Restore old photo damage: scratches, tears, fading and stains
The only photo of your great-grandmother is creased, faded and has a water stain over one corner. This prompt has your todo.is agent repair the damage, bring back contrast and sharpness, and keep everyone looking like themselves, not like a smoothed AI version of them.
The prompt
- Restore the attached old photo. Damage to fix: [DAMAGE]. Repair scratches, cracks and dust spots, rebuild missing areas from the surrounding detail, and bring back contrast and sharpness lost to fading. Keep faces, expressions and features exactly as they are: do not smooth skin, change eyes or invent detail. Colour: [COLOUR]. Keep the full resolution, save as a JPG named "_restored", and make a before and after image. List the areas you had to rebuild.
What to change
- [DAMAGE]: What you see, e.g. "a crease across the middle, a torn top right corner, a brown water stain, faded and yellow". Or "fix everything you find".
- [COLOUR]: E.g. "keep it black and white", "keep the original sepia tone", or "also make a colorized version".
Example result
- Restoration: family portrait, around 1938
- Source: family_1938_scan.jpg (800 dpi) · crease across the middle, torn top right corner, water stain bottom left, heavily faded
- Files delivered
- • family_1938_restored.jpg: repaired, black and white, full resolution
- • family_1938_before_after.jpg: original and restored side by side
- Repairs made
- • Crease: the white line across the father's jacket and the mother's hands was filled using the fabric and skin around it
- • Torn corner: about 6% of the image was missing; the plain studio backdrop was rebuilt there, which is the easiest part to recreate
- • Water stain: the brown tide mark was removed and the grey tones under it evened out
- • Dust and scratches: around 150 small white specks and hair-line scratches removed
- • Fading: contrast restored so blacks are black again, without crushing the dark suit into one block
- Rebuilt areas, check these
- • The top right corner backdrop (fully rebuilt)
- • Two fingers on the mother's left hand, which were inside the crease
- What was deliberately not changed
- • Faces were not sharpened with AI face tools, which can make people look like someone else
- • Natural film grain was kept so it still looks like a 1930s photo
- • Skin texture and wrinkles left as they are
- Preserving the result
- • Keep the original scan, the restored file and a print in separate places
- • For framing, print on matte photo paper; a 600 dpi scan supports an enlargement of about two times
- • For badly damaged photos of great value, a professional conservator can also treat the physical print
How to do it with todo.is
- Scan the photo or take a flat, glare-free picture of it and attach it in todo.is.
- Copy the prompt, describe the damage and choose black and white, sepia or colour.
- Send it and download the restored photo and the before and after.
- Point out anything that looks off, such as "her eyes look different", and the agent redoes that part more gently.
Tips for a better result
- Do not tape or glue a torn print before scanning. Lay the pieces together on the scanner instead.
- Ask for "no face enhancement" if relatives look too smooth or unfamiliar after the repair.
- Restore first, then colorize, and keep both versions.
- Several prints from the same event? Send them together and ask for the same tone on all of them.
restore old photo: FAQ
- Can AI restore a badly damaged photo? It can repair scratches, creases, stains, fading and small missing areas well. Large missing parts of faces cannot be truly recovered, only guessed, so check rebuilt areas carefully.
- Will it change how people look? The prompt asks it to keep faces exactly and not to use smoothing, but AI edits can alter small details. Compare the result with the original, and ask for a lighter touch if anything looks different.
- Can a blurry old photo be made sharp? Mild softness can be improved. A photo that was out of focus when taken cannot be made truly sharp without inventing detail.
- Is it better to scan or photograph the print? A flatbed scan at 600 dpi or more is best. A phone photo in soft daylight, held straight above the print, works if you have no scanner.
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