Scratched Workplace Photos

When scratching reaches a workplace photo, the result is fine white or dark lines across the emulsion, often clustered in one direction. The cause is nearly always loose storage in a shoebox, a drawer shared with keys and coins, or a print dragged across scanner glass, and workplace photos kept in albums, frames and boxes were all exposed to it.

The restoration reads the scratched workplace photo as a repair job: it removes the scratching and rebuilds what was underneath from the surrounding grain, keeping the signage, the tools and the company name as photographed. Faces of a crew lined up in front of the factory, shop, mine or office that were lost to the scratching are plausible reconstructions, so compare them with other pictures.

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