Can I reprint the restored holiday photo large?

After restoring, send holiday photos through the Image Upscaler. The output keeps the shape of the holiday photo upload and gains the pixels a wall print or an enlargement needs.

Will the people in my holiday photo still look like themselves?

The prompts instruct the restoration to keep every face, age and expression in a holiday photo as photographed. Where a face in holiday photos was tiny or badly blurred the result is a plausible reconstruction, so check it against other photos and family memory before printing.

Can I colorize holiday photos?

Yes. Run the Photo Colorizer after the repair. Colors on a holiday photo are inferred from the era and the materials, so if anyone remembers a dress or a car color, type it into the known-colors field.

Subjects

Restore old holiday photos

Q: Which tool should I start with for holiday photos?

Exposure Fixer is the usual first step for a holiday photo; it addresses an orange cast from indoor bulbs, red-eye from the flash and a date stamp in the corner. Chain a second tool in the Studio if the print needs more.

Holiday photos are usually the photographs a family would run back into the house for: the family around the tree, the table or the menorah, printed anywhere from the 1950s to 1990s. The holiday photos that survive tend to show an orange cast from indoor bulbs, red-eye from the flash and a date stamp in the corner.

Upload the holiday photo as a scan or a phone photo, and the restoration comes back in seconds with the decorations, the wrapping paper and the tree lights kept as they were in the original. Faces in holiday photos that were badly blurred are plausible reconstructions, so compare them against other pictures of the same people.

Standard is enough for a holiday photo headed for a screen; Pro and Max recover more detail for a print that will hang on a wall. Whichever tier you choose, run holiday photos through the upscaler last so the reprint stays sharp.

Open with these settings Exposure Fixer

Restore old holiday 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

The decorations, the wrapping paper and the tree lights, which must stay as photographed while the damage is repaired
One surviving holiday photo that every relative wants a clean copy of
Holiday photos scanned years ago at low resolution and never reprinted
An orange cast from indoor bulbs, red-eye from the flash and a date stamp in the corner

Suggested order of passes

01
Run Exposure Fixer on the holiday photo
The first pass for holiday photos: it takes on an orange cast from indoor bulbs, red-eye from the flash and a date stamp in the corner while keeping the decorations, the wrapping paper and the tree lights as photographed.
Exposure Fixer
02
Repair what the first pass left on the holiday photo
Photo Restoration picks up the remaining marks on holiday photos without touching the tone or grain elsewhere.
Photo Restoration
03
Sharpen the faces of the family around the tree, the table or the menorah
Recovers eye and skin detail in holiday photos; keep it at natural strength unless the faces are tiny.
Face Restoration
04
Upscale the holiday photo for reprinting
Adds the pixels a framed print or enlargement of holiday photos needs, with the shape of the upload unchanged.
Image Upscaler