Old family photos rarely need magic — they need a good scan and a careful upscale. AI restoration can sharpen soft prints, smooth grain, and bring a faded 3x5 snapshot up to a resolution you can print or archive, but it cannot invent detail that was never in the image. Here is the workflow we recommend, from scan to download.
What AI restoration can and cannot do
It usually helps with:
- Soft focus and low resolution from small prints
- Visible grain and texture noise
- Faded contrast, within reason
- Mild compression damage from old scans
It cannot:
- Invent a face that was out of focus or missing
- Verify facts, dates, or who is in the photo
- Fix torn or missing parts of the image (that is manual repair work, not upscaling)
If the photo is heavily damaged — tears, mold, missing corners — repair the damage first in an editor, then upscale the repaired file.
Step 1: Scan properly
The scan determines everything downstream:
- Scan prints at 300 DPI minimum; use 600 DPI for wallet-size or heavily cropped photos
- Save as TIFF or PNG if your scanner supports it, or highest-quality JPEG
- Keep the photo flat and dust-free on the glass
- Photographing a print with a phone works in a pinch, but a flatbed scan is always sharper
A 3x5 inch print at 600 DPI gives you roughly a 1800x3000 pixel source — already close to 2K and a strong starting point for 4K.
Step 2: Prep the file before upscaling
Do the cheap edits first, at original resolution:
- Crop and straighten
- Fix exposure and white balance
- Repair dust and scratches with a clone or heal tool
- Export as JPEG, PNG, or WebP — the formats the upscaler accepts
Do not sharpen aggressively in your editor. The upscaler does that job better, and double sharpening creates halos.
Step 3: Choose the tool and target
Two tools cover most restoration jobs:
Image upscaler — pure resolution increase. 2K costs 10 credits, 4K costs 16, and 8K costs 25. Estimated render times are 8, 15, and 25 seconds respectively. This is the right choice when your scan is decent and you mainly need size.
Photo enhance — dedicated photo improvement with two modes: Faithful (150 credits, JPEG output) sharpens while staying close to the original; Reconstruction (90 credits, PNG output) attempts structural repair on degraded photos. Use enhance when the photo is visibly damaged or very soft, not just small.
Step 4: Run the upscale and compare
- Open the image upscaler or photo enhance
- Upload your prepared scan
- Pick the resolution or enhance mode
- Confirm the credit cost shown in the preflight
- Download and compare against the original at 100% zoom
A new signed-in account can finish its first 2K image upscale for free, which is a practical way to test the pipeline on a real photo before spending credits. Guests can see a 720px preview of the result before unlocking.
When to pick 2K versus 4K
Match the target to what you will do with the file:
- Sharing online or archiving: 2K (10 credits) is plenty
- Large prints (8x10 and up): 4K (16 credits) gives you print headroom
- Very small or heavily cropped originals: 2K first, then judge whether 4K adds anything
For batches of old photos, the photo enhance tool accepts up to 10 files per batch — a useful limit to know before you queue a whole shoebox.
Color-faded photos and long-term archiving
Faded color is an editor job, not an upscaler job. Correct the cast and levels before upscaling, then let the upscaler handle sharpness and size. Running color fixes after the upscale means working on a much larger file for no benefit.
For archiving, think past the upscale:
- Keep the untouched original scan, always — future tools will do more than today's
- Save the finished master as PNG or TIFF, not just the platform-optimized JPEG
- Follow a backup habit (the old 3-2-1 rule: three copies, two media, one offsite) — a restored photo that exists only on one phone is one accident from being lost again
Summary
Scan well, repair damage manually, upscale once to a target that matches your actual use, and compare before you decide it worked. Start with the free first 2K on the image upscaler, then decide whether the enhanced modes or 4K are worth the credits. Before you queue a whole box, read AI photo restoration online: it lists the credit cost per mode and the damage that no automated pass can hand back.