Repairing scratched and torn old photos

Where the damage comes from

A photographic print is a thin layer of image sitting on paper. Scratches come from other prints sliding across it in a shoebox, or from the glass of a frame that was too tight. Creases come from wallets and letters. Tears start at a corner handled a thousand times, and missing corners are usually the old glue giving way when the album page was pulled.

Silvering, the mirror-like sheen on dark areas of very old prints, and the orange cast on colour prints from the seventies and eighties are chemical, not mechanical: one is silver migrating to the surface, the other is one dye layer fading faster than the rest.

What can be recovered

Scratches, dust, spots and thin cracks that cross a face are the easiest case, because the picture on either side of the line tells the software exactly what belongs underneath. Creases behave the same way: the image is still there, only broken along a fold, and the two halves are stitched with the surrounding texture filled in. Fading and colour casts are corrected by rebuilding the tonal range from what survives in the shadows and highlights.

A tear where you still have both pieces is also recoverable. Lay the pieces together as closely as you can before you photograph the print; the restoration model does the rest and removes the join line. Do not tape the pieces on the front, and do not glue them: the tape will show for as long as the print exists, and the glue will discolour.

What cannot be recovered

A part of the picture that is physically gone is gone. If a corner is missing and that corner held nothing but sky or wall, the software will extend the background convincingly. If the missing piece held a face or hands, whatever fills it is a guess, and we would rather leave it looking incomplete than invent someone's features. The same applies to water stains that dissolved the emulsion: the tone can be evened out, but detail that was washed away is not coming back.

This is the honest line between restoration and fabrication. On a photo of someone you knew, you want the first, not the second.

How to photograph a damaged print

You do not need a scanner. A phone camera in daylight is enough if you follow a few rules. Put the print on a flat, plain surface near a window but out of direct sun, so the light is even across the whole print. Hold the phone directly above it, parallel to the paper, and fill the frame with the photo, leaving only a small margin. Turn the flash off. If you see a bright patch of glare, that is a reflection of the window or a lamp; move the print or yourself until it disappears.

• Even light from the side, never flash, never direct sun
• Phone parallel to the print, fill the frame, edges straight
• No glare: move until the bright patch is gone
• Flat: glass on top, or heavy books for a day beforehand
• Wipe dust with a soft dry brush, not a cloth, and never a wet one

If you have a scanner

Scan at 300 dpi for a print you want restored for the screen and 600 dpi if you plan to print it larger than the original. Switch off every automatic correction the scanner software offers, and scan the whole print including the border. The border is the cleanest reference for the paper's white.

What the result looks like

The aim is a print that looks like it was kept in a drawer for sixty years instead of a shoebox: clean, grain and softness intact, the person looking exactly like themselves. If a result changes a feature, press redo; there is no limit for fourteen days, and if it never looks right you get your money back.