Many scrapbookers began as "photo-albumers," storing photographs in magnetic photo albums (or sometimes even old-style scrapbooks) for safekeeping. Only as we now know, those older albums are anything but safe for photos! Photos stored even ten or fifteen years ago are suffering visible acid damage from the paper, adhesive, and plastic sheeting in those photo albums. At best, as the albums age, the pages lose their ‘stick’ and photos fall free from the pages. At worst, the adhesive firms up its hold, keeping precious photos stuck fast to those damaging pages. I’ve ripped more than one photo while trying to pry it loose from a page it has no intention of parting with. And just cutting around the photo AND the backing as one piece isn’t a solution, since the photo will still be subject to damage the acidic album components that way.

There is hope, however, for many of those ‘stuck’ photos. Below I’ve presented for you several methods you can try for removal of these photos. Not every method will work well for everybody, nor will every method work for every photo or every adhesive. Take a good look through all of them before deciding what to try first.

A general word of advice: if you have access to a photo scanner (and most people do, if you count the ubiquitous photo kiosks available in drugs stores, mass merchandisers such as ShopKo and Wal-Mart, and even some progressive scrapbook stores), the safest way to begin is to get a good scan of the photo or photos you will be attempting to free – “just in case.” No method here is 100% guaranteed to remove every photo, and accidents can happen even with a method you’ve used successfully a dozen times in the past. Getting a good quality scan of the original photo is an easy ‘insurance policy’ just in case your photo does suffer damage in the removal attempt.

A second bit of advice: there are many, many sorts of photos stuck in old albums. Some are fairly modern snapshots of which you may actually have a negative, or a twin, or a reasonable ‘backup’ if something should happen. Others are ancient family treasures – daguerrotypes, sepia photographs from the turn of the century, and otherwise irreplaceable heirlooms. If the photo you wish to release is extremely valuable to you, and you truly wish to have that original photograph preserved (as opposed to keeping a scan of it), you may consider calling a professional photo restorer or conservationist to help you out. These services are for sale, and professionals have much more experience and potentially many more tools at their disposal for such a task.

And a smidgen of photo-removal common sense: often, where one photo is stuck in an album, several photos are stuck. If you have several photos to remove, start working on the ‘most expendable’ photo first, instead of the most important. You can hone your skills on the blurry photograph you probably weren’t going to scrapbook anyway, or the ones that are only half-stuck, and move on to the tougher ones once you’ve gotten some practice. And no rushing on this job, ladies and gents. If you realize once you’ve started work that you need more time than you’ve allotted, don’t race to finish the job. You can always come back and free a little more later on. It took a number of years for these photos to bond themselves to the page, it may take more than a minute to persuade that page to give them up.

Common Household Objects Useful for Photo Removal:

1) Dental Floss. Dental floss is extremely thin, and if you’ve been listening to your dentist, you should already have some practice manipulating it. Slip a piece of floss under a corner of your photograph, and gently ‘saw’ it back and forth to free the photo from its adhesive.

2) Spatula or Wide-Blade Putty Knife. This works best when you have an ‘in’ under that photo to start with – for instance, if only part of the photograph is stuck to the page, or a corner is already free. Work carefully: a spatula or putty knife can go through your photo in the wink of an eye. But the thin edge, ‘sliced’ or gently bounced up between the page and the photo, can be enough to wedge them free of each other. I’ve also seen it suggested that warming up the edge of the spatula before using it can soften the adhesive it comes into contact with, and free the photo more readily. The spatula may have to be re-warmed several times during this process, as it cools. And don’t heat it super-hot, lest you damage your photo with the heat.

3) Hair Dryer. This method can be used if photos are only stuck to one side of a page. Set the blow dryer on low heat, and blow the warm air over the backside of the page using a back-and-forth motion. Use caution to use the minimum amount of heat necessary to soften the glue holding the photo down – as in #2, you don’t want to cause heat damage to the photo. Remove the photo while the glue is still soft: once it cools back down, it will probably be just as well stuck (if not moreso) as it was to begin with.

4) Microwave. I’ve seen many testimonials for this method, but have not tried it myself – no microwave in our household. But it’s worth a shot! This method also works on the idea that heating the glue will soften it, so that the photo is more easily removed. Make sure there is NO metal on the page for this one – microwaves and metal are a dangerous combination. One school of thought on this method suggests placing the page in a microwave once, for fifteen seconds. A second says to set the microwave for five seconds, wait a few seconds, shift the photo and try another five seconds. Using this ‘staggered’ approach allows you to check the photo in between ‘blasts’ so that you can remove it and work on freeing it as soon as you see the adhesive is beginning to give up. Whatever you do, don’t stick it in for a long period of time to begin with. You don’t want to scorch that photo!

5) Freezer. Wrap up the affected page or album and stick it in the freezer for a few minutes. Freezing causes the glue to become brittle, and more easily give up the photos. Remove photos before the page defrosts. Take care not to leave pages frozen indefinitely, because condensation forming on the album as it defrosts can cause water damage.

A Commercial Product to Try

: Un-du Adhesive Remover has a lot of fans in the scrapbooking world. This liquid is formulated to temporarily neutralize adhesive’s stickiness, which can make photos easier to remove. Yes, that’s ‘temporarily’ – once the Un-du evaporates, the stickiness returns.See full details and tips for usage at the Un-du company website. Although it is a liquid, Un-du will not damage photos, which also makes it good to try if you have adhesive stuck to the FRONT of a photo. There are several formulas available, so read the label carefully to see if the one you’ve found is the one you want. Un-du bottles also include a tool to slip under the photo as you apply the solution.

The process of removing these photos sometimes turns out to be a piece of cake, but other times requires a lot of time, patience, care and elbow-grease. Take your time, find the method that works best for you and your photos, and know you’re not alone! Good luck, and congratulations on taking the first step towards preserving those precious photos.

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