I have an old black and white passport pic from when I was a child.

[Uncle Joe]

It's kind of dirty now and I would like to clean it, does anyone have recommendations on what to use without damaging the pic?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[Lilyhoney]

1. Photoshop. eom

[flamin lib]

2. I wouldn't suggest cleaning it beyond a very gentle wiping with a clean damp cloth or paper towel.

It can be copied and converted to digital after which it can be digitally "cleaned" and restored. Don't expect too much in the way of quality because those pictures were made only to provide identification only. As I recall the dimensions are less than 2x2 inches and it may survive an enlargement to 4x4 inches but it will show a loss in sharpness and detail.

Hope this helps.

[jmowreader]

3. I wouldn't recommend cleaning it

Old black-and-white passport pics are usually Polaroids, which have soft emulsions. If you try cleaning it, you could lift the picture right off.

Scanning it and cleaning up the scan in Photoshop would be your safest bet.

[PuppyBismark]

4. Immediately scan it in to a digital image at the highest possible resolution.

Once it is in digital form, there are many programs such as Photoshop that can be used to fix it up. I'm sure there are folks on the forum who would try to repair the digital image including me.

Under no circumstances do not attempt to clean or do anything to the original photograph. If you really would like to improve the original photograph, find a professional entity to do it for you.

Good luck!

[PuppyBismark]

5. Costco has a service to do that

Just stopped by Costco photo desk and discovered they do it for $29.99. The service is called Pro Photo Repair.