Salvaging photos-HELP!

[FantasticDisFamily]

OK scrappers. I spent many hours this weekend working with my Dad to sort through the bins and bins and bins of stuff Mom had accumulated in their store room. (and we aren't done!) A number of the photos are "troubled" and I am hoping some of you may have some salvage ideas.

Several are stuck to the glass from the frames they were in. Anyone have a suggestion for unsticking them without ruining the photo?

There are also a number of old ones that were taped to a ribbon as a display. The glue on the tape is really, really sticky and the photo paper very delicate. Suggestions for taking this apart, again without ruining the photos?

Thanks!
Deb

 

[pjlla]

If they are really valuable (sentimental) photos that are irreplaceable, I would take them to a photo conservator. If you are not sure how much you care about them or don't have the money for that, try taking them to a copy place and make color copies of them.........................P

 

[Disneyland_emily]

One thing We've done is take them to Walmart where they have the machine that'll make a "xerox" of it and print it though the one hour machine- Its cheap (26 cents or so) and you can crop and whatnot to it- Its not the Kodak machine its the digitial camera dock-

If it gets too hard to take separate them- Work around it the best ya can but try to not make it worse
-em

 

[holycow]

I haven't tried this before but I've heard it works great....Undo...my friend has used it and said it works great!


Or can you try and scan them?


HC

 

[rvoto]

I had a problem with a school picture stuck to a piece of glass. I called our local photo shop they said soak in water (warm) it did work he said if its before 1975 don't do that and he said to bring it in to try to get a good copy of it. I hope I helped a little.

 

[chessie]

I used Undo to release some very old photos of my husbands that his mother had put in those sticky albums. Some of the photos had become one with the album. I really soaked them. They came off beautifully and dried with no visible marks of where I had soaked them with the Undo.

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

Thanks all, these are primarily school pictures that were put into inexpensive frames. Scans won't work - the light from the scanner will glare off the glass. Guess we'll try to release them very, very carefully.

Deb

 

[Michele]

Definitely try Undo!!! It works great at releasing photos and no signs of it left.

 

[JudithM]

The winter of 2002-2003 I spent a lot of time getting my photos off those old sticly photo pages. I went through a couple of bottles of Undo & it worked quite well for what I needed. Good luck.

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

Undo question - I am not trying to get these off pages. The photos are stuck to the glass from the frames. Will undo work here or is it intended to be used on the back of photos?

Deb

 

[JudithM]

I am looking at my Undu package. It mentions "cleans and removes fingerprints, smudges and adhesive residue instantly from photos and negatives." I do not see a phone number, but there is a website - www.un-du.com . Maybe that will help?

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

Thanks!

Deb

 

[Fire14]

Originally posted by FantasticDisFamily
Undo question - I am not trying to get these off pages. The photos are stuck to the glass from the frames. Will undo work here or is it intended to be used on the back of photos?

Deb

The lady at my scrapbook store used it to get pictures off Glass and said it worked wonderful.

 

[Loriinky]

Deb,
I had a photo that was stuck to the glass in the frame it was in. Instead of trying to remove it, which was obviously going to ruin the photo, I took the glass with the picture attached out of the frame, cleaned the glass well and took it to Walgreens to the Kodak Picture Maker and copied it. It worked beautifully and when holding the photo in the frame next to the same photo in my son's book, you can't tell which is the original! I took a dark towel and laid it over the cover to keep any light from getting in and there was no glare from the glass at all.

As for that ribbon stuck with tape, I don't know, but you could certainly try the same thing. Just take the whole thing and use the Kodak picture maker to copy it.

Good luck!
Lori in KY

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

Thanks all - I'm going to pick up some undo next trip to the scrapbook store. I have a number of the old albums to work on eventually anyway so will need it. At the least it should work on the photos on the ribbon.

When we worked through all of those bins and boxes we started the sorting process - snapshots in a couple of photo safe boxes, wallet sized in another, larger 5 x 7 and 8 x 10 in a 12 x 12 paper keeper. Dad has started sorting these more finitely - ie: photos of him and mom, me, my brother, the grandkids, etc. and labeling the sections. So one of these days I'll check and there may be duplicates then the "stuck to the glass" items may not be as much an issue.

Deb