AI Photo Restoration

Sun-Bleached Workplace Photos

When sun bleaching reaches a workplace photo, the result is a washed-out image with almost no contrast, sometimes with a darker stripe where the mat protected it. The cause is nearly always a frame on a sunny wall or a windowsill, where ultraviolet light broke the dyes down year after year, and workplace photos kept in albums, frames and boxes were all exposed to it.

The restoration reads the sun-bleached workplace photo as a repair job: it removes the sun bleaching 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 sun bleaching are plausible reconstructions, so compare them with other pictures.

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

Sun-Bleached Workplace Photos, the original print
Sun-Bleached Workplace Photos
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

  • The signage, the tools and the company name, 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 workplace photos from the 1890s to 1970s
  • Small faces of a crew lined up in front of the factory, shop, mine or office that the sun bleaching has taken the detail from
  • Sun-bleached workplace photos that a copy shop refused to touch

Suggested order of passes

  1. 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 signage, the tools and the company name in the workplace photo untouched.

    Faded Photo Fixer
  2. 02

    Repair the rest of the workplace photo

    Stain & Spot Remover addresses the usual wear on workplace photos, soot and dust in the grain, a print that spent years on a break-room wall and a yellow stripe of sun, once the sun bleaching is gone.

    Stain & Spot Remover
  3. 03

    Upscale the workplace photo for reprinting

    Adds the pixels a wall print needs after the sun bleaching repair, with the shape of the sun-bleached workplace photos unchanged.

    Image Upscaler

Questions