Band Photos
Cracked Band Photos
Band photos showing a web of fine dark or light lines across the surface, with flakes lifting where the cracks meet have almost always met a print that dried out and stiffened before it was bent, or a plate whose coating crazed with age. The cracked emulsion sits on top of the image of a marching band, a garage band or the school orchestra holding their instruments, which is still there underneath.
Nothing in the band photo is redrawn for effect; the cracked emulsion is treated as a layer to remove and the image of a marching band, a garage band or the school orchestra holding their instruments as the thing to keep. If the cracked area covered the instruments, the uniforms and the lettering on the drum head, the fill is inferred from what survives around it.
Start with Scratch & Tear Repair on the cracked band photo, then chain Face Restoration or the upscaler in the Studio if the band photos need it. The 4 free credits on a new account cover one Standard run on cracked band photos.
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 instruments, the uniforms and the lettering on the drum head, hidden under the cracked emulsion
- Cracked emulsion from a print that dried out and stiffened before it was bent, or a plate whose coating crazed with age, on band photos from the 1930s to 1990s
- Small faces of a marching band, a garage band or the school orchestra holding their instruments that the cracked emulsion has taken the detail from
- Cracked band photos that a copy shop refused to touch
Suggested order of passes
- 01
Remove the cracked emulsion
Scratch & Tear Repair targets a web of fine dark or light lines across the surface, with flakes lifting where the cracks meet while keeping the instruments, the uniforms and the lettering on the drum head in the band photo untouched.
Scratch & Tear Repair - 02
Repair the rest of the band photo
Exposure Fixer addresses the usual wear on band photos, flash bounce off the brass, a stage that went black and a photocopy standing in for the lost print, once the cracked emulsion is gone.
Exposure Fixer - 03
Sharpen the faces of a marching band, a garage band or the school orchestra holding their instruments
Recovers the eye and skin detail the cracked emulsion softened; keep it at natural strength on band photos unless the faces are tiny.
Face Restoration - 04
Upscale the band photo for reprinting
Adds the pixels a wall print needs after the cracked emulsion repair, with the shape of the cracked band photos unchanged.
Image Upscaler
This subject, by damage type
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