Restoring a water damaged photo, from wet print to repaired copy
A water damaged photo is two problems that happen at different times. While it is wet, it is a handling problem, and what you do in the first day decides how much image survives. Once it is dry, it is a copying and repair problem, and that is where software helps.
Get the order wrong and the repair has less to work with. Pulling apart prints that have stuck together, or rubbing at a wet surface, takes the image layer off with it.
While the photos are still wet
The US National Archives advice for flood damaged family photographs is careful and short. Avoid touching the surface of the prints. Most prints can be air dried individually, face up, on blotting paper or clean towels that you change as they soak through. Do not freeze old photographs. For an old process you cannot identify, or a print that matters a great deal, contact a conservator before you do anything.
- Lift prints out by the edges and lay them out one by one, image side up, somewhere with moving air but no direct sun or heat.
- Do not blot, wipe or rub the image side. Wet emulsion is soft and comes away on contact.
- Prints stuck together or stuck to glass can tear when pulled. Separating them is a risk, and for a valued print it is a job for a conservator.
- Dry them as soon as you can. Mould grows quickly on damp photographs.
Once they are dry: copy before you repair
Dried prints are usually cockled and wavy. Do not press them flat under books, and do not iron them. Photograph them in soft daylight with the phone held square, and if the waves cast shadows, tilt the print slightly until the light falls evenly.
That copy is what gets repaired. The dried print goes into an acid-free sleeve and stays as it is.
Repairing the copy in Clara
Water leaves three kinds of mark: tide lines where the water stopped, blooms and stains where it pooled, and patches where the image layer lifted. Clara treats them differently.
- Enhance first (Render on the web). It clears haze and grain across the whole picture and firms up faces that softened.
- Use Adjust to rebalance the tone. Water damaged prints often come out washed out and slightly yellow: contrast up, then brightness, then saturation down a little if a stain has tinted everything.
- Use Remove on tide lines and stains across the background. Paint along the mark and Clara fills the area from what surrounds it. Work in short strokes and check each pass.
- Leave the Remove brush off faces. A stain across a face is better left visible, or handed to a retoucher who can work from another photo of the same person.
What a repair cannot bring back
Where the image layer washed away, the paper underneath is all that is left. A fill tool can put plausible background there, and for a patch of carpet or sky that is fine. Where it took part of a face, the information is gone, and anything that appears in its place is invented. Say so, at least to yourself, before you share the result as the original.
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Questions
Can water damaged photos be restored?
Often, once they are dry. Tide lines and stains across the background can be filled from their surroundings, and an overall wash of colour or haze responds well to enhancing and adjusting contrast. Areas where the image itself washed off cannot be recovered.
Should I freeze wet photos?
Not old ones. The National Archives advises against freezing old photographs and recommends air drying them individually, face up. For anything unusual or valuable, ask a conservator first.
Can I do the repair on a computer?
Yes. The Clara web app at clara.yiribaai.com/app has the same enhancement, the same Adjust sliders and the same Remove brush as the iPhone app.