AI Photo Restoration

Creased Church Photos

Church photos showing a white line where the emulsion broke along the fold, very often straight through a face have almost always met a print folded into a wallet, a letter or a pocket, then flattened again decades later. The creasing sits on top of the image of a congregation on the steps, a robed choir or the church building itself, which is still there underneath.

Nothing in the church photo is redrawn for effect; the creasing is treated as a layer to remove and the image of a congregation on the steps, a robed choir or the church building itself as the thing to keep. If the creased area covered the architecture, the vestments and the steps, the fill is inferred from what survives around it.

Start with Scratch & Tear Repair on the creased church photo, then chain Face Restoration or the upscaler in the Studio if the church photos need it. The 4 free credits on a new account cover one Standard run on creased church photos.

Creased Church Photos, the original print
Creased Church 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 architecture, the vestments and the steps, hidden under the creasing
  • Creasing from a print folded into a wallet, a letter or a pocket, then flattened again decades later, on church photos from the 1890s to 1980s
  • Small faces of a congregation on the steps, a robed choir or the church building itself that the creasing has taken the detail from
  • Creased church photos that a copy shop refused to touch

Suggested order of passes

  1. 01

    Remove the creasing

    Scratch & Tear Repair targets a white line where the emulsion broke along the fold, very often straight through a face while keeping the architecture, the vestments and the steps in the church photo untouched.

    Scratch & Tear Repair
  2. 02

    Repair the rest of the church photo

    Exposure Fixer addresses the usual wear on church photos, dark interiors, stained glass blown to white and a print that hung for years in a damp vestry, once the creasing is gone.

    Exposure Fixer
  3. 03

    Sharpen the faces of a congregation on the steps, a robed choir or the church building itself

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

    Face Restoration
  4. 04

    Upscale the church photo for reprinting

    Adds the pixels a wall print needs after the creasing repair, with the shape of the creased church photos unchanged.

    Image Upscaler

Questions