Restoring your parents’ wedding photos
Usually the most looked-at photographs in a family, and usually the most damaged.
Why parents’ wedding photos come out this way
Wedding photos get handled. They live in albums with adhesive pages, sit in frames in direct sunlight for thirty years, and get passed around at gatherings. The damage is a mix of fading from light, creasing from handling, and adhesive marks from album mounting.
What to run, and in what order
Repair first for the fading and the physical damage, then Restore Faces on the couple, then decide about colour. A black and white wedding portrait from the 1960s often has more presence left as it is, so try colorizing a copy and compare the two before committing.
The tool for this is Repair a damaged photo.
Practical notes
- Never pull a print off an adhesive album page. If it resists, leave it and photograph it in place
- Do the whole album in one session so the results look consistent across the set
- Print two copies of the best one: giving a restored wedding photo to a parent lands differently than sending a file
Questions
Should I colorize a black and white wedding photo?
Try it on a copy and compare. Formal portraits from the 1930s to 50s often look stronger in black and white; 1960s and 70s group shots usually gain from colour.
The photo is stuck to the album page. What now?
Photograph it where it is. Pulling it free takes the emulsion with it, and no restoration recovers what stays behind on the page.
Going deeper
How to restore old damaged photos explains the method behind this, including what it cannot fix.