Can You Restore a Sun Faded Photo?
Can you restore a sun-faded photo? Find out how to care for a photo to prevent it from getting faded.
Contents
Most people love to display photos on walls or tabletops. It’s wonderful how one glance at an old photo can bring back precious memories.
However, keeping photos in your house on display comes with its share of problems. The most common issue that photos suffer from is getting faded due to exposure to sunlight. The question ‘can you restore a sun faded photo?’ arises. You can, but it’s not that simple.
This doesn’t mean that you have to keep your precious framed moments locked in enclosures. You can display them with proper precaution and safety measures that prevent photos from getting damaged by sunlight exposure.
If your photos are already damaged by the sun, you can opt for old photo restoration services. These will help you get back your sun-faded photos as good as new.
If you have a negative of the sun-faded photo or a copy that is better than the faded one, it is easier to restore the original photo. What’s more, with advanced old photo restoration technologies, now sun-faded photos can be brought back to their original state.
Even if the images are faded completely, they can be restored. Some experts can go as far as giving your photos an artistic touch to them, bringing them a new life.
What causes photos to fade when exposed to the sunlight?
Among other natural elements that damage photos or cause them to fade, sunlight is the most common one. While hanging a photo on the wall or keeping it on the mantle, be sure that the photos don’t receive direct sunlight.
The process that causes a photo to fade due to sunlight exposure is called photo degradation. In this process, a photo degrades from its original version into a faded and discolored one.
The pigments and dye that are used to print photographs have molecules that react to sunlight. When the molecules become too excited from the effect of sunlight, they break down and change the appearance of the photo. As a result, pictures get faded.
How to ensure that photos don’t fade due to sunlight?
It doesn’t matter if you keep your photos in closed spaces or if you display them in your home. If your photos are exposed to direct sunlight, they will fade. Nonetheless, certain precautionary measures can prevent photos from getting sun faded.
Keep your photos safe from the sun
There are rooms in every home that receive direct sunlight during the day or sunset.
Avoid using these rooms or portions of the house to display your photos. If you are building a new house, dedicate a wall of a room that has proper air circulation but no direct sunlight coming in to display your photos in frames.
Choose the right frame for your photos
No matter where you place your framed photos in the house, they can get exposed to sunlight in different seasons when the sun’s rays slant differently.
To prevent chances of photo degradation, invest in glass that prevents the entry of UV rays to frame your precious pictures.
Display a copy of the original
Some photos are irreplaceable and come attached with lots of precious memories. Risking these photos to fade due to sun damage is not a good idea.
For these photos that have loads of memories attached to them, use a copy for display and keep the original one safe in a proper enclosure. Even for copies, using a UV-protected glass for framing the photos will help prevent them from fading.
Other Reasons Why Photos Fade
Other than sunlight, other factors lead to the discoloration of photos like air moisture, improper handling, and storage of photographs.
In fact, using adhesives or ink on photos and placing them in a damp area can damage them. Photographs are very delicate, thus, they need the utmost care.
Moisture
In an attempt to keep your photos in a room that doesn’t get direct sunlight, don’t place them in any damp area like the basement.
Any place that has air moisture can cause photos to fade and lose their fresh look. Even if you frame them, air moisture can ruin your photos if you place them anywhere near the basement or any other humid corners of your house.
Additionally, choose an area that has proper air circulation so that there is no chance of fungus growing on the image.
Materials that Affect Photos
If you want to date a photograph or write a name on it, use a pencil and write at one corner on the back of the photo. Using a pen can cause the ink to spread and damage photos. Don’t use adhesive tapes or glue to stick photos to the surface.
Similarly, while holding a photo, hold it by the edges. Avoid touching the area which has the image. Holding photos at the center can cause the oil present on our fingerprints to react with the pigment and eventually lead to discoloration.
To be extra careful, you can use pure cotton gloves while handling the original copies of old photographs.
Inadequate Storage
When choosing a plastic or paper enclosure for your photos, choose the ones that are made from photo-safe materials.
Any material which has colors that might bleed has to be avoided. Store all photo enclosures in a photo-safe box. Try to keep negatives in a separate box, since they often produce harmful gases as time passes by.
As long as you steer clear of materials that can react to photographic dye, you’re safe.
How Can You Restore a Sun Faded Photos?
The process of fixing a photo that has been faded due to the effects of the sun on it starts by equalizing the tone of the overall image. Next, the color tones are reapplied to make the image regain its natural look. After that, the area that’s been damaged the most is fixed.
With a few finishing touches here and there, the photo is restored to its original state of newness. Once you have the sun-faded photo restored, make sure to get it scanned and save a copy of it on cloud storage. This will ensure you have a copy of your photos forever.
The answer to ‘can you restore a sun faded photos?’ becomes clear: you can, but it’s more advisable to let professionals handle the restoration process. Better safe than sorry!
Get started with your professional photo restoration here: Old Photo Restoration Service.
Ready to digitize it right the first time?
Bring your tapes, film, and photos to the team that treats every project as irreplaceable — handled in-house in Boca Raton, never outsourced.
