Band Photos
Sun-Bleached Band Photos
Band photos showing a washed-out image with almost no contrast, sometimes with a darker stripe where the mat protected it have almost always met a frame on a sunny wall or a windowsill, where ultraviolet light broke the dyes down year after year. The sun bleaching sits on top of the image of a marching band, a garage band or the school orchestra holding their instruments, which is still there underneath.
Nothing in the band photo is redrawn for effect; the sun bleaching is treated as a layer to remove and the image of a marching band, a garage band or the school orchestra holding their instruments as the thing to keep. If the sun-bleached area covered the instruments, the uniforms and the lettering on the drum head, the fill is inferred from what survives around it.
Start with Faded Photo Fixer on the sun-bleached band photo, then chain Face Restoration or the upscaler in the Studio if the band photos need it. The 4 free credits on a new account cover one Standard run on sun-bleached band 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
- A sun-bleached band photo that is the only copy anyone has
- The instruments, the uniforms and the lettering on the drum head, hidden under the sun bleaching
- Sun bleaching from a frame on a sunny wall or a windowsill, where ultraviolet light broke the dyes down year after year, on band photos from the 1930s to 1990s
- Small faces of a marching band, a garage band or the school orchestra holding their instruments that the sun bleaching has taken the detail from
Suggested order of passes
- 01
Remove the sun bleaching
Faded Photo Fixer targets a washed-out image with almost no contrast, sometimes with a darker stripe where the mat protected it while keeping the instruments, the uniforms and the lettering on the drum head in the band photo untouched.
Faded Photo Fixer - 02
Repair the rest of the band photo
Exposure Fixer addresses the usual wear on band photos, flash bounce off the brass, a stage that went black and a photocopy standing in for the lost print, once the sun bleaching is gone.
Exposure Fixer - 03
Sharpen the faces of a marching band, a garage band or the school orchestra holding their instruments
Recovers the eye and skin detail the sun bleaching softened; keep it at natural strength on band photos unless the faces are tiny.
Face Restoration - 04
Upscale the band photo for reprinting
Adds the pixels a wall print needs after the sun bleaching repair, with the shape of the sun-bleached band photos unchanged.
Image Upscaler
This subject, by damage type
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