Restoring a damaged photo means repairing what happened to the print, such as cracks, creases, stains and missing corners, while keeping the people and the look of the original. In this example, a 1940s black-and-white wedding photo has spent decades in a box. A long crack runs down through the wall and the groom's jacket, a crease cuts across the bride's dress and bouquet, a water stain has spread over the lower right corner and the top left corner has torn off.
What changed in this photo, and what stayed the same?
- Repaired: the crack, the crease, the water stain, the scratches and dust, and the torn-off corner, filled in with the wooden wall and window frame that continue around it.
- Kept: both faces exactly as they are in the scan, their hair and the veil, the clothes, the bouquet, and the faded black-and-white tones and grain of an old print.
Why not make it look new, or add color?
A repair should look like the same photo before it was damaged, not like a new picture. Sharpening the faces or smoothing the grain makes an old print look fake and can change how the people look. Color is a separate choice: tell us if you want it, and we add it as a second step on top of the repair.
What if the damage crosses a face?
Here no damage touches either face, so the faces are left as scanned. When a crack or a missing piece runs through an eye or a mouth, that part has to be rebuilt, and another photo of the same person from around the same time makes it far more faithful. We tell you before starting which parts are rebuilt.
What to upload
Send the damaged photo as a flatbed scan or a sharp photo of the original, never a screenshot, and keep the file at full size. If the damage crosses a face, add another photo of that person as a reference. See photo restoration for related repairs.
Photos
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damaged.tif
1 credit ($8)
1 photo to edit
Instructions
My grandparents' wedding photo has cracks and stains. Can you repair it?
Private: recreated on our own images, not customer photos
The before/after shown here is recreated on images created or licensed for this site — never a real customer's photo. Your upload is seen only by the editor working on it, and the edit comes with free revisions within 14 days of delivery if anything needs adjusting.
