Where a surface has been damaged by fire. Burned surfaces are usually black or brown in colour, friable and brittle. May be accompanied by soot and smoke damage, water damage and melting or softening. May also be used to describe damage caused by sunlight or chemical pollutants – e.g. light burn, mat burn.

This print has suffered both from mat burn (the darker line around the edge of the image) and light burn (the discolouration over the image area). Photo courtesy of Alice Cannon.

Other visual glossaries