Water-Damaged Baptism Photos

When water damage reaches a baptism photo, the result is brown tide lines, blotches where the emulsion swelled and prints stuck face to face or to the album sleeve. The cause is nearly always a flooded basement, a burst pipe, a leaking roof or a damp garage, and baptism photos kept in albums, frames and boxes were all exposed to it.

The restoration reads the water-damaged baptism photo as a repair job: it removes the water damage and rebuilds what was underneath from the surrounding grain, keeping the gown, the font and the faces of the godparents as photographed. Faces of an infant in a long white gown held by the godparents at the font that were lost to the water damage are plausible reconstructions, so compare them with other pictures.

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