Fire-Damaged Group Photos

When fire damage reaches a group photo, the result is charred and curled edges, a brown scorch gradient, soot in the grain and areas lost entirely. The cause is nearly always a house fire, a smoke-filled room or a print that sat too close to a heater, and group photos kept in albums, frames and boxes were all exposed to it.

The restoration reads the fire-damaged group photo as a repair job: it removes the fire damage and rebuilds what was underneath from the surrounding grain, keeping every face, the row order and the banner as photographed. Faces of a whole family, club or congregation arranged in rows that were lost to the fire damage are plausible reconstructions, so compare them with other pictures.

For fire-damaged group photos the order is fire damage first, faces second, upscale last, each step taking the previous result. Standard suits a group photo for a screen; Pro or Max gives a fire-damaged print more detail for reprinting.