Moldy Graduation Photos

When mold reaches a graduation photo, the result is fuzzy grey or white patches, brown foxing spots and a musty smell that comes with the print. The cause is nearly always years in a humid attic, a cardboard box on a concrete floor or a plastic sleeve that trapped moisture, and graduation photos kept in albums, frames and boxes were all exposed to it.

The restoration reads the moldy graduation photo as a repair job: it removes the mold and rebuilds what was underneath from the surrounding grain, keeping the tassel, the diploma and the school crest as photographed. Faces of the graduate in cap and gown, often with a parent standing just behind that were lost to the mold are plausible reconstructions, so compare them with other pictures.

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