It is in two halves. One scan or two?

One. Lay both halves down together, roughly where they belong, and scan the lot in a single pass — the alignment is half the information we work from, and two separate scans throw it away.

Ought I to peel the tape off first?

Please do not. Old tape takes emulsion with it, and that loss is permanent in a way the staining is not. Send it exactly as it is.

Do I have to post you the original?

Never. Nothing physical is sent anywhere. You scan it or photograph it at home, and the print stays in the drawer it came out of.

Mend a torn photograph

Every tear costs you twice. The two halves no longer meet, and a hairline of the picture went to dust as the paper gave — which is why a tear that has simply been pushed back together still reads as a scar.

Sellotape is the usual second injury. It lifts the surface whenever anyone tries to remove it, and the adhesive works its way through the paper as a brown bar over ten years or so. A great many British albums have one.

You send a scan and keep the print, in however many pieces it is currently in. That matters more here than the price does: the alternative on offer locally is a padded envelope and a fortnight of hoping.

Mend one photograph, free What a pack costs

What fills a gap in a damaged photograph is our best guess, not what was there.

A monochrome portrait of a seated couple, the emulsion crazed and lifting over most of the print — The emulsion crazed and lifted across both sitters, and the print lost its edges altogether. It returns smooth, and both faces were redrawn to manage it.

The same couple, the surface whole again, each face redrawn by the mend — The emulsion crazed and lifted across both sitters, and the print lost its edges altogether. It returns smooth, and both faces were redrawn to manage it.

What comes back

The seam itself, closed until there is no line, no ridge and no lightened edge where the halves meet.
The lost hairline along the split, rebuilt by carrying the grain, focus and tone of the paper either side across it.
Tears running through a face, a hand or a patterned frock — the ones the free websites turn to soup.
Sellotape, and the brown bar it has been quietly leaving behind since the seventies.

What never comes back

A fragment you no longer have. Put whatever survives on the scanner regardless, because the gap is filled either way and the filling is only as good as what borders it.
A face that tore away completely. A face comes back in its place, and it is not hers. Nothing we say to the mend keeps it out of there, and we would rather tell you that on this page than after you had paid.
Which inch of the print is on which side of the line. We can give you the rule — covered by the damage, or destroyed by it — but not where it runs on yours.

What fills a gap in a damaged photograph is our best guess, not what was there.

Three of these, mended

An 1890s group portrait on a card mount, a piece torn from the right edge of the print — A piece torn away at the right-hand edge, taking a stretch of hedge and one woman's skirt. What stands there now was rebuilt from its surroundings.

The same group, the torn edge rebuilt and the hedge and path carried through — A piece torn away at the right-hand edge, taking a stretch of hedge and one woman's skirt. What stands there now was rebuilt from its surroundings.

A photograph of a narrow street corner with a baker's, a long split through the upper left — A split running down through one corner of a street view. It closes, and neither the shopfront lettering nor the handwritten caption beneath is disturbed.

The same street, the split closed and every letter still readable — A split running down through one corner of a street view. It closes, and neither the shopfront lettering nor the handwritten caption beneath is disturbed.

Before it goes near the scanner

No tape, no glue and no repositioning by hand. Set the pieces on the platen where they belong, lay a sheet of plain paper over the back of them and let the lid come down under its own weight. A print that has gone brittle along the tear wants the method in the guide below, which is written for exactly this.

Handling a brittle photograph

Questions about this sort of damage

It is in two halves. One scan or two?: One. Lay both halves down together, roughly where they belong, and scan the lot in a single pass — the alignment is half the information we work from, and two separate scans throw it away.
Ought I to peel the tape off first?: Please do not. Old tape takes emulsion with it, and that loss is permanent in a way the staining is not. Send it exactly as it is.
Do I have to post you the original?: Never. Nothing physical is sent anywhere. You scan it or photograph it at home, and the print stays in the drawer it came out of.

Try it on yours

One photograph, mended, free, with no card. Send this exact sort of damage and see the result before spending anything.

Mend one photograph, free

If it doesn't look like the person you remember, you don't pay.

Other sorts of damage