Restoration by Damage Type

Scratches & surface marks

Surface scratches, dust marks, and light abrasions are common repair candidates. AI may also erase real texture, writing, jewelry, or repeated patterns, so compare the whole result with the original.

Marked and repaired

Original

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Scan at 600 DPI or higher so the AI can distinguish scratches from real detail. Clean the scanner glass before scanning, since dust on the glass adds false scratches that the AI then has to remove unnecessarily.

How to fix a scratched photo

1. 1

   Clean the scanner glass or table first, then scan or photograph the print flat and square-on. Dust on the glass looks like new scratches.

2. 2

   Restore one photo free. Drag the divider and check faces, hands, writing and patterns: a repair can erase real texture along with the scratch.

3. 3

   If scratches remain, save the photo, open it, and choose More actions, then Repair damage. Brush over the scratches you want gone. Only what you mark changes.

4. 4

   Keep the repair only if it survives a whole-frame comparison. Your original stays beside it either way.

Fading & low contrast

Prints fade over time, losing contrast and shifting color. Black-and-white prints lose their deep blacks. Color prints develop a magenta or yellow cast as different dye layers fade at different rates.

A repair pass may improve contrast or color balance, but severe fading does not contain hidden detail that software can reliably recover. Reject results that clip highlights, change skin tone, or invent edges.

How to fix a faded photo

1. 1

   Scan in daylight-balanced light, or on a flatbed, without auto-enhance filters, so the capture records the fading as it is.

2. 2

   Restore one photo free and compare. A careful repair can bring back contrast and balance a colour cast.

3. 3

   Check skin tones, whites and the darkest areas. Reject a result that clips highlights, changes skin tone or sharpens edges that were never there.

4. 4

   For a black-and-white print, colour is a separate, optional step. It is an interpretation, not the recovered colour.

Tears & creases

Physical tears and fold creases are structural damage. AI fills the missing area with plausible content based on surrounding context. Results are good for backgrounds, clothing, and simple areas. Tears through faces are harder. If the original face is unrecognizable due to damage, the AI result will be a hallucination, not a restoration. Always verify against other photos of the same person.

Scan both pieces aligned as closely as possible. The AI works better when the pieces are close to their original position than when there is a visible gap between them.

How to repair a torn photo

1. 1

   Do not tape the print. Lay the pieces on a clean, flat surface as close to their original position as you can, and scan them together.

2. 2

   Restore one photo free, then look closely along the tear. Backgrounds, clothing and simple areas usually fill well.

3. 3

   Where the tear line remains, save the photo, open it, and choose More actions, then Repair damage. Mark the tear line only.

4. 4

   If the tear crosses a face, compare the result with other photos of the same person. Where the face is missing, any fill is a guess, so keep the original as the record.

Water damage

Water causes staining, wrinkling, emulsion lifting, and sometimes photos sticking together. Mild water stains (tidelines, edge discoloration) are handled reasonably well by Restore. Severe water damage, where the emulsion has lifted, bubbled, or stuck to glass, is the hardest damage type.

If a photograph is stuck to glass, another print, an enclosure, or an album page, do not peel it. Photograph it through the glass when possible and consult a photograph conservator. A wet photograph is physically vulnerable; stabilization comes before scanning or AI work.

Mold & foxing

Mold appears as fuzzy spots, often green or black. Foxing shows as small brown or rust-colored spots, common on prints from the 1880s–1920s. Both are surface contamination that partially obscures the image beneath.

Do not treat active mold as a software problem. Isolate affected material, avoid brushing or cleaning it in living areas, use appropriate protective equipment, and get conservation guidance before handling or digitizing it.

Color shifts (color prints)

Color prints from the 1960s–1990s are particularly prone to color shifts as chemical dyes degrade. The most common shift is toward magenta (reds and pinks dominate). Yellow casts and cyan loss are also common.

A repair pass may rebalance color, but the original dyes are the record. Compare skin, clothing, neutral objects, and edge fading; a natural-looking result is not proof of the original color.

Motion blur & camera shake

Blur from handheld phone captures, photos-of-photos, or soft consumer cameras from the 1950s–1970s. The image has detail but it is spread across adjacent pixels, making everything look soft or smeared.

If the print is available, make a steadier, square-on capture or a flatbed scan. Deblur may infer edges and cannot recover information that the camera never recorded.

Glare & reflections

Hot spots and washed-out patches from overhead lighting on glossy prints, flash reflections, or photos captured through glass frames or plastic album sleeves. Mild glare partially obscures the image; heavy glare completely washes out areas.

Deglare

Glare

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For mild to moderate glare where the underlying detail is still partially visible, Deglare can reduce the hot spots. For heavy glare that completely washes out an area, rescanning with the Nostalgia app's glare-burst capture (a multi-shot burst fused to remove reflections) or with indirect natural light is significantly more effective than AI correction. Google PhotoScan's multi-angle capture is a fine alternative.

Silver mirroring

A bluish metallic sheen on dark areas of old black-and-white prints, caused by silver migration to the surface. Common on prints from the 1880s–1940s. Gives dark areas an iridescent, mirror-like appearance.

Change the lighting and capture angle before attempting digital repair. Silver mirroring is a physical deterioration process; digital work changes only a copy and does not stabilize the original.

Water damage: emergency triage (first 48 hours)

If photos are still wet, time matters. Mold can begin growing within 48 hours, while softened emulsions, dyes, mounts, and enclosures can stick or deteriorate quickly. Different photographic processes need different handling, so stop when an object resists.

For an active incident, use the NEDCC wet-photograph salvage guide and the Canadian Conservation Institute guidance rather than improvising on a unique object.

• Handle wet photos by the edges only.
• Lay them face-up on a clean, absorbent surface (paper towels, clean cotton).
• Do not force apart photographs, sleeves, album pages, or glass. If there is resistance, leave them together and seek conservation help.
• Fully support wet paper photographs from underneath. Do not touch the image emulsion or let it contact another surface while drying.
• Air-dry manageable loose prints face-up in a clean, cool, well-ventilated space. If the volume is too large to dry quickly, contact a conservator about safe freezing; not every photographic process can be frozen.
• Do not use a hair dryer, oven, or any direct heat. It causes curling and accelerates ink bleeding.
• If mold is visible, wear gloves and isolate affected photos from clean ones.

Once dry, digitize as soon as possible. Water damage continues to worsen over months even after drying: colors shift, paper warps, and remaining moisture causes spots. A phone capture is fine for triage; aim for a flatbed scan once the urgent prints are stabilized.

When to Seek Professional Help

Digital restoration changes a copy, not the physical object. A professional conservator is the better first call for:

• Photos stuck to glass, frames, or each other
• Daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, glass plates, nitrate film, or an unfamiliar historical process
• Fire-damaged or charred prints
• Historically significant photos where accuracy is critical
• Original negatives or slides with physical damage

For an ordinary stable print, digitize the full source first, make the minimum useful digital repair, and keep only a version that survives whole-frame comparison.

Tools that fix each damage type

• Scratches, fading, tears, age wear → Restore
• Glare patches, glossy reflections, film grain, scanner noise → Enhance
• Low-resolution scans → Enhance & 2× upscale
• Faded color, missing color → Colorize

What to expect by photo type

Different eras and formats fail in different ways. The damage playbook above applies to all of them; here is the era-specific shape of it.