Sun-Bleached Immigration Photos

When sun bleaching reaches a immigration photo, the result is a washed-out image with almost no contrast, sometimes with a darker stripe where the mat protected it. The cause is nearly always a frame on a sunny wall or a windowsill, where ultraviolet light broke the dyes down year after year, and immigration photos kept in albums, frames and boxes were all exposed to it.

The restoration reads the sun-bleached immigration photo as a repair job: it removes the sun bleaching and rebuilds what was underneath from the surrounding grain, keeping the luggage tags, the clothing and any writing on the back as photographed. Faces of a family at the dock, at a ship rail or in the doorway of a first home in a new country that were lost to the sun bleaching are plausible reconstructions, so compare them with other pictures.

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