Will you or your parents as children, in the yard, at the table or on a bike still look like themselves after the fading is removed?

The prompts keep every face, age and expression in the faded childhood photo as photographed. Where the faded area covered a face, compare the result with other childhood photos and with family memory before you print.

Do I need to scan faded childhood photos?

A flat scan is best, but a phone photo of the faded childhood photo works too; run Photo-of-a-Photo Fixer first to crop and remove glare, then repair the fading.

How many credits does a faded childhood photo take?

The 4 free credits on a new account cover one Standard restoration of faded childhood photos. Pro and Max return more detail on the toys, the clothing and the expression where the fading was heavy; see pricing for the current amounts.

Can I colorize the childhood photo after fixing the fading?

Yes. Repair the faded childhood photo first, then run the Photo Colorizer on the result. Colors are inferred from the era and the materials in the repaired faded childhood photos, so type any remembered colors into the hints field.

Childhood Photos

Faded Childhood Photos

Childhood photos showing milky shadows, grey whites and a cast that drifts toward orange, magenta or cyan depending on the paper have almost always met dye layers breaking down over decades, faster in warmth and daylight. The fading sits on top of the image of you or your parents as children, in the yard, at the table or on a bike, which is still there underneath.

Nothing in the childhood photo is redrawn for effect; the fading is treated as a layer to remove and the image of you or your parents as children, in the yard, at the table or on a bike as the thing to keep. If the faded area covered the toys, the clothing and the expression, the fill is inferred from what survives around it.

Start with Faded Photo Fixer on the faded childhood photo, then chain Face Restoration or the upscaler in the Studio if the childhood photos need it. The 4 free credits on a new account cover one Standard run on faded childhood photos.

Open with these settings Faded Photo Fixer

Faded Childhood Photos, the original print

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

Fading from dye layers breaking down over decades, faster in warmth and daylight, on childhood photos from the 1940s to 1990s
Small faces of you or your parents as children, in the yard, at the table or on a bike that the fading has taken the detail from
Faded childhood photos that a copy shop refused to touch
A faded childhood photo needed for a memorial, an anniversary or a reprint

Suggested order of passes

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 toys, the clothing and the expression in the childhood photo untouched.
Faded Photo Fixer
02
Repair the rest of the childhood photo
Photo Restoration addresses the usual wear on childhood photos, square prints with rounded corners gone orange, a bent corner and a thumbprint over a face, once the fading is gone.
Photo Restoration
03
Sharpen the faces of you or your parents as children, in the yard, at the table or on a bike
Recovers the eye and skin detail the fading softened; keep it at natural strength on childhood photos unless the faces are tiny.
Face Restoration
04
Upscale the childhood photo for reprinting
Adds the pixels a wall print needs after the fading repair, with the shape of the faded childhood photos unchanged.
Image Upscaler