Photographs restored when stuck to broken glass

Has your treasured photograph become stuck to broken glass? We have a solution & in most cases your photo can be restored. 

We are often asked if it is possible to remove a photograph that has become stuck to glass. Often the photograph is stuck to broken and cracked glass following as accident. Unfortunately when this happens it is rare a picture can be removed without causing more damage. Generally the problem occurs when a photograph has been placed into a picture frame with the photograph in direct contact with the glass. At some point moisture has got into the frame and crept between the photograph and the glass, causing the photograph to bond to the glass. This is often the only time that someone is made aware of a problem.

It is often possible to see a problem manifesting itself, if you know what you are looking for. If you look closely you can often see little hot spots that appear shinier than the rest of the picture. Generally speaking the problem happens more often to glossy photographs placed in direct contact with smooth plain glass. We rarely see a problem with a photograph that has a textured surface or when the glass is textured, as with none reflective glass.

There is a tried and tested way of preventing a photograph from sticking to glass, that is to place it into a mount or overlay, creating a border. When placed into a picture frame the extra thickness of the mount creates an air gap between the glass and the photograph and prevents it from sticking. As they say, prevention is better than cure!

However, we do have a cure. As said previously, it isn't possible to remove the photograph from the glass. What we have to do is copy the photo through the glass, in most cases through broken glass. Once copied, we then go through a digital restoration process in the computer to repair the photograph and remove any damage cracks from the broken glass. The amount of time involved to complete the restoration is very much dependent on how damaged the photograph is. So it varies for every picture. Once the restoration process is complete a new print can be made and also extra copies if required.

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More examples of photograph restorations

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We can also scan & archive your family photograph collections & photo albums to a digital format so they can be treasured by generations to come & we offer a full photograph restoration service. Your home video collections, cine films & audio tapes can also be converted and digitized, we offer an extensive digital conversion service.