What to do – and what not to do – when caring for family photographs
Family photographs are often treasured possessions, but preserving and organising them can seem like a daunting prospect. Who better to turn to for advice than the conservation team here at The National Archives – their tips for caring for photographs offer simple guidance we can all follow:
Do …
Handle photographs with clean hands and wear gloves where possible
Unlike many other items in our collection, we recommend wearing gloves to handle photographs. This reduces the risk of damage, as fingerprints can leave oily stains on the emulsion. Read more about the importance of gloves in this blog post.
Store photo albums flat, preferably in an acid-free box
Not only will this prevent physical and environmental damage, it will also help to keep images organised.
Reduce exposure to light
If you think a photograph is likely to fade, having it professionally reproduced means that the original can be stored away from light and you can display the duplicate without needing to worry.
Store photographs and negatives in folders
It’s important to store photographs securely, ideally in chemically stable plastic or paper enclosures – free of sulphur, acids and peroxides. This protects the images from dust, mould and insects.
Store film-based negatives separately from other photographic materials
Film-based negatives – often single sheets or strips cut into lengths of four to six frames – can produce acidic gases as they age, so it’s best to separate them from other photographs. Again, we recommend acid-free enclosures to separate photographs.
Don’t …
Have food or drink around photographs
Spillages can cause irreparable damage, so we recommend against eating or drinking while sorting your photographs.
Use pens to mark photographs
If you wish to label photographs, writing lightly in an HB pencil will minimise damage.
Store photographs in an attic, basement or along outside walls of a building
Environmental conditions in these areas are prone to extremes and fluctuations in temperature, as well as damp and condensation.
Clean photographs with erasers, water or solvent-based cleaners
Although tempting, using these materials to clean photographs can alter the image surface and cause irreparable damage.
Repair tears with self-adhesive tapes
The adhesive will chemically change the photograph, staining the image and making the paper very brittle. Refer to a conservator for specialist advice on how to repair your photograph.
If you’d like further guidance download our caring for photographs guide (PDF, 0.3MB).
Excellent post. I’ve been looking for this information – even prepared to pay for an introductory event aimed at amateurs – for a while. Although some of the information is well-known (marking photographs with ink and the use of adhesive tape being my obvious no-nos) it is good to have.
Any chance of more posts along the lines of repairing and restoring photographs as well as conserving?
After all, with the National Archives closed due to coronavirus amateur historians/researchers will have more time on their hands!
Thanks for your comment, Richard, glad you found the blog useful. We’ve got a host of ideas to help people to continue to explore archives from a distance, so stay tuned for more resources under the ‘Boredom Busters’ tag.
Emily
Is there a way to digitise old photos onto a usb stick.
Thank you very much for this post. Similar advice on old slides would be particularly useful – we are currently going though a number of boxes which have not been stored in ideal conditions and would welcome advice particularly on long term storage and cleaning.
Hi Roger – Various outlets offer photograph scanning or copying services which provide high quality copies of images on a USB or DVD. Searching online will enable you to identify services in your local area. Alternatively, you could take high resolution images on a digital camera of phone (avoid using the flash if you can) and then upload the images to a computer. From there you could save them or upload to a USB stick. Hope this helps, Emily
Thanks for your comment. Our conservation team said there’s commonly two types of slides – glass lantern slides which are black and white, and plastic slides which are coloured – that could each present different problems. However, in both cases slides should be kept in boxes (ideally archival quality) and stored in a dark, dry place, such as a wardrobe. They recommend seeking advice from a conservation specialist before attempting to clean slides.
We are actually planning a public talk on the conservation of colour slides later this year, so stay tuned and monitor our Eventbrite page for more details. Emily
Thanks for all this really useful info.
A follow up on the digitising old photos issue.
Is taking a photo with eg a phone (flash off) better than scanning on a home printer?
Many Thanks for the info, but do you have any ideas about storing pictures “flat” please, most are in shoe boxes etc so should these be pressed some how, some suggestions/ ideas would be very welcome.
Taking a photo (flash 0ff) is better than a scan, but make sure your camera is parallel to the photo. Defused daylight is the best so you don’t get reflections from the photo, use a tripod so there is no camera shake. focus is critical so take care that your image is pin sharp. If you are duplicating slides then an attachment to fit the lens of your camera which holds the slide is reasonably priced, have a look on line.
Isn’t the first rule to scan the photograph or transparency at as a high resolution as possible before you do anything to it? Then never edit the original copy of that file.
Also a good to actually look at the scanned image, I regularly have scanned pictures sent to me that are useless because they are such low resolution. They have very obviously never looked at the scan.
Scanning a photo is OK but a domestic scanner can at best give you an image of about 5MP if you use a reasonably modern DSLR you will get a resolution of 24MP or more, My Nikon D3200 is about 10 years old, and gives me 24MP, so I would always say photograph, not scan.
“Defused daylight” (sic) – Fri 3 Apr 2020 at 8:45 am? I never knew daylight could be explosive. Maybe this information should be diffused more widely.
Do you have any tips for caring for tintype photos? Many thanks.
I’m a touch puzzled. Unless one is into the large-ish (>a4) high definition rare old print I can see little advantage in using photography versus a good scanner. Old photo’s & pictures rarely have a definition beyond a good scanner unless you intend a exploit the difference that 4 MP and 24 MP can make on what is probably a coarse grain of silver halide. I have found that a scanners fitted up to take slides perform as well as a camera provided care is taken with the settings.