Ancestor Portraits
Scratched Ancestor Portraits
A scratched ancestor portrait is a common case: loose storage in a shoebox, a drawer shared with keys and coins, or a print dragged across scanner glass leaves fine white or dark lines across the emulsion, often clustered in one direction, and ancestor portraits from the 1850s to 1910s were rarely stored well enough to escape it.
Scratch & Tear Repair is the tool for scratched ancestor portraits: it targets fine white or dark lines across the emulsion, often clustered in one direction and leaves the rest of the ancestor portrait alone. Output follows the shape of the upload, so the features, the period clothing and the studio props end up where they always were in the scratched original.
Scan the scratched ancestor portrait flat, or photograph it and run Photo-of-a-Photo Fixer first, so the scratching is the only thing left to repair. The ancestor portraits come back in seconds, and the 4 free credits on sign-up cover the first Standard pass at the scratching.
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
- Fine white or dark lines across the emulsion, often clustered in one direction, spread over a ancestor portrait
- A scratched ancestor portrait that is the only copy anyone has
- The features, the period clothing and the studio props, hidden under the scratching
- Scratching from loose storage in a shoebox, a drawer shared with keys and coins, or a print dragged across scanner glass, on ancestor portraits from the 1850s to 1910s
Suggested order of passes
- 01
Remove the scratching
Scratch & Tear Repair targets fine white or dark lines across the emulsion, often clustered in one direction while keeping the features, the period clothing and the studio props in the ancestor portrait untouched.
Scratch & Tear Repair - 02
Repair the rest of the ancestor portrait
Tintype & Daguerreotype Restoration addresses the usual wear on ancestor portraits, silver mirroring, a tarnished tintype surface and cabinet-card mounts that have gone brittle, once the scratching is gone.
Tintype & Daguerreotype Restoration - 03
Upscale the ancestor portrait for reprinting
Adds the pixels a wall print needs after the scratching repair, with the shape of the scratched ancestor portraits unchanged.
Image Upscaler
This subject, by damage type
Questions
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