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what app for restoring old photos

S

ScottR

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 11, 2007
137
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I recently scanned hundreds of old family photos, some dating back to the 1920s. I'm not interested in changing them--i.e., no colorizing or removing people/objects. For someone not trained in Photoshop-type image manipulation, what best restores faded colors, image blowout, restores detail from darkened sections, etc.? That is, I'd like to get the photos to how they looked when they were first developed and, if they came out in the best case scenario. Something like even a little of the magic they did in the movie They Shall Not Grow Old, but for images, and not trying to make it look modern.
I'm guessing some AI might be needed.
 
I fear that you will need to educate yourself somewhat in Photoshop-style editing. What you are asking for cannot be done easily, unless there is a "new fangled" AI tool out there that will do it these days ... but most of them I have looked at want something like $100 for you to even TRY them.

GIMP is a free open-source "equivalent" to Photoshop. GIMP is free - Photoshop is most certainly not!

For faded colors, the Levels tool works wonders. For image blowout, nothing short of a miracle (AI perhaps?) can recover it. If the pixels are gone, nothing can bring them back. For details from darkened sections, the Levels tool, the Curves tool and the Dodge tool can all be wonderful. Levels and Dodge are fairly easy to use. The Curves tool can be quite a bit more complex.

There are of course a whole raft of "Photoshop-lite" type applications, such as Pixelmator, and some pretty heavy and complex ones as well, such as DigiKam. All of them will require some basic understanding of what the tools are doing however to get them to produce the results you are looking for.
 
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In the past I have researched my family history and in doing so came upon a lot of black & white photographs. I wanted to scan them to my folder and was given a useful tip;

When scanning old B & W pics use the colour function - not the B & W set up. Apparently in doing so will bring out the "silvery" finish
 
Try PhotoScape (free download, free use).
Open the pic and choose "edit".
Click the "color" panel (doesn't matter that it's a b&w pic).
There's a checkbox for "HDR".
Try that and see how it does.
 
mac57mac57 said:
I fear that you will need to educate yourself somewhat in Photoshop-style editing. What you are asking for cannot be done easily, unless there is a "new fangled" AI tool out there that will do it these days ... but most of them I have looked at want something like $100 for you to even TRY them.

GIMP is a free open-source "equivalent" to Photoshop. GIMP is free - Photoshop is most certainly not!

For faded colors, the Levels tool works wonders. For image blowout, nothing short of a miracle (AI perhaps?) can recover it. If the pixels are gone, nothing can bring them back. For details from darkened sections, the Levels tool, the Curves tool and the Dodge tool can all be wonderful. Levels and Dodge are fairly easy to use. The Curves tool can be quite a bit more complex.

There are of course a whole raft of "Photoshop-lite" type applications, such as Pixelmator, and some pretty heavy and complex ones as well, such as DigiKam. All of them will require some basic understanding of what the tools are doing however to get them to produce the results you are looking for.
Click to expand...

Long ago, I owned Photoshop, and now own non-pro apps (Acorn, Affinity Photo, and others) and I have some familiarity with those tools and have tweaked the photos relatively well with them, but I think I need something beyond the general-purpose apps--that's why I also mentioned AI. I don't mind spending money to buy the app or plugins (so long as I have a chance to try it on 1-2 photos, to be sure it does what I hope it does). I don't know if I've merely reached the limits of my own knowledge or the capabilities of the apps I own, or both, but I've definitely gone as far as I can.
 
@ScottR, the issue with all these new AI apps is that they may work well, they may be absolute rubbish or they may be something in between. No matter what however, they want your dollars upfront before you can even try them out and determine if they are any good.

EVERY new technology goes through a huge hype cycle before settling down, and LOTS of unscrupulous people will try to take advantage of this to fleece you of your money. Consequently, I would (and do) approach all of these new "magic" apps with extreme caution.

One exception - Photoshop 2025 incorporates AI now, and for the things I have tried, it is pretty good. It does not however promise to perfectly restore old, faded and perhaps damaged photos. If Photoshop doesn't do it, that makes me leery of all the apps that claim almost magical results. You know the old saying - if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
 
You might want to check out Photopea—it’s a free online editor that behaves a lot like Photoshop. It doesn’t come with any AI features, but it’s perfect for adjusting brightness and contrast, fixing scratches, or bringing back some color to faded spots. Plus, you don’t have to install anything, and it runs on any computer.
 
I checked out Photopea... interesting. I am wondering where the catch is. Running an Internet-accessible service has real costs associated with it. Where are they getting their revenue? Photopea's basic free service looks very capable. There is a $5+ per month paid option; perhaps that is it, but I wonder how many folks would pay when the free product meets all the basic needs?

If something looks too good to be true, it usually is...
 
I use Adobe Lightroom for it but that's photography oriented primarily.

Pixelmator is a good option. One payment. Reliable and easy to use (might have to watch a couple of tutorials).

Stay away from the open source stuff IMHO. They are usually powerful bits of software but have absolutely the worst interfaces and usability designs on the planet.

You don't need magic AI. There's usually a process of:

1. Remove any spots of damage with a heal or clone brush.
2. Adjust levels.
3. Crop accordingly.
4. Job done.
 
ScottR said:
I recently scanned hundreds of old family photos, some dating back to the 1920s. I'm not interested in changing them--i.e., no colorizing or removing people/objects. For someone not trained in Photoshop-type image manipulation, what best restores faded colors, image blowout, restores detail from darkened sections, etc.? That is, I'd like to get the photos to how they looked when they were first developed and, if they came out in the best case scenario. Something like even a little of the magic they did in the movie They Shall Not Grow Old, but for images, and not trying to make it look modern.
I'm guessing some AI might be needed.
Click to expand...
I have a a whole bunch of old photos, going back to 1800s, some I inherited as .jpg, some as .tif, and I scanned a bunch myself as well as had a lab doing it, all as .tif.
I have used Photoshop Neural Filter "Restore old photos" and it actually does a decent job, enough to get you started for sure and then leave one fine-tuning for you,
But it's PS, subscription required.
 
I do quite a bit of this and tend to use the following -
1) Affinity Photo (it is akin to Photoshop and you buy it outright with no subscription)
2) Topaz Photo AI and Topaz Gigapixel - decent AI for restoring faces if you use it correctly and also flush in details
3) Luminar Neo - not normally associated with restoring but can fix eye colour, lighten up faces or smooth out etc. In short certain details that bring life to the image.

There are some basic things to know about using any software and understanding you will have to work with a bit of hit and miss until you find you can look at an image and know what you want to get done and the means to accomplish it. Also if you want to dabble in adding colour - there are on line services that you can submit an image and it will colourize it for you. Or, try something like palette . fm (sans the spaces).

For me, while I have done some work as jobs, most of the time it is advanced hobby activity which is somewhat what you might be looking to do yourself.
 
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