How to care for a photo

zhaneel69 asked how she might care for a photo, if she wanted to buy one.

It's a good question.

For "Digital" prints with pigment inks, they need to be in indirect light. For reasons I'm not clear on it seems the inks fade if they are kept in the dark.

Regular photos want indirect light for a different reason; to bright a light (esp. one with UV) will make them fade.

So, the rule is; indirect light.

If you want to frame them... they need to be set off from the glass by at least 3/8ths of an inch. The closer proximity (or worse, contact) with the glass will cause them to start degrading.

They can me mounted/framed without glass. If so you'll want to dust them, with something like a feather duster. I'd recommend glass, because dust will adhere. If it's a glossy finish, the removal will damage it. If it's a pearl, or fabric, then the dust will hide on the unven surfaces.

If you have more than one, a sheet of tracing paper between the each picuture (and one for the top) is the way to go. Tracing paper because you can't be sure your generic paper isn't acid. Why go to the effort of getting archival papers, only to sabotage it by storing them with something to protect the finish; but destroys the paper?

So go to the art store and get some high quality tracing paper (it's what I do to protect them when I put them in the envelope to ship).

For your amusement, a pair of treatments of one image. The difference is slight; but changes the photo a fair bit.

Sometimes, it's all in the details

I'm putting up another comparitive diptych. This one isn't a darkroom difference, but rather the difference of a few seconds.

The basic story is this, on South Plazas there are lots of birds, and some really high cliffs. The prevailng winds make it possible for the birds to hover. Among the birds which nest there are Lava Gulls, Blue Footed Boobies, Tropic Birds and all manner of other things.

But those prevailing winds, even as the birds hover on them; they smash the water against the cliffs.




The second I've uploaded very large because while the action is much the same... if you look at the cliffs in the lower left, there are tropic birds dancing on the breezes.