I have just given this advice in a thread on Hurricane Irma but as it may also, hopefully not, apply to people returning home after Harvey, I thought I might make a separate posting about it, expanding with some background to help understanding. I was prompted by a comment on another thread describing how upset his mother was at seeing a family photo album having to be trashed.
First, understand the basics. Photographic prints have two sides. The one with the image on and the base layer. In early photographs that base will be paper. More recent photographs will be on a form of plastic. The photograph side has an “emulsion” layer or layers that hold the image. This absorbs the various chemicals used to process the photographic print and “develop” the image. The last process in the various methods used is to thoroughly wash the print. This removes the residual chemicals. Old black and white photographs can fade or discolor if this is not thorough enough. Commercial photo printers often skimped on this last stage so some chemicals were left in the paper base and eventually affected the emulsion.
So first, remember if the face of the photo is stuck to something, especially the face of another photo, do not try to pull the two apart. You will very likely pull away part of the emulsion and spoil the picture. It’s happened because the emulsion has absorbed water, as it did in the original processing, and has been in contact with the other surface as it dried out. Releasing them is a simple matter of soaking in plain water until the two come apart naturally. Prints on a plastic base take much longer as water can soak through the paper on older ones and hydrate the emulsions that way. A word of warning. Do not at this stage be tempted to add disinfectant of any sort, especially do not use any agents with chlorine which will bleach black and white photgraphs and damage color ones. The image on most black and white photos is made up of tiny “grains” of silver which convert back to silver chloride. Some fancy old prints were further processed to replace the silver with a dye (sepia) or other metal like platinum. Light sensitive silver chloride was used as the material to take the photo and print it so it may be possible to “redevelop” bleached photos. This would need photographic knowledge and supplies of the needed developer and fixer can be a problem these days.
Your aim is to end up with your photographs in clean water and separated. Something like a baby’s bath full of water is ideal for this. Obviously in the first aftermath of a disaster this will be in short supply so rinse the surface muck off as best you can. Quickly rinsed ones can be dried but you need to thoroughly rinse out any chemicals etc from the flood water later. These could affect the permanancy of the images and would almost certainly present a possible health risk. Dry them “picture” side up and separated from the others. At this stage, do not worry if they curl when drying. Carry out a more thorough treatment as soon as you can.
[See also vemito’s excellent additional advice in the first comment.]
Wash flood affecting photos in clean water, changing it several times and perhaps introducing an antiseptic (NOT CONTAINING CHLORINE!) to an early batch of water. Try to restrict this to perhaps 5 minutes to avoid any conflict with the chemicals making up the images. If you use a baby’s bath etc you can run water from a hosepipe slowly to keep the water clean and agitated but watch out for any “escapers”. Put one or two drops of plain washing up liquid or dishwasher rinse aid into the last bath and mix in and leave for a few minutes. A tiny amount of such detergent will still reduce the “surface tension” of the water and will help stop “drying marks”. Older paper based prints will need more rinsing as you need to get the flood residues from the paper as well as the emulsion.
Dry your photos on a flat surface or hang on a line by the very corners only . Photo labs use a heated roller for this which also gives the shiny “glaze” to the surface. You will unfortunately lose that effect by drying the photo these ways. A slightly risky alternative is to lay a sheet of very clean glass over the picture, you may need to do this with persistent “curlers” which should be soaked in water again before the glass is put on. Curling happens much more with paper based prints that might be more valua ble images so have a look at the “ultimate rescue” bit below. This glass process was the one originally used, hence “glaze”. When thoroughly dry, the photos should separate naturally. If one sticks, don’t panic. A bit more drying might release it. If not, soak the picture from the glass in water and try again or accept a non-glazed version. That drop of detergent in the final bath helps to prevent sticking.
If, after after all this effort your photos are fine apart from the worry of residual chemicals from the flood, don’t worry. You have the originals which can be copied and the memories retrained. Many people have image scanners for their computers, often combined with printers these days. Use one of these scan those precious images and you can then dispose of the contaminated originals. You can also use a scanner for those persistent “curlers”. Resoak the photo so it will lay flat on the scanner. That drop of detergent in the water also helps contact with the scanner glass and avoids bubbles. Obviously transfer the print from the water and allow the surplus to drain off for a few seconds to avoid electrical problems and clean the scanner glass each time. You can either print these onto photo quality computer paper or have them printed professionally.
My final bit of advice is my “insurance policy” for the future. Copy your digital photos stored on your home computer to either something like a memory stick or to the Cloud. That way those memories will not be lost. In the long term, think about scanning those old photographs so you can keep digital copies of them safely too. It’s possible but very unlikely that the computers used for Cloud storage may be affected but having a second location for these memories reduces the risk of them being irretrieveable.
Remember, it’s the images and the memories they invoke that are more valuable, not the pieces of paper that they are printed on.
Wednesday, Sep 6, 2017 · 11:45:22 PM +00:00 · Lib Dem FoP
A few additions I have spotted I missed out tho some are for rarer problems tho:
PLEASE NOTE wet emulsion is very touch sensitive, hence the advice about hanging from the corners only. It was also made from or included gelatine to carry the silver grains, up to fairly recently. So don’t use a “biological” cleaner or it will start eating the gelatine! Photographers use special tongs to hold them by the edge to transfer them from developing dish to fixer etc. You don’t need to go to this extreme (I never did, it’s more fiddly than just being careful to hold it by the very edge, away from the image. You can see it, before developing it’s a bit more difficult.)
Colored prints. A lot of special photos, like those of soldiers going off to war, were “tinted” until color film became widespread. Into the 1950s black and white prints were painted, in what we would be more familiar with from Turner’s “colorization” of old movies. The paints used were water soluble so it may have been washed off. Obviously if you still have some remaining, wipe off the excess dirt and take a scan or good quality photo. Further washing to remove the nasties is likely to take off more of the paint unfortunately.
Toned prints. I mentioned above that some monochrome prints were further processed to replace the silver. This is technically called “toning” as opposed the the “tinting” to emulate a full color photo.
Sepia toning was the most common as it replaced the black silver with a very dark brown dye, sepia. This made the image more permanent and gave a flesh-like tone to skin. They are though easily confused with faded black and white photos. Although they are probably more rugged, treat them the same and avoid.any unsuitable cleaning or cleansing agents.
Toning was popular among amateur photographers, especially in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. A variety of different colors resulted from the various toners used. (Some even went as far as removing the image but converting it to more or less absorbant gelatine, then stippling it with ink from a very soft brush to bring back the image. The results looked a bit like a cross between a pencil drawing and charcoal sketch.) After sepia, blue and green were popular for things like landscapes. If you come across any strangely colored photos, treat them like you would the others but again take a scan early in the recovery process.
WARNING
I think I have come to the bottom of my mine of useless photograpic information that may be of some help. If you do have specific questions, I will try to answer them.