conserving your iMages 145conserving your images
once you have made an image you are proud of, you will
want it to last. always store films and prints in a cool, dry,
acid-free environment, preferably in the dark. prints hung
on the wall should never be in direct sunlight, and the mount
and barrier board at the back of the print should be of acid-
free materials. if you wish to sign your pictures, use a softpencil, rather than a pen. in the case of digital images, make
backup files of your originals before postprocessing them.
standard cds and dvds have limited lives, in some cases
as little as two years. Look for archival ones, which will last
ten times longer—they are more expensive, but you will save
a lot of time by not having to reburn them so often.Fixing film
the small image shown
left is scanned from a
postcard i made years ago
from this photograph. the
large image above shows
a print made recently from
the negative as it is now;
it seems that not all of the negative was fixed
properly. the problem was that i didn’t rotate
the developing tank sufficiently, or there wasn’t
a sufficient quantity of fix. this shows just how
essential it is not to cut corners in the darkroom.Making archival prints
exposed to light on the wall,
these prints have begun to
degrade; you might think
the effect looks quite nice,
but they will continue to
deteriorate. they have
suffered from insufficient
fixing or washing. Follow the manufacturer’s
instructions carefully, and don’t make the mistake
of thinking that doubling the stated fixing time
will make the image last longer; instead, the fix
will penetrate the paper base, from which it will
be very difficult to remove.Repairing damage
My camera, loaded with
transparency film, was
dropped in the sea. i had
the film developed, hoping
for the best, but here you
can see the damage done
by the salt water. digital
restoration was possible, with skill: the face was
repaired with skin colors from the chest, using the
clone tool and healing brush, and larger areas
were repaired with selections from undamaged
skin, put into a separate layer, and brushed
over the damaged area. the same technique
was used for the sea and sky, and the overall
color was repaired with selective color.