Photos and storage

Keep them somewhere cool and dry in the living area of your home, ideally lying flat and out of direct sunlight. The loft, cellar, garage and shed are the worst places. Heat makes paper and glue brittle, and damp attracts mould and pests.

What helps:

• a cupboard against an inside wall, not next to the radiator or against an outside wall
• a temperature around room temperature or slightly cooler
• humidity of roughly 30 to 50 per cent
• storing thick, heavy albums flat
• a box that fits, to keep out dust and light

Big swings in heat and humidity do more harm than a spot that isn't ideal but stays stable.

Read also: Storing scrapbooks: where, what temperature and how much humidity

Polypropylene (PP), polyester (PET, also known as Mylar) and polyethylene (PE) are safe. Avoid PVC: over time it gives off substances that make photos discolour and stick. You can often recognise PVC by a strong plastic smell and a soft, slightly tacky feel. If a sleeve doesn't say what plastic it's made of, don't assume it's safe.

Watch out for damp too. In a humid room, photos can stick to any kind of plastic. So only put photos in a sleeve when they're dry, and never keep them in a plastic bag that's tied shut. Moisture gets trapped inside and the image deteriorates faster.

Read also: Page protectors: which plastic is safe for your photos

Use photo corners. That way no glue touches the photo and you can always take it out of the album again. Choose corners made of acid-free paper or a safe plastic such as polypropylene.

If you'd still rather glue, use an acid-free, photo-safe adhesive. Only do this with prints you also have digitally or as a negative. Unique old photos are best never glued down.

Avoid:

• ordinary sticky tape and double-sided tape that isn't labelled ‘photo-safe’
• staples, paper clips and rubber bands
• household glue and rubber cement

Sticky tape discolours and can pull away the image layer when you remove it.

Read also: Which glue to use for photos, paper and embellishments

Acid-free means that paper or card has a pH of 7 or higher when it's made, so it's neutral or slightly alkaline. Acidic paper yellows, becomes brittle and can pass its acid on to photos lying against it.

Acid-free only tells you about the moment the paper was made. Paper that contains lignin can still become acidic over the years. That's why good albums and good paper often also say ‘lignin-free’ or ‘buffered’.

For anything that touches a photo directly, such as album pages, sleeves and corners, acid-free is the minimum. For decorations further away from your photos it matters less, although acid can spread across a page.

Read also: Acid-free and lignin-free: what it means and when it matters

Yes, especially the older ones. The pages of self-adhesive albums, often called magnetic albums, have a layer of glue under a film that's usually PVC. After some years that glue discolours, soaks into the photo and leaves the photos stuck fast. The card underneath is often acidic.

If you have one of these albums:

• first scan or photograph each page as it is
• try to remove the photos while you still can
• if they won't come, don't force anything and keep the scan as a backup

New self-adhesive albums labelled ‘photo-safe’ are better than the old ones. Photo corners or slip-in sleeves are still the safer choice, though.

Read also: How to rescue old magnetic and black-page photo albums safely

Scan ordinary prints at 300 dpi or more. Choose 600 dpi for small photos you want to print larger or zoom in on. Slides and negatives are so small that you need to go much higher, often 2400 dpi or more.

Also:

• save your master files as TIFF or PNG, as these don't lose quality, then make JPEG copies for sharing
• scan the back too if something is written on it
• clean the dust off the scanner glass before you start
• keep your scans in at least two places

Scan at a higher resolution than you think you'll need. A fragile photo is best scanned just once.

Read also: How to digitise old photo albums without damaging them

Allow 300 pixels per inch (2.54 cm) of the print. That gives you roughly:

• 10 x 15 cm: 1181 x 1772 pixels
• 13 x 18 cm: 1535 x 2126 pixels
• A4 (21 x 29.7 cm): 2480 x 3508 pixels
• 30 x 30 cm (12 x 12 inches): 3600 x 3600 pixels

If you can't quite reach that, 200 pixels per inch is often still fine for a photo in an album.

More pixels don't automatically mean a sharp photo. Motion blur or a photo that's out of focus actually shows up more on a print. So look at your photo at 100 per cent before you have it printed.

Read also: Printing photos for your scrapbook: at home or with a photo lab

No. Acid-free is about how acidic the paper is now; lignin-free is about what happens later. Lignin is a substance from wood that makes paper strong. Under the influence of light and air, lignin breaks down and forms acids. That's why newspaper yellows so quickly.

So paper can be acid-free when you buy it and still contain lignin. Years later it becomes acidic after all. For albums and paper that touches your photos, you want both: acid-free and lignin-free. If the packaging only says ‘acid-free’, you can't be sure the paper is lignin-free too.

Read also: Acid-free and lignin-free: what it means and when it matters

It means the manufacturer considers the product suitable for long-term storage, but it isn't a protected term. There's no official standard for what can be called ‘archival’, ‘museum quality’ or ‘photo-safe’.

So look for concrete details:

• acid-free and lignin-free for paper and card
• the type of plastic: polypropylene, polyester or polyethylene
• PAT, the Photographic Activity Test (ISO 18916)

The PAT is the recognised test that checks whether a material reacts with photos. A product that passes the test can be called photo-safe, although the test says nothing about acidity or lignin. For everyday pages you don't need to worry about it. For heritage photos, PAT is a good thing to go by.

Read also: Acid-free and lignin-free: what it means and when it matters

Work carefully and patiently. If it won't come without force, leave the photo where it is. A torn photo is lost; a stuck photo can always still be scanned.

Try this, in this order:

• scan the whole page first
• slide a thin metal or Teflon spatula under one corner and work forward very slowly
• with self-adhesive albums, unwaxed dental floss pulled under the photo like a little saw works well
• a hairdryer on the lowest setting, held at a distance, can soften old glue a little; don't keep it on one spot for long

Never use water or solvent. If a precious photo really is stuck, ask a conservator for advice.

Read also: How to safely remove stuck photos from an old album

That depends on the album. Take them out if the album itself is harming the photos, like a self-adhesive album with PVC film or an album that's falling apart or going mouldy. Leave them in if the album tells a story of its own. An album from your grandparents, with its captions, order and layout, is valuable as a whole.

In that second case, protect the album rather than taking it apart:

• scan every page
• put acid-free interleaving sheets between the pages
• store it flat in a box that fits

If you're unsure, leave the photos in. You can always take them out later, but you can't put everything back the way it was.

Read also: How to rescue old magnetic and black-page photo albums safely

Scan or photograph everything before you loosen or move anything. Then you have a copy if something goes wrong, and you'll know later exactly what the pages looked like.

After that:

• look at what's wrong: loose pages, yellowed glue, mould, stuck photos
• write down what's known about who, where and when, while there's still family who remember
• keep to the original order
• decide on your goal: just storing it safely, digitising it or making a new album

As a rule of thumb: do no harm. An album kept safe in a box is better than a half-repaired album full of sticky tape.

Read also: How to rescue old magnetic and black-page photo albums safely

Photograph it from above, with the pages facing up. Don't press it open on the glass of a scanner, as that can break the spine and shift loose photos.

Here's how:

• lay the album open on a soft surface and support both sides, for example with rolled-up towels, so it doesn't open further than it needs to
• put your camera or phone on a tripod directly above the page
• photograph in even daylight or with two lamps angled from the sides, without flash
• check that every shot is sharp

Any loose photos you can safely take out, scan separately afterwards on a flatbed scanner.

Read also: How to digitise old photo albums without damaging them

Because a print is much bigger than your phone screen and your photo doesn't have enough pixels for it. On a phone the pixels are packed very close together, so a low number doesn't show. On a print those pixels are spread over a larger area and suddenly you see what's missing.

The 72 dpi figure in the file properties doesn't tell you much here. What matters is the total number of pixels. A 4000 x 3000 pixel photo labelled 72 dpi will print perfectly well; an 800 x 600 pixel photo won't, whatever label it has.

Often the photo has been sent through a chat app or social media. These shrink photos considerably. Ask for the original, or have the file emailed at full size or sent through a large-file transfer service.

Read also: Printing photos for your scrapbook: at home or with a photo lab

Let it dry as quickly as possible, image side up, in a cool room with some airflow. The longer a photo stays wet, the greater the chance of mould and of the image layer becoming sticky.

• gently rinse off mud with clean, cold water
• don't touch the image side and don't put anything on it
• take photos out of sleeves and the album and lay them out separately side by side
• don't pull apart photos stuck to each other or to glass if you feel resistance
• don't use a hairdryer or heating

If you can't dry them within a day or two, for example after a leak, freeze the photos, each wrapped separately. A conservator can treat them further later on.

Best not. Sticky tape discolours, the glue soaks into the paper and removing it often takes part of the image layer with it. Laminating can't be undone: the film is stuck to the photo for good.

Better:

• put a torn photo in a polyester or polypropylene sleeve so the pieces stay together
• scan the photo and repair the tear digitally in a photo editing program; you can print the repaired version again
• store an album with loose or torn pages flat in a box

If the photo is precious, a conservator can repair the tear with materials that can be removed again later, such as Japanese paper and wheat starch paste.

Read also: How to fix a mistake on your scrapbook page

For a few years it's no disaster, but not for the long term. Ordinary cardboard is often acidic and contains lignin. It yellows and passes acid on to your photos. Rubber bands, paper clips and envelopes with a gummed edge make it worse.

Better for the long term:

• an acid-free, lignin-free archival box without holes or handles, so no dust or light gets in
• photos standing upright or in small piles by subject, with acid-free divider cards between them
• a cool, dry place in the house, not directly on the floor

A plastic storage box isn't a good substitute, because moisture can get trapped inside.

Read also: How to store printed photos for decades to come

With clean, dry hands, by the edges and as little as possible. Grease and salt from your fingers leave marks on the image layer over time.

• don't pick a photo up by one corner; support it with your whole hand or a piece of card
• don't write on the back with a ballpoint pen, as it presses through and can transfer; use a soft pencil
• don't eat or drink nearby

Cotton gloves are often recommended, but they make you less able to feel and more likely to drop a photo. If you're going through a lot of precious photos, nitrile gloves are a good alternative.

Read also: How to store printed photos for decades to come

Follow the 3-2-1 rule: three copies, on two different types of storage, with one of them in a different place. For example on your computer, on an external hard drive and in the cloud.

Good to know:

• an external hard drive (HDD) is cheap per terabyte and suitable as an archive; an SSD is faster but more expensive
• a USB stick is meant for moving files, not for keeping them for years
• switch on a drive that sits in a cupboard at least once a year and check everything is still on it
• tell someone in your family where your files are and how they can get to them

Cloud storage protects against fire and theft, but usually costs money every month.

Read also: How to organise and back up your digital kits, pages and photos

When an album or photo is so damaged that good storage is no longer enough, and it means a lot to you. Think of mould, pages crumbling to dust, photos stuck to glass or to each other, or a leather binding that's falling apart.

The difference:

• preservation is something you do yourself: storing safely, scanning, adding interleaving sheets, choosing a good spot
• restoration is a treatment by a paper, book or photograph conservator

For most family albums, preservation is enough. A treatment is tailored work, so it's mainly for that one irreplaceable photo or album. In the meantime, don't do anything you can't undo, such as gluing, laminating or cleaning with water.

Buffered paper contains an alkaline substance, usually calcium carbonate. This neutralises acids that form later or come from the surroundings, so the paper stays acid-free for longer.

For most photos and for cuttings, certificates and other paper, buffered material is fine, and often even better. For some old types of photograph, such as blueprints (cyanotypes) and albumen prints, unbuffered acid-free material is recommended.

If you're unsure about a precious old photo, choose unbuffered material or material that has passed the PAT (Photographic Activity Test).

Read also: Acid-free and lignin-free: what it means and when it matters

Start with a rough sort by year or by event, and only make choices after that. Don't try to sort everything perfectly in one go.

This approach works for a lot of scrappers:

• digital: one folder per year, with subfolders per month or event and names that start with the date, such as ‘2023-07 Holiday France’
• delete duplicate and failed photos straight away
• choose a few favourites per event that you want to print
• keep prints in an acid-free box with divider cards by year or theme

Keep up with new photos from now on, and work through an old backlog in small chunks.

Read also: How to organise your photos before you start scrapbooking

Either works; it's mainly down to taste and how you'll use them. Glossy gives deeper colours and more contrast; matt looks calmer and doesn't reflect light.

For a scrapbook, many scrappers choose matt or semi-gloss (also called satin or lustre):

• fingerprints show less
• it's easier to write or stamp on them
• they reflect less, even behind a page protector

Glossy looks lovely with bright, colourful photos and when the photo is the focal point of the page.

Read also: Printing photos for your scrapbook: at home or with a photo lab

Yes. A negative often holds more detail and colour information than a print or a first scan shows. With a better scanner or better software you might get more out of it later. It's also an extra backup if your digital files get lost.

Store negatives:

• in polyester, polypropylene or polyethylene sleeves, or in acid-free paper sleeves
• not in PVC
• somewhere cool, dry and dark, separate from the prints
• with the year or event written in pencil on the packaging

Only handle them by the edges.

Read also: How to store printed photos for decades to come

Often, yes, especially if photos face each other or lie against acidic paper. An interleaving sheet stops photos sticking together, ink and glue transferring, and acid seeping from one page into the next.

Add interleaving sheets for:

• black or brown album pages, which are usually acidic
• pages with sticky tape, glue residue or pasted-in cuttings
• yellowed, faded or silvered photos

Use acid-free blotting paper or acid-free glassine, cut to the size of the page. Make sure the album doesn't get too thick: a spine that's forced apart will break too. In that case, only add them to the most fragile pages.

Read also: How to rescue old magnetic and black-page photo albums safely

Start with your family. Show photos to older relatives and write down what they tell you straight away. Then look for clues in the photo itself:

• the back: names, dates, the name of a photo studio or a stamp from the developing lab
• size, type of paper and borders, which say something about the period
• clothes, hairstyles, cars and shop fronts
• photos where you do know who's in them, to compare

Newspapers, club magazines, school yearbooks and municipal and church archives can help too. In local history or family history groups, people are often happy to respond. Write what you find out in pencil on the back or on a separate card.

Read also: Who is in that old photo, and when was it taken?

Mostly because of acidic paper, light and heat. Cheap wood-pulp paper contains lignin, which breaks down into acids. That makes the paper yellow and brittle, and the acid soaks into photos lying against it. Albums used to have black pages: discolouration showed less on them and black-and-white photos looked good.

The photo itself changes too. Old colour photos fade and discolour over time, and light, heat, glue residue and PVC film speed that up.

You can prevent it by using acid-free and lignin-free materials, keeping photos out of direct sunlight and storing them somewhere cool, dry and stable.

Read also: Why photos turn yellow and how to prevent it