How to Restore Old Photos – Complete Guide
Want to restore your old family photographs? This guide walks you through the entire process – from carefully handling fragile originals to scanning, digital restoration, and preserving results.
Step 1: Assess Your Photos
Before starting, evaluate your collection:
Identify damage: Scratches, tears, fading, water damage, mold
Prioritize: Start with most important or most damaged photos
Check condition: Very fragile photos may need professional handling
Gather information: Document who's in photos, dates, locations while you can
Step 2: Handle with Care
Clean hands or gloves: Oils damage photo surfaces
Work on clean surfaces: Prevent adding new damage
Support fragile photos: Don't bend or flex damaged prints
Store properly: Keep originals safe after scanning
Step 3: Scan Your Photos
Use a flatbed scanner: Better quality than phone cameras
Scan at high resolution: 600 DPI minimum, 1200 DPI for small prints
Don't use auto-enhance: Scan raw for best restoration results
Clean scanner glass: Dust appears in scans
Scan damaged photos as-is: Don't try to flatten severely curled prints
Step 4: Digital Restoration
Use AI restoration tools to repair damage:
Remove scratches – Fix surface damage
Repair tears – Reconstruct ripped areas
Correct fading – Restore color and contrast
Fix water damage – Remove stains
Step 5: Enhance Quality
After restoration, enhance quality:
Sharpen – Increase clarity
Reduce noise – Clean up grain
Optimize contrast and color for best appearance
Step 6: Optional Enhancements
Colorization: Add color to black and white photos
Upscaling: Enlarge for printing and display
Step 7: Preserve Your Results
Multiple backups: Local drive, cloud storage, with family
Archival formats: TIFF or high-quality JPEG
Print if desired: Archival prints on quality paper
Share widely: Distribute to family members
Start Restoring
Ready to restore your old photos? Our AI tools make it easy.
Our restoration tools are currently under development. Check back soon!
Try It Now
Upload your photo and see the results instantly
What Our Customers Say
"The AI fixed tears, stains, and fading all at once. What would have taken a professional retoucher days was done in minutes."
"The AI removed decades of yellowing and fading from my photos. The colors now look fresh and vibrant like they were just taken."
"The upscaling technology is light years ahead of anything else I've tried. Photos that were unusable are now print-quality."
Frequently Asked Questions
The first step is creating high-quality digital scans. Scan at 600+ DPI to capture all detail. Handle originals carefully – use clean hands, support fragile photos properly. Scan as-is without attempting physical repair. Once digitized, use AI restoration on the scans while originals remain safely preserved. Good scans are the foundation for successful restoration.
No, AI-powered online restoration requires no special software. Everything works through your web browser – upload photos, process with AI, download results. No Photoshop, no learning curve, no installation. This makes professional-quality restoration accessible to everyone regardless of technical skill or software ownership.
The optimal processing order is: (1) Restore – repair damage like scratches, tears, stains; (2) Enhance – improve sharpness, reduce grain, optimize color and contrast; (3) Colorize – if converting B&W to color; (4) Upscale – enlarge to final size for printing or display. Each step benefits from previous improvements, producing the best final results.
For extremely fragile photos: avoid flatbed scanners (pressure can damage); use camera/phone to photograph instead; ensure even lighting without glare; photograph flat, straight-on; use highest camera resolution; multiple photos can be combined if needed. Once digitized, handle originals minimally and store properly. Digital restoration fixes damage without touching fragile originals.
Yes, online AI restoration works on smartphones. Use your phone to photograph old photos (ensure good lighting, no glare), upload through browser-based restoration service, and download restored results directly to your phone. While larger screens help review results, the actual restoration process works identically on mobile devices.