Photo restoration, explained properly
Nobody in this photograph is coming back. The photograph can.
Tested guides for rescuing damaged, faded and forgotten photographs, including the free methods and the honest limits of every one of them.
Photograph: John / Pexels
Most advice about old photographs is a software advert wearing a cardigan. This is not that.
Every guide here says what actually works, what it costs, where it falls down, and when the free option is genuinely the right one.
Start where the damage is
What are you holding?
Physical damage
It is torn or creased
The most fixable damage there is, provided you resist the urge to reach for sticky tape first.
Read the guide →
Colour loss
It has faded to almost nothing
Sun, heat and cheap 1970s dyes. Faded prints usually hold far more detail than they appear to.
Read the guide →
Whole collections
It is a box in the garage
Where to start when it is not one photograph but four hundred, and none of them are getting younger.
Read the guide →The shortcut
Do it on your phone in seconds
Every technique on this site by hand takes patience and a real editor. Photo Restore does the heavy lifting on your iPhone, sharpening, colourising and repairing old prints with AI, no desktop software required.
Free to try on iPhone and iPad. Optional Pro upgrade.
