How to Restore Old Photos Without Losing the Original

Handle fragile prints with care first

Old prints are more delicate than they look. Work at a clean, dry table, with clean dry hands or cotton gloves, and hold each print by its edges. Fingerprints on the image side can leave oils that show up in a scan and slowly mark the surface.

If a photo is stuck to an album page or to the glass of a frame, do not peel or force it. A scan through the album page or the glass is far better than a torn original. Prints that are curled, flaking or stuck together are a sign to stop and consider a professional conservator, especially for a picture that matters a lot to the family.

Digitise the photo the right way

The scan is the foundation of the repair. AI can fill in a scratch, but it cannot recover detail the camera or scanner never captured. These tips work with any restoration tool, or for retouching by hand:

• Use a flatbed scanner if you can, and wipe the glass with a soft lint-less cloth before every session; a speck on the glass ends up on every scan.
• Scanning small prints at 600 dpi or more is a common recommendation. It gives you a detailed archive copy even if the file you upload later is smaller.
• Turn off any automatic “dust removal”, sharpening or colour correction in the scanner software if you plan to restore afterwards, so you start from an honest copy.
• With a phone, shoot in daylight near a window, flash off, with the phone held parallel to the print so the corners are not skewed.
• Glossy prints and framed photos reflect light. Tilt the light source, not the phone, until the glare disappears; take the photo out of the frame only if it comes out easily.
• Crop away the table and album page, but leave the whole picture area, including damaged corners.

Step by step: restore an old photo with AI

1. Save an untouched master copy

   Before any editing, save the original scan in a separate folder and never overwrite it. Every repair should be made on a copy.

2. Open the restoration tool and sign in

   Open Photo restoration and sign in. The exact credit price is shown before each run, so you know the cost before you start.

3. Upload the scan

   Upload a JPG, PNG or WebP that is at least 128 px on each side. Larger photos are resized to at most 1600 px before upload, so your full-resolution scan stays on your computer.

4. Run the repair

   Start the run. Scratches, tears, dust and soft focus are repaired in one step, which usually takes 20 to 60 seconds. Failed generations aren't charged — held credits come back automatically. Your result is kept for 24 hours to download.

5. Compare the result with the original

   Look at faces, eyes, hands, handwriting and signs side by side with the scan. AI fills in missing detail, so faces and text may differ slightly from the original.

6. Check the edges and save

   The result is up to 2048 px on the long side and keeps your photo's own shape. If you are happy, save it next to, not over, the original.

What AI repairs well, and what it cannot do

AI restoration is good at the common, small-scale damage: fine scratches and creases, dust and specks, small tears and mild softness. Those repairs usually look natural because the surrounding picture tells the model what belongs there.

It is much weaker where information is simply gone. If a large part of the picture is missing, or a face is mostly torn away or washed out, the AI has to invent it, and the result may be a plausible stranger rather than your grandmother. Small text, medal details and uniform insignia can also be redrawn incorrectly. Treat these areas as a reconstruction, not a record, and label them that way if the picture is used for family history.

For a black-and-white photo you would also like in colour, Old photo restore & colorize repairs damage and adds colour in one run; our guide to colorizing black-and-white photos explains how to judge the colours. If the main problem is blur rather than damage, see how to fix a blurry photo. A stray object or a later date stamp is better handled with Object remover.

Keep, label and share the restored photos

• Keep three things: the physical print, the untouched scan and the restored version. The restored file is an interpretation; the scan is your evidence.
• Name files so they sort and make sense later, for example 1962_wedding_Rosa-and-Tom_restored.jpg, and write names, places and dates into the file details or a simple text note while relatives can still tell you who is who.
• Back up to at least two places, such as an external drive and a cloud folder.
• When you share with family, say it has been restored, and offer the original scan too, so nobody mistakes a reconstructed face for the real one.
• For valuable, very old or historically important originals, ask a professional photo conservator before any physical cleaning or flattening. Digital repair never needs you to touch the print surface.

Frequently asked questions