Takeing Care of your Wedding Album
Chances are you have been looking at your wedding album a lot: showing it off to family and friends and reliving your wedding memories time and time again. Just like any other important item you own, you'll want to take extra precautions so that it will last a life time. Here are some tips on preserving your wedding album and your memories.
Having been in the wedding photography business in Visalia for many years we have seen wedding albums get damaged because of careless handling, so we thought you may want a few tips on taking care of it.
Your professional wedding album is made of mostly paper, photographic paper as well as the paper pages that the photos are bound to. High temperatures and high humidity, both of which we see a lot of in the summer here in the Visalia area, are damaging to paper, so keeping it in an area of your home where the temperature and humility is moderate is best. Areas such as the living room or bedroom are the best places to store your album where as, areas of the house that have a higher humidity like the kitchen or bathroom should be avoided.
Also avoid rooms that you keep closed up, don't heat or cool, maybe only use for storage of items you rarely use. This might make a good storage room for those things that you don't use much, or maybe it's a guest room that you only air out when expecting company. The high summer heat and its accompanying humidity or the moist cool temperatures of the winter, over time will shorten the life of your photos if kept in a room like this.
If you taking it out of the house with you to show someone, or bringing it to work in the summer, don't leave it in the car. That stifling summer heat in a closed car can climb to 200 degrees even higher in the summer, this kind of heat can speed up the deterioration process. You may even come out to the car to find that the pages of your album have already started to curl a little if you do this.
Of course, it goes without saying (but here I am saying it) that you should have clean hands when your viewing your WEDDING ALBUM album and don't let kids turn the pages. The natural oils found on your hands as well as those found in foods (like pizza) will not only stain the photos, but over time will damage the paper. Encourage little ones to look at the pictures as you turn the pages, even thought they might have just washed their hands, if they put their hands in their mouth whether it be, to suck their thumb, chew their nails, or lick their finger to turn the page, the moisture (saliva) found in the mouth contains enzymes that not only help to break down food that you eat, but can also damage your photographs.
Keep your pets away from your album, especially puppies that love to chew on everything. We have had a couple of instances where couples have called back after several years, asking to have their albums repaired or replaced because the family pet has either damaged a few pages or the entire album.
If your album does get dirt or smudges on the photographs, clean it off as soon as possible. Dirt can be gently wiped off with a soft towel or tissue, but smudges are best done with products designed for just that purpose. You can get a product called Photographic Emulsion Cleaner, or PEC plus their lint free non abrasive wipes from Amazon, both for under $20, that will come in handy for any other photos that you own as well. We use this same product in our studio and we will be glad to clean your photographs for you, if you would prefer to have it done professionally.
Your wedding album is made with only the finest materials and if you take some simple steps you can make it last a lifetime.
Categorized In: | wedding album | wedding photography
