Photos with Water Damage
Keeping photos in a cool, dry place is very important if they are to survive long term without damage. But sometimes this is not possible. Damp conditions can introduce many types of damage to a photo. Once a photo has been damaged in this way, it makes a lot of sense to scan it so that you have a digital image that will not deteriorate further with time, because the original photo will probably continue to deteriorate.
But water damage is no different than any other type of damage from the point of view of restoration. How difficult a restoration will be depends only on how much damage there is and what parts of the photo are concealed by it. If important areas like facial features are damaged, obviously that is a lot harder to repair than damage to a plain sky background.
 | This photo had small areas of mould all over it as a result of damp conditions. In any restoration, there is always the danger of over-restoring and losing the sense of period in a photo. Here the important thing for the customer was to get the facial features clear but not to make the photo as new. Approximate cost; £20 |  |
 | Sometimes a damaged photo doesn't need to be wholly restored. It may make more sense to only restore part of it. Obviously, this helps to keep down the cost, while focussing attention on the important part. |  |
Sellotape Damage
Photos that have been held together by sellotape in the past can provide similar restoration challenges as water damaged photos. The sellotape may be invisible when it is first applied, but gradually becomes coloured. It is not possible to remove it physically without damaging the original photo, so digital restoration is the only avenue open.
 | A large part of this photo was covered by old sellotape that had yellowed over time. |  |
 | This is another photo where a bad tear had been repaired with sellotape. And clearly there has been a lot of other damage over the years. But, as you can see, these problems can be succesfully dealt with. There is no chance of physical restoration, but a digital restoration is certainly possible. |  |