How to care for a photo

[pecunium]

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.

Comments

[ourika.livejournal.com]

I got a digital photo that's glossy on my honeymoon. It's a gorgeous shot of my husband and I on the deck of the Enterprise (I'm in the Captain's chair and he's on my lap). I framed it with a thick mat. Do you think that's enough? I can't seem to find a ruler to attempt to measure it :( I just framed it recently, and I really love this photo!

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

A thick, archival matte will probably be fine.

If you're worried, over matte it.

[ourika.livejournal.com]

The matte is just the one that came with the frame (turns out that the frame is plastic and not glass, I didn't realize that until I got it home from the store). Maybe I'll go buy a thicker matte to be safe.

Thanks!