, then piling a lot of books on top.
• Residue-We've been given great directions on how to remove printer crop marks, but I've got what looks like dried beer residue along the areas of the warpage (no surprise)
• Print surface missing - some of the emulsion is gone, right along the lines of the player's face and ears, probably due to the sun. Can this be painted in with a wash-type water color? I was told by my framer that it can probably be done (he recommended it), but I don't know anyone who has tried it.

[Leon]

For the warpage I would try the first thing you said, get the back moist and set something on it for a while. I am not sure about the rest. You might check with Rudd, he might know....

[Runscott]

Thanks, Leon. I've been chatting offline with the forum members who would be most likely to have suggestions (confirmed by only one response in this thread ) and I'll be posting 'before and after' pics in the next week or two. I'm still on the fence about using water to get out the warpage, but it's good I have someone agreeing with the idea - thanks.

I found a load of stuff by googling - interestingly, almost all of the sites started by promising to rescue your old prints, getting out creases, adding imagery to missing spots, etc., and every single one of these sites was ultimately referring to digital restoration. There were two that were bafflingly elusive, leaving only hints that they were referring to digital. Bottom line - if you have Photoshop, you can do all that stuff yourself.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by Leon

For the warpage I would try the first thing you said, get the back moist and set something on it for a while.

This is working (checked and stuck back under the books). Not sure I would try it on thinner prints, but great for this one.

It looks nice enough now that I will stop messing with it, but I found a restoration place in Seattle that does good work, so that's an option for the future. If the signature was better (darker), it would probably be worth doing the additional work.

Updated May 30 with final results: Not sure this would work with thin photos, but it worked great with this double-thick Burke.

1. choose a very flat surface and place photo face down onion-skin paper (since I have a bunch)
2. squeeze water carefully on the back, not getting so close to the edge that it might go over when pressed with books
3. let sit for a few minutes, then soak off standing water with soft cloth
4. place 3 sheets of typing paper over back of photo
5. stack large, heavy books on top and let sit for 4-5 hours
6. repeat the above, replacing typing paper, until photo is almost flat (2-4 times)
7. once photo is pretty much flat, repeat the above without adding water, until photo is completely dry.

potential problems: if the water seeps over the edge of the photo and gets on the surface, you've got a problem. I did this on one of the repetitions, so had to attempt to dry the front top edge as much as possible, as the water on the back caused the photo to curl. It worked, but when I pulled the print out from under the books 3 hours later, it was stuck to the onion-skin paper. Didn't do any damage, but the potential was there.