Sticky-Album Prom Photos

When album-page residue reaches a prom photo, the result is yellow stripes of adhesive on the front and back, torn emulsion where the print was peeled off, and a tacky film. The cause is nearly always the self-adhesive magnetic albums sold from the 1970s onward, whose glue yellows and bonds to the print, and prom photos kept in albums, frames and boxes were all exposed to it.

The restoration reads the sticky-album prom photo as a repair job: it removes the album-page residue and rebuilds what was underneath from the surrounding grain, keeping the corsage, the dress color and the backdrop as photographed. Faces of a couple posed under an arch or against a painted backdrop that were lost to the album-page residue are plausible reconstructions, so compare them with other pictures.

For sticky-album prom photos the order is album-page residue first, faces second, upscale last, each step taking the previous result. Standard suits a prom photo for a screen; Pro or Max gives a sticky-album print more detail for reprinting.