Scratches, dust, and small creases
The automatic pass can reduce narrow surface marks and isolated dust without asking you to paint a mask. Broad tears or missing corners are less predictable and should be reviewed carefully.
Conservative automatic repair
Photo Restoration
Repair common visible wear, compare the result with the untouched source, and download only what you trust.
Designed for inspection
The workflow keeps repair, colorization, enhancement, and enlargement as separate choices. That makes the result easier to evaluate and avoids controls that do not map to a verifiable operation.
Conservation darkroom
Restore Your Photo Online
Upload one old or damaged photo, run a conservative automatic repair, and inspect the split view before downloading.
01 / SourceOne image
JPG, PNG, or WebP · maximum 5 MB
02 / Restore256–4,096 px per side · ≤ 16 MP
Automatic conservative restorationAims to repair visible wear while retaining recognizable identity and the source color state.
20 creditsSource—
Processing1K · auto aspect
20 credits for this runView pricing
Output preview
Your restored photo will appear here
Upload a supported old or damaged photo to verify its size and prepare one conservative restoration.
Illustrative AI-generated examples, not measured production outputs. Actual results vary.
Single portrait with surface wear
Faded multi-person family print
Noisy, low-resolution damaged scan
Repair scope
What Photo Restoration Can Repair
Old photographs contain several kinds of degradation at once. This automatic pass is aimed at common visible wear, while the original remains the reference for every judgment.
Noise, compression, and mild softness
Digitized prints often combine scanner noise, JPEG blocks, and soft edges. Restoration can make those distractions less prominent, but it cannot prove details that were never captured.
Fading and weak tonal separation
A restrained correction can improve legibility in faded prints while being instructed to retain the original black-and-white, sepia, or color state. It does not intentionally colorize monochrome history.
Practical workflow
How to Restore an Old Photo Online
Good restoration starts before the upload. Keep an archival copy of the original scan, use the highest honest resolution available, and treat the generated file as a viewing derivative rather than a replacement master.
- 01
Scan or photograph the original well
Use even light, avoid reflections, and capture the print as straight as possible. A clean source gives the restoration more trustworthy evidence.
- 02
Upload one supported photo
Choose a JPG, PNG, or WebP file up to 5 MB, with each side from 256 to 4,096 pixels and no more than 16 megapixels.
- 03
Run the conservative repair
Sign in, confirm the fixed cost of 20 credits, and start one tracked restoration. There are no decorative strength controls that pretend to change the result.
- 04
Compare before downloading
Drag the split view across every face, hand, inscription, uniform, and repeating pattern. Download only when the result still agrees with the source evidence.
Restoration cases
Judge the Result Against the Original
These illustrative, AI-generated examples show common damage patterns; they are not measured outputs or a performance benchmark for the production restoration service. Actual results vary, so inspect your result against its source.
Single portrait with surface wear
A studio portrait with scratches, dust, fading, and mild softness. The repair targets visible wear while keeping facial structure, hairstyle, clothing, grain, and monochrome character recognizable.
Faded multi-person family print
A group photo with low contrast and age-related marks. Every face should be checked separately because small features are the easiest place for an automatic reconstruction to become inaccurate.
Noisy, low-resolution damaged scan
A difficult scan with creases, speckle, compression, and weak detail. The result can become easier to view, but missing text and large destroyed regions still require human judgment or manual retouching.
Historical Authenticity and Limits
A restored photo can be clearer and more complete-looking without being documentary proof. When pixels are destroyed, some visible detail is inferred rather than recovered historical fact. That is especially important for faces, medals, uniforms, handwriting, dates, architecture, and objects with family or legal meaning.
Preserve the untouched scan, label generated derivatives, and ask relatives or an archivist to compare uncertain details. This tool is deliberately instructed to retain the original color state; optional colorization would add another layer of interpretation.
Privacy, Storage, and Deletion
Upload only images you have the right and consent to process. Signed-in restoration tasks and results can appear in My Creations so a task can be recovered after a temporary connection problem.
The current storage backend has no automatic expiry for uploaded or generated image objects. Delete in My Creations calls the authenticated creation-delete endpoint and soft-deletes the task record from account history; it does not delete the underlying image object or provider copy. Review the Privacy Policy and contact support before uploading especially sensitive family material.
Choose the right workflow
AI Photo Restoration vs Photo Enhancement vs Manual Retouching
The best option depends on whether the source is physically damaged, merely soft, or historically important enough to require pixel-level human control.
AI Photo Restoration
- Best for
- Old prints with scratches, dust, fading, noise, and localized wear
- Control
- One conservative automatic pass with before-and-after review
- Tradeoff
- Fast and consistent, but uncertain missing detail may be inferred
Photo Enhancement
- Best for
- Intact modern or scanned photos that mainly look soft or compressed
- Control
- Same-size clarity cleanup without a damage-repair brief
- Tradeoff
- Useful for presentation, but not designed to remove physical scratches
Manual Retouching
- Best for
- Severe tears, missing regions, valuable archives, or exact client direction
- Control
- Human masks, layers, references, and reversible local edits
- Tradeoff
- Highest control and accountability, with more time and cost
Tool specifications
A Deliberately Focused Restoration Path
The workbench accepts one JPG, PNG, or WebP image up to 5 MB. Each side must be between 256 and 4,096 pixels, and the image must stay within 16 megapixels. One run costs 20 credits and returns a 1K result at an automatic aspect ratio.
Processing may reconstruct plausible visual detail, so the result is not a forensic record, identity guarantee, or substitute for professional conservation. By using the tool, you confirm that your upload complies with the Terms of Service.
Research context: restoration literature distinguishes structured damage such as scratches from unstructured degradation such as blur and fading. See the peer-reviewed method paper Bringing Old Photos Back to Life. Reviewed by the Banana Pro AI product team · Last reviewed: 2026-09-04.
Purpose-bound upload verification
Fail-closed source safety review
Fixed server-owned repair brief
Idempotent task recovery
Before-and-after split comparison
Download after visual inspection
Continue editing
Related Photo Tools
Keep each operation explicit. Repair damage first, then choose enhancement, colorization, editing, or enlargement only when the source and intended use call for it.
Questions
Photo Restoration FAQ
Clear answers about repair scope, source requirements, historical accuracy, and credit use.
What does AI photo restoration repair?
It can reduce visible scratches, dust, small creases, fading, noise, compression artifacts, and moderate softness in an old photograph. Results depend on the source: a clear scan with localized wear is more reliable than a tiny file with large missing areas.
Does photo restoration colorize black-and-white photos?
No. This restoration path is instructed to retain the source color state so repair and color interpretation remain separate decisions. Use the Image Colorizer only when you intentionally want inferred color and understand that the palette may not be historically exact.
Can it restore faces exactly?
No automated method can guarantee exact recovery when facial pixels are blurred, compressed, scratched away, or missing. Check eyes, teeth, hairlines, jewelry, badges, and relationships between people against the untouched original.
How much does one restoration cost?
One restoration uses 20 credits. The workbench shows the cost and your remaining balance before submission, and the existing task system avoids restarting a paid job when a connection is interrupted.
Which photos work best?
Portraits, family prints, school photographs, wedding pictures, and documentary snapshots with visible but localized damage are practical candidates. Large tears, illegible writing, severe motion blur, and extremely tiny faces usually need manual retouching or a better scan.
Preserve the source. Inspect the derivative.
Restore a Copy of Your Old Photo
Start with one careful scan, review the fixed 20-credit cost, and compare the restored result against the original before you keep it.
Open the restoration workbench