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Permalink Reply by Rich on June 6, 2017 at 8:29am

Maybe someone with better knowledge of framing and/or photo ink can chime in soon, but my first instinct is that it has something to do with subpar framing materials. I had a strange discoloration on an old black and white Tom Hanks/Elizabeth Perkins "Big" photo. I'd kept it in a super, super cheap frame for about 20 years and am almost certain that was the cause.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on June 6, 2017 at 4:15pm

I noted what appears damage caused by some sort of improper backing board etc, but then I noticed the damage is partly occurring in strange areas, some correlating to darker areas. Perhaps some combination?

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Permalink Reply by Pete Bendu on June 7, 2017 at 9:47am

It's probably not the backer board or the frame, many 1970's, 80's and 90's lower quality b&w prints are just that.....lower quality. They breakdown, leaving dark areas or edges of the image disappearing fading to a silver or gold tone.

I have heard the term "silvering" used, because it is similar to reactions older photographs from the previous 100 years go thru. This reaction was due to the silver used in the production process.....I am not a photo developer or a chemist but Google "photo silvering" and among the millions of results discussing the silvering of glass to make a mirror, you will find far more info on the process that befalls photographs.

 

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on June 7, 2017 at 10:25am

That is not the silvering I know, but Pete knows his stuff. Perhaps the cycleback photo site might help.

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Permalink Reply by Pete Bendu on June 7, 2017 at 12:23pm

My scanner died, so I had to rely upon images I have saved over the last few years.....but you will see a similar process happening here.

Sometimes it is dark areas, sometimes it just breaks down in weird areas but they always seem to go to that brownish gold color......doesn't make a lot of sense calling it "silvering."

Vintage photos that undergo silvering, it is almost always dark or black areas of the image that fade to a bluish silver like below

 

 

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Permalink Reply by RJ on June 10, 2017 at 6:55pm

Thank you for sharing.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on June 10, 2017 at 10:11pm

Pete,

You may be able to have those photos stabilized and restored. 

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Permalink Reply by Pete Bendu on June 10, 2017 at 10:57pm

The conservation available today on this stuff is beyond amazing, I don't own the samples I provided, the few pieces that I do own, that have gone thru this process are not worth putting the extra funds into.

Plus I have always been a "skip the conservation" kind of guy, it would have to be a pretty amazing circumstances for me to allow anyone to mess with a piece I really like. 

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