Preserving your precious family photos & videos after they’ve been exposed to water-damage can be challenging! We’ve had a number of requests after Hurricane Ian affected the Naples & SWFL areas.
Our lovely friend, Kathy Stone, owner of Calgary Photo Solutions, has shared a few photo preservation tips.
Tips for preserving water-damaged photos
?Don’t throw away your wet, muddy, or damaged photos or albums
?Don’t dry photos in a place with bright sunlight, wind, or dust
?Don’t pry wet or dry photos apart
?Don’t use heat sources (hairdryer, microwave) to dry photos
?Wear gloves and a mask when handling wet photos and albums
?Remove plastic covers and sleeves from photos where possible
?Put your wet photos and albums in plastic bags and freeze them
?If possible, layer wax or parchment paper between individual photos or album pages
?If you don’t have access to a freezer, put photos and albums in sealed plastic bags to try and keep them from drying out completely
?These photos must be cleaned within 48 hours, as mold will begin to grow
?If you have very old heritage photos, you may want to contact a professional photo restoration service and we can help!
Tips for preserving water-damaged videos & tapes
?Put them in the freezer! This will help mold growth and hopefully be able to convert your tapes
?Dry your DVDs & Blu-Rays as soon as possible, allow for several hours before trying to convert to ensure that there is no further damage to the disk or machine
For both photos & videos, thaw slowly and in batche