Not sure how to clean photos? Cleaning photographs is a delicate process. It requires precision and care to avoid damaging the original image.
To clean photographs, it’s important to use cleaners made specifically for photos. Household cleaners can permanently damage old, fragile photos that need to be handled with care. Thankfully, it’s not hard to clean photos once you understand the proper tools and cleaning techniques.
Photographs play an important role in documenting history and preserving memories. Cleaning them can help restore and retain the look of precious photos that have become dusty and dirty over time. In this post, I’ve gathered the best method on how to clean a photograph.
Without further ado, here’s how to clean old photos!
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How To Clean A Photograph
How To Clean Old Photos
- Wear white cotton gloves when handling photos.
- Lay the photograph on top of a soft, lint-free towel.
- Gently brush away any dirt with a cleaning brush.
- Use a can of compressed air to dust the photograph.
- Using a lint-free pad, gently wipe down the photo with a photo emulsion cleaner.
- Allow the photograph to air dry.
Our Top Picks
Best Gloves To Handle Photos: Archival Methods White Cotton Gloves
Best Lint-Free Towels: S&T INC. Lint-Free Microfiber Cleaning Cloths
Best Photograph Cleaning Brush: Matin Goat Hair Cleaning Brush
Best Compressed Air Duster: Falcon Dust-Off Aerosol Compressed Gas
Best Cleaning Wipes For Photos: PEC-PAD Lint-Free Wipes
Best Photo Emulsion Cleaner: PEC-12 Photographic Emulsion Cleaner
1. Lint-Free White Cotton Gloves
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Looking for tips on how to clean a photograph? Before cleaning, put on a pair of lint-free white cotton gloves (designed specifically for handling photos). These special gloves prevent dirt, oils, and fingerprints from your hands from transferring onto old photographs.
Make sure the gloves are white so you can easily see when they become dirty. Handle photos with gloves at all time and make sure hold them by the edges. This is a helpful hygiene tip on how to clean photos that are delicate and old.
To carefully clean photographs, I highly recommend using Archival Methods White Cotton Gloves. This product is comfortable to wear, made of 100% cotton, and designed specifically for handling photographs. It helps prevents fingerprints and naturally occurring finger oils from contacting old photos.
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2. Lint-Free Towel
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To clean photographs hygienically, place a soft towel on your work surface. Then lay your photograph on top of it. Make sure to wear lint-free white cotton gloves to prevent transferring fingerprints and oils from your hands.
Since old photographs might attract lint from standard towels, it is important to use a lint-free one. This is a helpful tip on how to clean old photos that are delicate.
For cleaning photos, I recommend using these S&T INC. Lint-Free Microfiber Cleaning Cloths. These white cloths are designed without a rough seam to prevent scratching fragile surfaces. I love how they come in corrugated box with a circular punch out on the top—like a box of tissues!
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3. Soft Cleaning Brush
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Not sure how to clean a photograph? Start by using a soft cleaning brush to gently remove any surface dirt and dust from the photo. To prevent damaging old photographs, avoid using brushes with coarse and stiff bristles.
Starting at the center of the photograph, brush the dirt off the picture in an outwards direction. Make sure to use light pressure. This is the best method on how to clean photos without damaging them!
To clean photographs, I highly recommend Matin’s Goat Hair Cleaning Brush. This retractible cleaning brush comes in a lipstick-style container that twists open and close. The goat hair bristles are thick and soft, and gently remove dust and dirt from photographs without scratching.
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4. Compressed Air Duster
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It is important to remove any dirt and dust from your photograph before cleaning. If you skip this step, you can smudge debris over the photo as you wipe it down. A soft brush should effectively remove any surface dirt from your photograph and prepare it for cleaning.
If you don’t have a brush with soft bristles, you can use a can of compressed air instead. Blowing compressed air over the surface will easily and effectively remove dust from your photograph. Similar to using a soft brush, this method is safe for photos and won’t scratch or damage them.
Tip
To clean photographs, I recommend using Falcon’s Dust-Off Aerosol Compressed Gas. This product is perfect for removing dust, lint, or debris from delicate items like old photographs. It has excellent dust-removing power and comes with an extension tube to easily clean tight spaces and hard-to-reach areas.
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5. Lint-Free Photo Wipes
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Not sure how to clean a photograph? Old photos are sensitive and can’t be cleaned with traditional household wipes. To prevent scratches, it is important to use lint-free wipes designed specifically for photographs.
When used alongside a photo emulsion cleaner, photo wipes can clean old photographs without any risk of scratches or smudges. Just make sure not to use these wipes alone. This is a helpful tip on how to clean photos without damage!
To clean photographs, I highly recommend PEC-PAD Lint-Free Wipes. This product is designed for sensitive and delicate surfaces that can’t be handled with traditional cleaning methods or materials. The non-abrasive pads can be safely used on all hardened photographic emulsions, including films and papers
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6. Photo Emulsion Cleaner
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Household cleaners can permanently damage old, fragile photos. To clean photographs, it is important to use a photo emulsion cleaner (a cleaner formulated specifically for photos). I recommend using it alongside a lint-free photo wipe to prevent scratches and smudging.
Here’s how to clean old photos using a photo emulsion cleaner:
Start by adding a few drops of photo emulsion cleaner onto a clean pad. Using light pressure, wipe the cleaner in a straight line from one edge to the next until the entire photograph is cleaned. It should only take one pass to remove stains.
To clean photographs, I highly recommend PEC-12 Photographic Emulsion Cleaner. This product is designed to remove non-water-based stains, grease and inks from photographic emulsions and bases. It has a neutral pH, dries instantly, leaves no residue, and will not cause any damage to photographic images.
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Top Picks: How To Clean A Photograph
In this post, I’ve taught you how to clean a photograph. Here are all the recommended products in one convenient list:
Our Top Picks
Best Gloves To Handle Photos: Archival Methods White Cotton Gloves
Best Lint-Free Towels: S&T INC. Lint-Free Microfiber Cleaning Cloths
Best Photograph Cleaning Brush: Matin Goat Hair Cleaning Brush
Best Compressed Air Duster: Falcon Dust-Off Aerosol Compressed Gas
Best Cleaning Wipes For Photos: PEC-PAD Lint-Free Wipes
Best Photo Emulsion Cleaner: PEC-12 Photographic Emulsion Cleaner
Conclusion
Photographs play an important role in documenting history and preserving memories. Cleaning dirty, old photos can help restore and retain the look of precious pictures.
Not sure how to clean photos? Cleaning photographs is a delicate process. It requires precision and care to avoid damaging the original image. Thankfully, it’s not hard to clean photos once you understand the proper tools and cleaning techniques.
In this post, I’ve gathered the best tips on how to clean a photograph. To clean photographs, it’s important to use a photo emulsion cleaner (a cleaner formulated specifically for photos). Cleaning photographs is a delicate process and requires precision and care to avoid damaging the original image.
I hope this post gave you some helpful tips on how to clean old photos. If you liked this post, you might enjoy the ones below:
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