Decades
Restore photos from the 1920s
The 1920s produced small contact prints with white borders and deckled edges, long panoramic school and group photos, and soft-focus pictorial portraits. The common formats of the 1920s were contact prints, panoramic group photos and studio portraits in folders.
Panoramas from the 1920s rolled for decades crack along the curl, the small prints fade and yellow, and album corners tear the edges. Scan 1920s prints once at a high resolution, by the edges, and let the restoration work on the copy.
Photo Restoration is the usual first tool for a 1920s print, then Face Restoration and the upscaler in the Studio if it is going into a frame. The 4 free credits on a new account cover one Standard restoration of a 1920s photo.
Original on the left, restored on the right; hover to see more of the repair. Made in the Studio from a scan of the print.
Print and file requirements
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Dominant process | Roll film; gelatin silver contact prints; panoramic cameras |
| Common formats | Deckle-edged contact print, panoramic group photo, studio folder |
| Color | Monochrome; some hand tinting |
| Cameras | Box cameras, Cirkut panoramic, early Leica (1925) |
| Typical size | 2.5 x 4.25 in (116 film); panoramas up to 8 x 40 in |
| Typical condition today | Cracked panoramas, faded small prints, torn album corners |
What matters for these photos
- Cracked panoramas, faded small prints, torn album corners on 1920s prints
- Faces in 1920s group and studio photos that are too small to enlarge
- 1920s tones drifted to brown or yellow, with the whites gone
- A single 1920s print that is the family's only copy, with no negative to go back to
Suggested order of passes
- 01
Run Photo Restoration on the 1920s scan
Targets the most common failure of 1920s prints: cracked panoramas, faded small prints, torn album corners.
Photo Restoration - 02
Repair the marks left on the 1920s print
A second pass for the scratches, creases and fading that 1920s prints usually carry together.
Scratch & Tear Repair - 03
Restore the faces
1920s faces are often small; natural strength keeps them soft and believable, strong rebuilds tiny ones.
Face Restoration - 04
Upscale for reprinting
2.5 x 4.25 in (116 film); panoramas up to 8 x 40 in is small for a frame; the upscaler adds the pixels with the 1920s shape unchanged.
Image Upscaler
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