Can I reprint the restored childhood photo large?

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

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

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

Can I colorize childhood photos?

Yes. Run the Photo Colorizer after the repair. Colors on a childhood photo are inferred from the era and the materials, so if anyone remembers a dress or a car color, type it into the known-colors field.

Subjects

Restore old childhood photos

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

Photo Restoration is the usual first step for a childhood photo; it addresses square prints with rounded corners gone orange, a bent corner and a thumbprint over a face. Chain a second tool in the Studio if the print needs more.

Childhood photos are usually the photographs a family would run back into the house for: you or your parents as children, in the yard, at the table or on a bike, printed anywhere from the 1940s to 1990s. The childhood photos that survive tend to show square prints with rounded corners gone orange, a bent corner and a thumbprint over a face.

Upload the childhood photo as a scan or a phone photo, and the restoration comes back in seconds with the toys, the clothing and the expression kept as they were in the original. Faces in childhood photos that were badly blurred are plausible reconstructions, so compare them against other pictures of the same people.

Standard is enough for a childhood photo headed for a screen; Pro and Max recover more detail for a print that will hang on a wall. Whichever tier you choose, run childhood photos through the upscaler last so the reprint stays sharp.

Open with these settings Photo Restoration

Restore old childhood 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

The toys, the clothing and the expression, which must stay as photographed while the damage is repaired
One surviving childhood photo that every relative wants a clean copy of
Childhood photos scanned years ago at low resolution and never reprinted
Square prints with rounded corners gone orange, a bent corner and a thumbprint over a face

Suggested order of passes

01
Run Photo Restoration on the childhood photo
The first pass for childhood photos: it takes on square prints with rounded corners gone orange, a bent corner and a thumbprint over a face while keeping the toys, the clothing and the expression as photographed.
Photo Restoration
02
Repair what the first pass left on the childhood photo
Scratch & Tear Repair picks up the remaining marks on childhood photos without touching the tone or grain elsewhere.
Scratch & Tear Repair
03
Sharpen the faces of you or your parents as children, in the yard, at the table or on a bike
Recovers eye and skin detail in childhood photos; keep it at natural strength unless the faces are tiny.
Face Restoration
04
Upscale the childhood photo for reprinting
Adds the pixels a framed print or enlargement of childhood photos needs, with the shape of the upload unchanged.
Image Upscaler