Group Photos
Cracked Group Photos
Group 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 whole family, club or congregation arranged in rows, which is still there underneath.
Nothing in the group photo is redrawn for effect; the cracked emulsion is treated as a layer to remove and the image of a whole family, club or congregation arranged in rows as the thing to keep. If the cracked area covered every face, the row order and the banner, the fill is inferred from what survives around it.
Start with Scratch & Tear Repair on the cracked group photo, then chain Face Restoration or the upscaler in the Studio if the group photos need it. The 4 free credits on a new account cover one Standard run on cracked group 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
- Every face, the row order and the banner, 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 group photos from the 1900s to 1990s
- Small faces of a whole family, club or congregation arranged in rows that the cracked emulsion has taken the detail from
- Cracked group 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 every face, the row order and the banner in the group photo untouched.
Scratch & Tear Repair - 02
Repair the rest of the group photo
Face Restoration addresses the usual wear on group photos, small faces, a fold through the middle row and one person half lost to a tear, once the cracked emulsion is gone.
Face Restoration - 03
Sharpen the faces of a whole family, club or congregation arranged in rows
Recovers the eye and skin detail the cracked emulsion softened; keep it at natural strength on group photos unless the faces are tiny.
Face Restoration - 04
Upscale the group photo for reprinting
Adds the pixels a wall print needs after the cracked emulsion repair, with the shape of the cracked group photos unchanged.
Image Upscaler
This subject, by damage type
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