AI Photo Restoration

Faded Band Photos

A faded band photo is a common case: dye layers breaking down over decades, faster in warmth and daylight leaves milky shadows, grey whites and a cast that drifts toward orange, magenta or cyan depending on the paper, and band photos from the 1930s to 1990s were rarely stored well enough to escape it.

Faded Photo Fixer is the tool for faded band photos: it targets milky shadows, grey whites and a cast that drifts toward orange, magenta or cyan depending on the paper and leaves the rest of the band photo alone. Output follows the shape of the upload, so the instruments, the uniforms and the lettering on the drum head end up where they always were in the faded original.

Scan the faded band photo flat, or photograph it and run Photo-of-a-Photo Fixer first, so the fading is the only thing left to repair. The band photos come back in seconds, and the 4 free credits on sign-up cover the first Standard pass at the fading.

Faded Band Photos, the original print
Faded Band 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 instruments, the uniforms and the lettering on the drum head, hidden under the fading
  • Fading from dye layers breaking down over decades, faster in warmth and daylight, 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 fading has taken the detail from
  • Faded band photos that a copy shop refused to touch

Suggested order of passes

  1. 01

    Remove the fading

    Faded Photo Fixer targets milky shadows, grey whites and a cast that drifts toward orange, magenta or cyan depending on the paper while keeping the instruments, the uniforms and the lettering on the drum head in the band photo untouched.

    Faded Photo Fixer
  2. 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 fading is gone.

    Exposure Fixer
  3. 03

    Upscale the band photo for reprinting

    Adds the pixels a wall print needs after the fading repair, with the shape of the faded band photos unchanged.

    Image Upscaler

Questions