Removing Manila Envelope Paper from Portrait

[judith_osborne]

<p><strong>Hi. I am new here. My name is Judy, and I am not a professional photographer. I am sorry to have to ask this, but I can't find the answer on the internet. I find other answers but not exactly what I need. I have an 11 x 14" 1980 senior class portrait, of my son. It has paper stuck to it from a manila envelope. What makes it worse is that it is partially on his face. This is a hard back portrait, not a snapshot, or any of the fast print thinner portraits you can buy these days. My inclination is to use water to get it off, but I am not sure. I definitely cannot soak it, but thought maybe a wet rag would take it off. Not having done anything with a picture such as this before, I want to be sure I don't ruin it.</strong><br /><strong>I would appreciate it if anyone can tell me if this will work on the portrait. The internet tells me about portraits stuck to glass or other pictures stuck together, but not my problem.</strong><br>

<strong>Judy</strong><br>

<strong>I would appreciate any help I can get so I don't make a mess of this picture. Thank You.</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong></p>

 

[lex_jenkins]

Sounds like a wet process - possibly machine

processed - photo print mounted to a mat.

 

Before doing anything else make a good scan of

the print, at 300 dpi, saved to TIFF format.

 

 

If the paper is also stuck to less important

areas of the print, test on those first.

 

Try moistening the test area of the stuck paper

with a cotton swab or ball dampened with a

mixture of distilled water and glycerin. This may

take a few hours or even days, so periodically

check the area and moisten again as necessary.

Gently lift at the edges of the stuck paper. You

can make a tool from a strip of thin plastic cut

from ordinary blister packs for batteries or

other household products. Smooth the working edge

with an emery board nail polisher. It's about

like using a fingernail. See if that helps loosen

the paper without lifting the photo emulsion.

 

If that doesn't work you might try Ronsonol

lighter fluid, which evaporates cleanly without

oily residue. But this is riskier.

[dhbebb]

<p>A lot depends on whether the picture is in colour or black and white and how firmly it is mounted (stuck all over onto a card or simply in a so-called slip-in mount and secured by one edge). Furthermore, it depends how much of your son's face is being covered by the paper. This determines how difficult it would be to get rid of the paper by retouching a digital scan – potentially, this is the least labour-intensive method. Assuming that soaking is out of the question, a professional retoucher might well use a scalpel to gently, repeat gently, scrape away all or most of the paper before scanning, since this could quite possibly materially reduce the amount of digital retouching required. Are you yourself or do you have in the family someone who is skilled in the use of PhotoShop or other digital imaging software? An image of the picture, even one taken with a very simple digital camera, would help me to give more precise advice.</p>