School Photos
Stained School Photos
School photos showing brown or grey blotches with hard edges, sometimes a ring, sometimes a smear across the sky have almost always met coffee, ink, adhesive, fingerprints and whatever else was on the kitchen table that day. The staining sits on top of the image of one child in front of a painted studio backdrop, taken each autumn, which is still there underneath.
Nothing in the school portrait is redrawn for effect; the staining is treated as a layer to remove and the image of one child in front of a painted studio backdrop, taken each autumn as the thing to keep. If the stained area covered the backdrop color, the collar and the gap-toothed smile, the fill is inferred from what survives around it.
Start with Stain & Spot Remover on the stained school portrait, then chain Face Restoration or the upscaler in the Studio if the school photos need it. The 4 free credits on a new account cover one Standard run on stained school photos.
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
- Brown or grey blotches with hard edges, sometimes a ring, sometimes a smear across the sky, spread over a school portrait
- A stained school portrait that is the only copy anyone has
- The backdrop color, the collar and the gap-toothed smile, hidden under the staining
- Staining from coffee, ink, adhesive, fingerprints and whatever else was on the kitchen table that day, on school photos from the 1940s to 1990s
Suggested order of passes
- 01
Remove the staining
Stain & Spot Remover targets brown or grey blotches with hard edges, sometimes a ring, sometimes a smear across the sky while keeping the backdrop color, the collar and the gap-toothed smile in the school portrait untouched.
Stain & Spot Remover - 02
Repair the rest of the school portrait
Faded Photo Fixer addresses the usual wear on school photos, wallet-size prints traded between friends, creased, stuck to album pages and faded to orange, once the staining is gone.
Faded Photo Fixer - 03
Sharpen the faces of one child in front of a painted studio backdrop, taken each autumn
Recovers the eye and skin detail the staining softened; keep it at natural strength on school photos unless the faces are tiny.
Face Restoration - 04
Upscale the school portrait for reprinting
Adds the pixels a wall print needs after the staining repair, with the shape of the stained school photos unchanged.
Image Upscaler
This subject, by damage type
Questions
Related guides