Photo Restoration

Old prints carry their years on the surface: creases from a wallet, scratches from a drawer, a stain from a leak, the slow fade of a color print left in the sun. Photo Restoration repairs that damage and recovers what the photograph was. Scratches and creases are filled, tears and stains removed, faded contrast and color brought back, and softness sharpened — while the grain, the period feel and, above all, the faces are preserved. The people stay exactly who they were.

It works from a phone photo of the print as well as from a flatbed scan, although a scan gives the Studio more detail to work with. Black-and-white and color prints, sepia studio portraits, Polaroids and damaged snapshots are all in scope; so are prints that have yellowed evenly rather than been damaged. The output keeps the aspect ratio of your scan. For a monochrome print that you would like in color, Colorize is the next step, and for a small original that needs to be printed larger, Upscale follows.

A Standard run costs 4 credits and takes seconds; Pro and Max finishes are worth it for portraits with fine detail — lace, hair, the texture of a uniform — and for anything headed to a frame. Restoration is often the first step in a family-history project: restore, colorize, upscale, then Face Retouch lightly if a wedding photo deserves it. Every version is kept on your contact sheet, and the compare toggle shows the scan beside the repair.