AI Photo Restoration

Cracked Wartime Photos

Cracked wartime photos usually come out of a print that dried out and stiffened before it was bent, or a plate whose coating crazed with age. On a wartime photo the cracked emulsion shows as a web of fine dark or light lines across the surface, with flakes lifting where the cracks meet, right across a soldier at camp, a sweetheart back home or a family in a bombed street.

Upload a scan or a phone photo of the cracked wartime photo and the AI-powered repair comes back in seconds with the uniform, the date on the back and the handwriting left as they were. Where the cracked emulsion covered a face in wartime photos, check the result against family memory before you print it.

If the cracked emulsion on the wartime photo is worse than it looks, run Scratch & Tear Repair twice rather than reaching for a heavier setting. Then upscale the cracked wartime photos for a reprint, since the output keeps the shape of the upload.

Cracked Wartime Photos, the original print
Cracked Wartime Photos
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 uniform, the date on the back and the handwriting, 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 wartime photos from the 1910s to 1940s
  • Small faces of a soldier at camp, a sweetheart back home or a family in a bombed street that the cracked emulsion has taken the detail from
  • Cracked wartime photos that a copy shop refused to touch

Suggested order of passes

  1. 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 uniform, the date on the back and the handwriting in the wartime photo untouched.

    Scratch & Tear Repair
  2. 02

    Run a full pass on the wartime photo

    Picks up the remaining scratches, fading and softness on cracked wartime photos after the cracked emulsion is removed.

    Photo Restoration
  3. 03

    Sharpen the faces of a soldier at camp, a sweetheart back home or a family in a bombed street

    Recovers the eye and skin detail the cracked emulsion softened; keep it at natural strength on wartime photos unless the faces are tiny.

    Face Restoration
  4. 04

    Upscale the wartime photo for reprinting

    Adds the pixels a wall print needs after the cracked emulsion repair, with the shape of the cracked wartime photos unchanged.

    Image Upscaler

Questions