Will a child leaning over a cake with the candles lit still look like themselves after the scratching is removed?

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

Do I need to scan scratched birthday photos?

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

How many credits does a scratched birthday photo take?

The 4 free credits on a new account cover one Standard restoration of scratched birthday photos. Pro and Max return more detail on the cake, the candles and the party hats where the scratching was heavy; see pricing for the current amounts.

Can I colorize the birthday photo after fixing the scratching?

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

Birthday Photos

Scratched Birthday Photos

Birthday photos showing fine white or dark lines across the emulsion, often clustered in one direction have almost always met loose storage in a shoebox, a drawer shared with keys and coins, or a print dragged across scanner glass. The scratching sits on top of the image of a child leaning over a cake with the candles lit, which is still there underneath.

Nothing in the birthday photo is redrawn for effect; the scratching is treated as a layer to remove and the image of a child leaning over a cake with the candles lit as the thing to keep. If the scratched area covered the cake, the candles and the party hats, the fill is inferred from what survives around it.

Start with Scratch & Tear Repair on the scratched birthday photo, then chain Face Restoration or the upscaler in the Studio if the birthday photos need it. The 4 free credits on a new account cover one Standard run on scratched birthday photos.

Open with these settings Scratch & Tear Repair

Scratched Birthday 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

Fine white or dark lines across the emulsion, often clustered in one direction, spread over a birthday photo
A scratched birthday photo that is the only copy anyone has
The cake, the candles and the party hats, 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 birthday photos from the 1950s to 1990s

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 cake, the candles and the party hats in the birthday photo untouched.
Scratch & Tear Repair
02
Repair the rest of the birthday photo
Exposure Fixer addresses the usual wear on birthday photos, candlelight underexposed to near black, a yellow date stamp and an edge curled by a sticky album, once the scratching is gone.
Exposure Fixer
03
Sharpen the faces of a child leaning over a cake with the candles lit
Recovers the eye and skin detail the scratching softened; keep it at natural strength on birthday photos unless the faces are tiny.
Face Restoration
04
Upscale the birthday photo for reprinting
Adds the pixels a wall print needs after the scratching repair, with the shape of the scratched birthday photos unchanged.
Image Upscaler