From the Darkroom to CVS — The difference in quality between old photographs and new.

Have you ever wondered why a framed photograph, even one protected by glass, faded or grew a color cast over the years? How about photos that you’ve just pulled out of storage; have you noticed any deterioration?

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, I may sound like a broken record. I emphasize time after time to viewers that the quality of prints that are made in our modern-day are simply not of a trustworthy quality to house precious memories. It terrifies me that people rely on cheap photographic prints for moments in time that are truly special, without knowing that eventually, those special images will be lost. You may notice that your new photographs change over time, drastically so when they are displayed in your home or your office in a location that is reached by sunlight. The fact of the matter is that modern photographic prints degrade at an alarming speed, and are impacted heavily by many environmental factors encluding simple UV rays.

how are we still able to see photographs made over one hundred years ago?

Old photographs were made using high-quality materials. Many of those materials were metals that were able to retain detail. Even Daguerreotypes, one of the first recognized forms of a photograph (invented in the 1830s), were silver-based. Silver chloride, silver bromide, and silver iodide specifically were used to make photographs because of their insolubility. These chemicals were also light-sensitive materials which would darken when exposed to light and allow for an image to be created on a surface. Once a photograph was taken with these materials, it would be developed and put into a “stop bath” which sealed its sensitivity to light and allowed for a finished photograph to be displayed.

what is different about photographic prints made today?

The short answer is; everything. After the silver market was cornered in America in the mid-1900s, photographic paper contained less and less of the material. As a result, by around the 1980s, prints were made to be cheaper, but of significantly poorer quality. Eventually, nearly 100% of the silver in photographic printing was removed, and plastic materials were introduced. Prints that you receive from Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, and even popular photography stores are these plastic photo papers. Prints made nowadays are also not processed with light, but rather, inks are sprayed over the top of these plastic photo papers to create an image translated from a file.

A particularly worrisome and dangerous element of modern prints is a chemical called Benzene. Benzene is used for a lot of things. According to dhs.wisconsin.gov, it is used to make plastics, resins, synthetic fibers, rubber lubricants, dyes, detergents, drugs, and pesticides. It is a soluable chemical that helps medication break down in the body. It is sensitive to UV light, which is precisely why we receive our prescriptions in orange UV-ray blocking bottles. Likewise, it causes our photographs to deteriorate when exposed to any amount of light. It also evaporates from water, which again, causes photographs to deteriorate when exposed—humidity anyone?

Another issue that is encountered with modern prints is that the translation from a file to a piece of photographic paper is sent in the form of pixels. An image file is just a series of pixels, isn’t it? When scanned and enlarged, cheap plastic prints show that pixelization. This causes lots of detail to be lost.

Lastly, due to the chemical makeup and lack of detail-retaining materials in modern prints; if there are highlights that are too bright or shadows that are too dark, it is very unlikely that detail would be able to be brought out from those areas, even with all of the measures I take during a restoration. The information that would contain image details just does not exist. Restoration can bring back details in the oldest of photographs because of the materials which were used to make them.

what can we do to save our photographs?

Store them in cool, dry spaces. Display them only underneath UV glass (this does not completely protect them, but it helps). Have them professionally scanned and saved at a high-resolution on multiple hard drives or USBs.

ALWAYS, always, always know where your originals are. The first version of the photograph that was ever made will be the original. This may mean it is a slide, a 35mm film strip, a RAW file taken on your camera. If you have cheap copies made of your old family photographs, please, by all means, keep the original and don’t lose it.

what kind of prints do you make?

My mentor, who has a background in biochemical engineering and is VERY intrigued and knowledgable about the chemistry of photography, found a method of printing which truly is archival and unaffected by sunlight. He shared his knowledge with me, and now I get to help people preserve their history, their memories, and their genealogy through this type of printing. We use extremely high-quality, oil pigmented inks on a thick fine art paper. The materials we use to create reproductions for our restoration clients are 100% archival, 100% guaranteed against fading, and 100% trusted to stand the test of time. This is the only type of print that I will make because it is the only thing I trust. It has been tested for nearly two decades by my mentor, and it has never been compromised by the elements.

I decided to submerge my prints in a jar of water about 9 months ago to test its durability. One month later, I bought prints from a very reputable lab in the Charlotte area and decided to submerge them as well. In almost no time at all, the plastic prints made at the lab turned bright pink as their chemicals started breaking down. My prints still stand as accurately as they did the very day they were printed. There is hope.

I hope reading this taught you something about photography and the differences between old photos and what is made today. My sincere hope is for this to educate people so that they do not end up in situations where their precious photographs are lost. Photographs can be far too important to risk losing.