Will a great-great-grandparent nobody alive ever met still look like themselves after the blur is removed?

The prompts keep every face, age and expression in the blurry ancestor portrait as photographed. Where the blurry area covered a face, compare the result with other ancestor portraits and with family memory before you print.

Do I need to scan blurry ancestor portraits?

A flat scan is best, but a phone photo of the blurry ancestor portrait works too; run Photo-of-a-Photo Fixer first to crop and remove glare, then repair the blur.

How many credits does a blurry ancestor portrait take?

The 4 free credits on a new account cover one Standard restoration of blurry ancestor portraits. Pro and Max return more detail on the features, the period clothing and the studio props where the blur was heavy; see pricing for the current amounts.

Can I colorize the ancestor portrait after fixing the blur?

Yes. Repair the blurry ancestor portrait first, then run the Photo Colorizer on the result. Colors are inferred from the era and the materials in the repaired blurry ancestor portraits, so type any remembered colors into the hints field.

Ancestor Portraits

Blurry Ancestor Portraits

Ancestor portraits showing soft edges, doubled outlines on faces and hands, and detail that never resolves however close you look have almost always met a slow shutter, a subject who moved, a lens that was never sharp or a camera held by a child. The blur sits on top of the image of a great-great-grandparent nobody alive ever met, which is still there underneath.

Nothing in the ancestor portrait is redrawn for effect; the blur is treated as a layer to remove and the image of a great-great-grandparent nobody alive ever met as the thing to keep. If the blurry area covered the features, the period clothing and the studio props, the fill is inferred from what survives around it.

Start with Unblur Old Photos on the blurry ancestor portrait, then chain Face Restoration or the upscaler in the Studio if the ancestor portraits need it. The 4 free credits on a new account cover one Standard run on blurry ancestor portraits.

Open with these settings Unblur Old Photos

Blurry Ancestor Portraits, 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

Soft edges, doubled outlines on faces and hands, and detail that never resolves however close you look, spread over a ancestor portrait
A blurry ancestor portrait that is the only copy anyone has
The features, the period clothing and the studio props, hidden under the blur
Blur from a slow shutter, a subject who moved, a lens that was never sharp or a camera held by a child, on ancestor portraits from the 1850s to 1910s

Suggested order of passes

01
Remove the blur
Unblur Old Photos targets soft edges, doubled outlines on faces and hands, and detail that never resolves however close you look while keeping the features, the period clothing and the studio props in the ancestor portrait untouched.
Unblur Old Photos
02
Repair the rest of the ancestor portrait
Tintype & Daguerreotype Restoration addresses the usual wear on ancestor portraits, silver mirroring, a tarnished tintype surface and cabinet-card mounts that have gone brittle, once the blur is gone.
Tintype & Daguerreotype Restoration
03
Sharpen the faces of a great-great-grandparent nobody alive ever met
Recovers the eye and skin detail the blur softened; keep it at natural strength on ancestor portraits unless the faces are tiny.
Face Restoration
04
Upscale the ancestor portrait for reprinting
Adds the pixels a wall print needs after the blur repair, with the shape of the blurry ancestor portraits unchanged.
Image Upscaler