Cracked First Communion Photos

When cracked emulsion reaches a communion photo, the result is a web of fine dark or light lines across the surface, with flakes lifting where the cracks meet. The cause is nearly always a print that dried out and stiffened before it was bent, or a plate whose coating crazed with age, and first communion photos kept in albums, frames and boxes were all exposed to it.

The restoration reads the cracked communion photo as a repair job: it removes the cracked emulsion and rebuilds what was underneath from the surrounding grain, keeping the veil, the candle and the folded hands as photographed. Faces of a child in white holding a candle, a rosary or a prayer book that were lost to the cracked emulsion are plausible reconstructions, so compare them with other pictures.

For cracked first communion photos the order is cracked emulsion first, faces second, upscale last, each step taking the previous result. Standard suits a communion photo for a screen; Pro or Max gives a cracked print more detail for reprinting.