Water-Damaged Graduation Photos

When water damage reaches a graduation 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 graduation photos kept in albums, frames and boxes were all exposed to it.

The restoration reads the water-damaged graduation photo as a repair job: it removes the water damage 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 water damage are plausible reconstructions, so compare them with other pictures.

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