Birthday Photos
Sun-Bleached Birthday Photos
Birthday 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 child leaning over a cake with the candles lit, which is still there underneath.
Nothing in the birthday photo is redrawn for effect; the sun bleaching 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 sun-bleached area covered the cake, the candles and the party hats, the fill is inferred from what survives around it.
Start with Faded Photo Fixer on the sun-bleached 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 sun-bleached birthday 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
- Sun bleaching from a frame on a sunny wall or a windowsill, where ultraviolet light broke the dyes down year after year, on birthday photos from the 1950s to 1990s
- Small faces of a child leaning over a cake with the candles lit that the sun bleaching has taken the detail from
- Sun-bleached birthday photos that a copy shop refused to touch
- A sun-bleached birthday photo needed for a memorial, an anniversary or a reprint
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 cake, the candles and the party hats in the birthday photo untouched.
Faded Photo Fixer - 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 sun bleaching 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 sun bleaching 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 sun bleaching repair, with the shape of the sun-bleached birthday photos unchanged.
Image Upscaler
This subject, by damage type
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