Funeral and Memorial Photos
Faded Funeral and Memorial Photos
Funeral and memorial 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 the person being remembered, in the last good picture the family has of them, which is still there underneath.
Nothing in the memorial photo is redrawn for effect; the fading is treated as a layer to remove and the image of the person being remembered, in the last good picture the family has of them as the thing to keep. If the faded area covered the face, the expression and the way they held themselves, the fill is inferred from what survives around it.
Start with Faded Photo Fixer on the faded memorial photo, then chain Face Restoration or the upscaler in the Studio if the funeral and memorial photos need it. The 4 free credits on a new account cover one Standard run on faded funeral and memorial 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
- A faded memorial photo that is the only copy anyone has
- The face, the expression and the way they held themselves, hidden under the fading
- Fading from dye layers breaking down over decades, faster in warmth and daylight, on funeral and memorial photos from the 1920s to 1990s
- Small faces of the person being remembered, in the last good picture the family has of them that the fading has taken the detail from
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 face, the expression and the way they held themselves in the memorial photo untouched.
Faded Photo Fixer - 02
Repair the rest of the memorial photo
Memorial Portrait addresses the usual wear on funeral and memorial photos, a snapshot never meant to be a portrait, soft in focus, with a flash shadow and someone's arm at the edge, once the fading is gone.
Memorial Portrait - 03
Sharpen the faces of the person being remembered, in the last good picture the family has of them
Recovers the eye and skin detail the fading softened; keep it at natural strength on funeral and memorial photos unless the faces are tiny.
Face Restoration - 04
Upscale the memorial photo for reprinting
Adds the pixels a wall print needs after the fading repair, with the shape of the faded funeral and memorial photos unchanged.
Image Upscaler
This subject, by damage type
Questions
Related guides