How to restore old photos
A practical guide to getting a damaged family photo back: from scanning to a print you can frame. What AI is good at, and where you still need to look closely.
Step 1: make a good digital copy
Everything depends on the scan. Restoring a blurry phone snapshot gives a restored blurry snapshot. Use a flatbed scanner at 600 dpi for small prints (300 dpi for 8×10 and larger), save as TIFF or high-quality JPEG, and turn off automatic “dust and scratch removal”, which blurs faces before the real restoration even starts.
No scanner? Lay the print flat near a window in indirect daylight, shoot straight on from above, fill the frame, and turn the flash off. Check that no reflection crosses the faces.
Step 2: clean what you can, physically
Blow off loose dust with a bulb blower. Do not wipe the print; emulsion scratches easily. Leave stains, mold and anything sticky alone; those are conservation problems. Scan first, always.
Step 3: run the restoration
On the restore tool, choose the file and press restore. The AI removes scratches, dust and creases, fills small tears, recovers faded contrast and reduces noise. It is instructed to keep identity, expression and composition unchanged.
Step 4: check the faces before anything else
Put the slider over each face. Compare eyes, mouth, hairline and glasses. If a face has drifted, try again, or crop to a better scan. The rest of the picture matters less than the people in it.
What AI can fix well
- Scratches, dust spots, fine cracks and creases
- Fading and low contrast
- Film grain and noise
- Small tears and missing corners
What AI cannot truly fix
- Large missing areas. It invents plausible content; it cannot know what was there.
- Tiny, blurry faces. Sharpening cannot add detail that was never captured.
- Heavy water or mold damage over faces, which may need manual retouching.
Step 5: save, print and keep the original
Download the result, keep the original scan in a separate folder, and print on matte or archival paper. Order prints early if it is for a holiday gift; see the gift tips on the home page.
Scanning tips that change the result
- Resolution: past about 2000 px on the long edge, extra scan resolution does not improve AI results much. Clean, flat, evenly lit beats huge.
- Black and white prints: scan in color. Yellowing, stains and silvering are information the repair can use, and you can still choose black and white afterwards.
- Photos in frames or albums: take them out only if they come away freely. Never peel a print from a magnetic or sticky album page; photograph it through the film instead and accept some glare.
- Cropping: keep a little border. A torn edge is useful context for the repair.
A realistic expectation
A good restoration does not make a 1930s snapshot look like it was taken yesterday. It makes it look like a clean, well-kept print from its own era: scratches gone, tones back, faces readable. If the result looks glossy or too smooth, it has gone too far; run it again or use the repaired areas selectively in an editor and keep the original face.
Photos worth doing first
Start with the prints that are physically deteriorating (curling, flaking, fading fastest), then the ones with the people you can still ask about. Names and dates on the back are worth scanning too, before they fade.
More guides
Questions
Do I need to scan the photo first?
A scan is best, but a flat, evenly lit photo taken near a window works. Avoid flash and glare; both create damage that was not in the original.
Should I restore the original print?
Never write on or glue an original. Make a digital copy and restore that. Physical conservation, such as for mold or sticky albums, is a job for a professional conservator.
How long does restoring one photo take?
Scanning takes a minute. The AI step takes roughly 20–60 seconds. Checking the result carefully takes longer, and is worth it.