Do I need a scanner for birthday photos?

No. A phone photo of the birthday photo works; run Photo-of-a-Photo Fixer first to crop, straighten and remove glare, then restore the result.

Can I reprint the restored birthday photo large?

After restoring, send birthday photos through the Image Upscaler. The output keeps the shape of the birthday photo upload and gains the pixels a wall print or an enlargement needs.

Will the people in my birthday photo still look like themselves?

The prompts instruct the restoration to keep every face, age and expression in a birthday photo as photographed. Where a face in birthday photos was tiny or badly blurred the result is a plausible reconstruction, so check it against other photos and family memory before printing.

Subjects

Restore old birthday photos

Q: Which tool should I start with for birthday photos?

Exposure Fixer is the usual first step for a birthday photo; it addresses candlelight underexposed to near black, a yellow date stamp and an edge curled by a sticky album. Chain a second tool in the Studio if the print needs more.

A birthday photo carries a child leaning over a cake with the candles lit, and the copy in the shoebox is often the only one there is. Prints of birthday photos from the 1950s to 1990s typically show candlelight underexposed to near black, a yellow date stamp and an edge curled by a sticky album.

The AI-powered restoration works on a scan or a phone photo of the birthday photo and returns the repaired image in seconds, keeping the cake, the candles and the party hats as they were photographed. Nothing in birthday photos is redrawn for effect; the tools repair the damage and leave the rest alone.

For most birthday photos the order is damage first, faces second, upscale last, and each step in the Studio takes the previous result as its input. The first Standard birthday photo restoration is covered by the 4 free credits every new account starts with.

Open with these settings Exposure Fixer

Restore old birthday photos, the original print

OriginalRestored

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.

What matters for these photos

Color casts on birthday photos from the 1950s to 1990s that hide the real skin tones
The cake, the candles and the party hats, which must stay as photographed while the damage is repaired
One surviving birthday photo that every relative wants a clean copy of
Birthday photos scanned years ago at low resolution and never reprinted

Suggested order of passes

01
Run Exposure Fixer on the birthday photo
The first pass for birthday photos: it takes on candlelight underexposed to near black, a yellow date stamp and an edge curled by a sticky album while keeping the cake, the candles and the party hats as photographed.
Exposure Fixer
02
Repair what the first pass left on the birthday photo
Photo Restoration picks up the remaining marks on birthday photos without touching the tone or grain elsewhere.
Photo Restoration
03
Sharpen the faces of a child leaning over a cake with the candles lit
Recovers eye and skin detail in birthday photos; keep it at natural strength unless the faces are tiny.
Face Restoration
04
Upscale the birthday photo for reprinting
Adds the pixels a framed print or enlargement of birthday photos needs, with the shape of the upload unchanged.
Image Upscaler