How to remove a water stain from printed photo?

Question

I have a large color photo poster (75x50) printed on true photographic paper (not an ink print or something). While I was glueing it on an MDF board, sadly a drop of my sweat has dripped onto it, and now after drying there is still a noticeable circle where the water had soaked into the paper (which gets sticky when wet, as we all know).

Does anybody know of a smart way to remove that stain (without introducing new stains...) ? Could vapour be a solution (I don't dare trying it unless somebody confirms that it could work)?

Remark: of course the naive way would be to water the whole photo and dry it afterwards, like they already have done in the lab. But I fear that it does not dry up all that regularly, so this is not an option. And, of course, doing all the work again is also not an option.

Answer 1

I would suggest that you take some other photographs printed on similar paper, and experiment. Sweat onto them, let it dry, then try different techniques.

A: Put a puddle of distilled water on a stain, swirl with a Qtip for N minutes, then pull the water off initially with a paper towel, and finish with a piece of lens tissue. (The water wicking into the paper towel won't shed onto the print.

B: Same idea, use distilled water mixed 200:1 with photoflo.

C: Start with 1 liter of warm water and 2 drops of uncoloured dish detergent. Swirl, blot, and immediately rinse with B, above. The idea is that detergent will remove residual skin oils.

D: If any of the above worked, try repeating it. If it worked slowly,wet it repeatedly, then dry it by putting down a piece of lens tissue backed up with a paper towel. (A towel by itself will leave towel lint embedded in the gelatine.)

E: is the stain lighter than the print? If so you may be able to use retouching colours to fix it. Get lots of practice first. It's an acquired art.

Examine with a 10 power jewelers loup. You are looking for the following:

• is there an actual change of colour between inside the ring and outside the ring?

• is all the discolouration just in the ring itself? (Surface tension favours junk collecting at the point where the liquid meets the solid surface. Coffee stains are rings, not spots.

• is there a height difference between inside and outside? (The gelatine has swollen and not shrunk back. You may want to use a very low angle illumination to check this. An LED flashlight laying on the table works well.

• is there stuff stuck to the print?

After working on it, do you still have a stain? Have you moved the stain? If it's a ring stain, not a spot stain, can you move the edge of the stain to an inconspicuous location?

Answer 2

The gelatin emulsion has deformed. Gelatin swells when wet and contracts as it dries. What you have is an unevenness in thickness. Your best approach will be to procure a gloss or matte photo spay lacquer and uniformly apply to the entire print.

Another approach, but dangerous, soak the entire print in water. This will swell the gelatin. Then, using a rubber roller, squeegee the print face down, like a decal to clean plate glass. Allow to dry and perhaps the pressure of the squeegee action will restore the gelatin to a uniform thickness. The danger is, the print might not release when it dries.