Flattening rolled up photos

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Dancinbaer

Dancinbaer

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Apr 26, 2002
Posts
1,267
Loc
De Pere, WI
I know this has been covered but could not find anything with a search.

Customer brought in (2) 20x30 photos on Fujifilm paper rolled up in tubes. Pretty stiff stuff. Drymounting not an option as they are autographed (by Bret Favre). Any ideas how to flatten them? Tried rolling in reverse but wants to keep rolling other way.

Thanks,
 
Denny, seems like I've had a ton of folks bringing in old WWI photos ...the ultra long landscape type. One was about 48" X 8". They've been rolled for almost 100 years and are pain to flatten. They're on heavy, often brittle, photo paper.

What I've done is put them under weights for about a month after (horrors!) lightly misting the back with distilled water. It works.
 
buy one of those derollers...they are expensive but you can't beat the results and the time saved.
 
Dave said:
What I've done is put them under weights for about a month after (horrors!) lightly misting the back with distilled water. It works.
Click to expand...


Dave,
I recently did something similar with some documents from the late 1940's and early 1950's. But instead of weights I put them in a cold vacupress for about 10 minutes. Then just shut it off and left the documents in the press over night. Came out as flat as a pancake and very easy to work with. I'm just not sure how the process will affect a photo done with modern processes. Even more concerned about the autograph.

RoboFramer,
That looks like a great idea. Just don't get them often enough to justify the purchase.

Thanks,
 
Jim Miller said:
I suggest framing them in their natural state...rolled up.
:smileyshot22:
Click to expand...

Maybe on a window shade roll. Then when the customer wants to show people they just pull a string and tie it off. When done, just untie the string and flap, flap, flap it rolls up again. Thanks Jim!!:faintthud:
 
Denny, you almost got it with the widow shade thing. Use one and reverse roll the art in it. Same principle as the D-roller for less than $10.00

Or if that is too much for you, you can use a shipping tube with a piece of mylar or release paper attached to it and roll up your print.
 
One time I had a whole bunch of super heavy watercolor paintings wrinkled like nothing before. I got some heavy glass plates and placed them on the work and had a humidifier running in the room all night. It might sounds canniballistic, and likely I would not do the same with certain things, however, in that case it worked pretty good.
 
For watercolors you do a slight misting on the back and be sure to wipe the water evenly over the whole back. Then either put it into a heat press or put it between blotter paper and weights and they will come out flat. The water does no damage to the art.

I already went to Home Despot and bought a roll up blind and made my own flattener. It works just fine and cost about $15.00

I would be leary of adding any water to the back of a photograph and even more so on an old one.
 
"I would be leary of adding any water to the back of a photograph and even more so on an old one"

didnt they get completely soaked in developer, then in a wash/nutralizer when the were created??? then why would water, now, hurt the emulsions(assuming there have been no chemical/physical changes to it over the years)?????? so whats a little spritz gonna hurt?

photogs out there---please fill us in?
 
As one of the photographers out there...

A little bit of water is a bad idea. Yes, they were soaked in water originally. The operative word there is "soaked". If you re-immersed the photo in water and dried it like you would do in a darkroom it would be alright but just putting a bit of water on it can leave spots in the emulsion if it happens to contact the emulsion layer.

On old photos, you have no idea how the print was made and what the water would do to it now.

On the newer photos, water may not have been used and it was printed on a printer and some of the inks out there don't like water.
 
water is bad..use beer and drink most of it..
 
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