Photo that has physical damage

[Brucemm]

Hello,
I guess I'd like a lot of new members here, I've been drawn to the forum as I've been asked to "do what I can" to an old photo.
My first reaction was "sorry can't help", but then....

My biggest issue right at the start is that the photo (guess at 30 years old) is physically damaged, parts of the image layer have separated from the substrate and have curled. My guess is the photo has been folded. The substrate is OK meaning no rips or tears, but there are fold marks. As mentioned the image layer is damaged, but many of the damaged curls could reform OK if I could soften them, "uncurl and glue" them back to the substrate.

So, before I tell the photo owner to head to a professional photo restorer is there a way to make these curled parts pliable and get them to lay flat against the substrate?

If I can achieve that then there are enough "good" parts of the image to recreate the overall image. Fortunately the subject of the photo, a young woman is in an undamaged part of the photo.

Looking forward to your advice.

cheers
Bruce

[0lBaldy]

Bruce, Welcome to RetouchPRO! Hope you enjoy your stay here and make lots of friends.

You might use a vaporizer or humidifier in a small room (bathroom) to raise the humidity it might relax considerably over a few days.

Do a search using the search button at the top of the page... this has been discussed many times on the forum.

[Brucemm]

Thanks for reply & tip for relaxing the print. I'll try it out.
Have spent some time searching the forum and wow there's so much useful information here. Couldn't find much on this particular problem, but once I'm past that and onto the digital work then I am confident that I can complete an acceptable job.

cheers
Bruce

[Kraellin]

depending on how much curl and how good your skills are in your photo editor, you might not have to physically uncurl the photo. just use a camera and shoot the pic and then take it into your editor and fix it there.