ImageBeginner10 min

Restoring Old Family Photos with AI

Old family photographs are often the only records of people and places that no longer exist. They are also typically damaged: faded, scratched, torn, or stained. This guide covers the full workflow from scanning through colorization, with tips for handling the specific challenges of historical material.

What you will need

  • ✓A flatbed scanner capable of at least 600 DPI optical resolution.
  • ✓A microfiber cloth and a soft brush to clean the photo surface before scanning.
  • ✓A copy of the original photo in case of damage during handling.

Step-by-step instructions

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Step 1: Scan at the Highest Quality

Use 600 DPI for prints, 1200 DPI for slides and negatives. Save as 16-bit TIFF to preserve the maximum color information. Do not use JPEG at this stage - the lossy compression will destroy subtle detail that the AI needs. If your scanner supports multi-exposure scanning (also called HDR scanning), enable it. This recovers detail in both shadows and highlights.

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Step 2: Clean the Scan

Before running the AI restoration, do a basic clean of the scan in any image editor. Remove the worst dust and scratches using a healing tool. Apply a gentle unsharp mask to recover detail lost in the scan. Correct the white balance if the scan has a color cast. The goal is to give the AI a clean starting point - the AI will then handle the more difficult reconstruction work.

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Step 3: Mark the Damaged Regions

In our image restoration tool, use the brush to mark the damaged areas. Be generous - a larger mark gives the model more room to work. Soft edges on the mask produce smoother results. For complex damage (faces with multiple overlapping issues), break the mask into smaller regions and process them in sequence.

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Step 4: Run the Restoration

Click the Restore Image button. The model will analyze the marked regions and reconstruct plausible content. For most photos this takes 10-30 seconds. When the result is shown, compare side-by-side with the original. If the result is not what you expected, you can re-run with a different mask.

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Step 5: Colorize (Optional)

If your photo is black and white or faded sepia, run the colorization tool on the restored result. The model was trained on historical images and produces era-appropriate colors. For portraits, you can hint at the period (e.g. "1940s formal portrait") using the optional prompt field if available.

Pro tips

  • ★Always work on a copy of the scan, never the original TIFF. The original is your archive.
  • ★For very damaged photos, run restoration twice with different masks to get multiple options.
  • ★Tintypes and daguerreotypes often look better with subtle desaturation rather than full colorization.
  • ★For archival projects, export the final result as both a high-quality TIFF and a JPEG for sharing.