Use Case · Photo Restoration

Bring old family photos back without making them weird

Repair scratches, fix fading, sharpen faces, and gently recover color — while keeping the era's natural film look. No plastic-skin uncanny-valley pass.

Why Pixzoo for restoration

Face-safe sharpening

The face restoration tool sharpens eyes and lips without inventing new bone structure — relatives stay recognizable.

Era-correct color

Tell it "1960s Kodachrome" or "sepia" and the color stays period-appropriate instead of looking like an Instagram preset.

Scratch and tear repair

Erase creases, dust, and torn edges via image-edit, then upscale lossless to 4K for printing.

Non-destructive passes

Each tool is one step. Restore, color, upscale — you can stop at any stage and keep the look you like.

Prompts

Prompts that work

Restoration uses image-to-image. Upload the old photo, then send one of these as the prompt.

Faded 1960s family photoTry this prompt
restore faded 1960s family photo, fix scratches and dust, sharpen faces gently, natural Kodachrome color, keep original grain, no plastic skin
Black and white portraitTry this prompt
restore black and white studio portrait, repair creases and edge tears, sharpen eyes and lips, keep high-contrast film look, no colorization
Gentle colorizationTry this prompt
colorize black and white photo from 1955, period-correct palette, muted earth tones, natural skin, keep original lighting and grain, no oversaturation
Water-damaged photoTry this prompt
repair water-damaged photo, remove staining and warping, recover faces and clothing texture, gentle color recovery, keep era-appropriate film grain
Tips

Tips that ship

  • 01

    Always include "keep original grain" or "keep film look" — without it, AI restoration plastic-skins everyone.

  • 02

    Restore first, colorize second, upscale third. One pass at a time keeps each step controllable.

  • 03

    Tell the model the era ("1960s", "1980s instant photo", "WWII-era") so the color it picks is plausible.

  • 04

    Faces only mildly damaged? Skip /image-templates?templateId=face-restoration and just upscale — face restoration is for serious blur or tear.

  • 05

    Print at 300 DPI from a 4K upscale. Anything less will print soft on photo paper.

FAQ

Photo restoration FAQ

Will it change how my relatives look?

No, if you stay in /image-templates?templateId=photo-restoration or /image-templates?templateId=face-restoration. These tools sharpen and repair without redrawing bone structure. Avoid running through generic image-to-image with a creative prompt.

Can it colorize a black and white photo?

Yes — pass it through image-edit with a colorize prompt that names the era. Period accuracy comes from naming the decade in the prompt.

How big can I print the restored photo?

Run the restored version through /image-upscale to 4K, then print up to 16×20" at 300 DPI without softness.

What's the right tool order?

1) /image-templates?templateId=photo-restoration for repair, 2) /image-templates?templateId=face-restoration if faces are still soft, 3) /image-upscale for final print size. Stop at any step that looks right.

Ready to restore?

Upload a photo and you'll see the difference in under a minute.