If you have photographs that are water damaged, the good news is, that many print photos are waterproof! It is possible to salvage them, but you do need to act fast! You’ll find all of my best tips listed in the second half of this post. And don’t hesitate to reach out if you need additional assistance or advice to help with your flood or water damaged photographs.
My story salvaging flood damaged pictures
I was contacted yesterday by a woman trying to help her friend salvage flood damaged photographs. Rising water entered their Iowa home this week and those cherished photographs seemed to be destroyed. Mud covered, soggy pictures were all that was left. Unfortunately this is a message I get more often than you would think.
My expertise in this area started back in photography school at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the 1990’s. While I was there I learned a ton of what I thought was “useless information” about handling and restoring photographs. I had already developed a lifelong obsession with taking pictures, caring for them wasn’t of much interest to me at the time.
Fast forward 20 years. A prosperous career as a professional photographer meant I had fully used all of the skills I learned in picture taking, but for the first time I found myself also using some of that “useless information” too.
It was Hurricane Ian. Thousands of homes were destroyed in my community. Thousands of people lost everything they owned, including their photographs.
I suddenly found all of that knowledge I had was actually pretty useful. I began helping people to salvage their flood damaged photographs. Thousands of photographs actually. Friends, neighbors, complete strangers… I was on a mission to salvage as many photographs as I could.
In the months after the hurricane I got a lot of publicity for the work I was doing. That led to many other flood victims finding me, but for some it was too late. I would repeatedly hear, “I wish I had known there was hope for my pictures”. Several people shared this after explaining that their photo memories were all tossed into the trash with all of their other water damaged belongings. They just didn’t know there was hope.
It makes sense. Seeing mold, mud and scratches on pictures that are dripping with water doesn’t seem like it should be salvageable, but they often are.
That is why I felt it was important to share this TODAY. With so many more areas currently flooding and so many people likely about to take the heartbreaking steps to toss their own photographs into the trash, I felt this really needs to be shared NOW.
Steps to save flood damaged photographs
If you have flood damaged photographs here is what you need to know!
Most photographs are waterproof, they can make it through a flood and can be washed clean after. Pictures from the film days actually go through a liquid process when they are printed. This means that if they have mud or mold on them, you can wash them in fresh water and it won’t damage the pictures. This is true of the vast majority of photographs.
Pictures that may not be waterproof are: pictures printed on an at home style inject printer – Santa Photos and theme park or novelty pictures printed on sight are often printed this way. They likely won’t stand up to water too well. You’ll want to get a digital copy of those pictures ASAP and DO NOT wash with more water.
Additional pictures that are NOT waterproof are photographs printed on unusual surfaces: Board, glass or tin. This is typically a VERY old picture and needs much more delicate handling.
Once you have determined that your pictures are among the majority that ARE waterproof you can rinse them off in clean water to get any dirt or residue off of the photo.
For a stubborn or stuck on dirt, it is also safe to use rubbing alcohol to help easy the debris away.
It is safe to soak photos for a few minutes to try to remove the debris. A gentle brush with a microfiber cloth can also help to remove the gunk. It’s important to be gentle and not scratch the image.
Important things to note about photos that have been through a flood:
- It is imperative to separate out the pictures and remove them from photo albums to let them dry
- Pictures left in wet albums could eventually start to get moldy
- Pictures left in soggy album pages will likely stick to the plastic pages when the dry
- Album pages could even stick together making the book impossible to open
- DO NOT stack photographs together. Spread out the photos to individually air dry overnight
- Photos in stacks (in the old photo lab envelope or in a shoe box) NEED to be spread out to dry ASAP.
This is where you may want to enlist the help of friends. This step takes space and is important that it is done as soon as possible. If photographs are in albums they need to be taken out. The albums will likely need to go into the trash, but the pictures may be just fine.
It is important that pictures are not left in stacks or in albums.
When print photographs dry in a stack or touching each other, they will stick together. They often glue themselves to the next photo or pages of an album. This makes salvaging them close to impossible. The longer they sit, the less likely it is to save any. It is important that you immediately spread them out.
Get a digital copy of each picture.
It is impossible to say what will happen to these prints over time. It’s likely that mold will still appear and there could be damage down the road. I found after Hurricane Ian many of the pictures had a smell that stuck with them even after being washed. For those, the print itself still ended up in the trash, but there was a great digital image that lived on.
I suggest in this situation, the Photomyne phone App is the easiest way to get that digital copy. If need be, the phone scan can be done even when the photograph is still wet or in an album if it is stuck in there.
Check out this post on how to get the best scan using the Photomyne App.
Many damaged photographs can be fixed with some simple retouching.
Some fixes might be even easier than you think! Check out the TouchRetouch app for fixing water spots. No photo skills needed to use this super simple app! There are many new AI tools that make photo retouching easier than ever. With these new tools, even hiring a pro to fix those pictures is getting more and more affordable and simple.
Have you experienced flooding and holding on to water damaged photographs? I’m happy to answer any questions you have and offer direction on what is the best way to salvage your photographs. Most importantly though, I want everyone to know, those pictures might be saveable! There are so many challenges and so much overwhelm when flooding happens. Pictures might be the one thing, and perhaps one of the most important, that can be saved.
