Photo restoration app

TidBITS Talk
1

I’m looking for an app that can restore a photo of a photo. There are some scratches in it. I was hoping for one that automagically does it. I found an phone app that was pretty magical (FaceRestore) but it didn’t grab the entire photo, just the center. I’d like the flexibility of putting the entire photo in and then cropping if I want to.

I would’t mind a website either but I don’t want to have to create an account. I don’t mind paying for an app on my laptop though!

Thanks
Diane

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You might not need an app. Photos has editing tools:

There’s also Photoshop Elements, and it’s $99 dollars:

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I should have mentioned I am still on Sierra. I’ll see if they will work though.

I had PS Elements on my phone but it wanted me to log in so poof it went. My Adobe ID is messed up right now.

And I’d rather work on a larger screen.

Thanks,
Diane

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I use Photoshop Element on my Mac. The healing brush tool does a pretty good job of fixing up dust and scratches.

But it’s not perfect, so keep your hand on the undo command so you can try a bunch of alternative parameters for this tool if it doesn’t do what you require.

PS Elements does want you to be logged in to an Adobe account, but it’s not subscription-based. There are no fees beyond the initial purchase.

1 Like
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Mac Photos has had retouch tools for many years, so you should be OK.

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Is it auto-magic? :wink:

I know I have Photos, just need to pop into it. That app I found on the phone was amazing though, I will have to read up on that too. I tend to do this stuff when I’m waiting for the sandman to visit.

Diane

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If you are looking for something to fully restore an old or damaged photo, take a look here - MyHeritage Photo Enhancer, enhance your family photos with the world’s best deep learning technology - MyHeritage

It does an extraordinary job of creating detail and removing blemishes. It’s more intended for old, historical photos but perhaps that’s what you need? It’s completely free to use and enormously fun to play with. It also has the option to colourise photos too IIRC. I worked for a publishing company and we’d use it to restore old photos for print.

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Thanks! I found that one earlier today and am having a hard time “signing in with google”. I’m sure I’ve used it in the past without a sign in so I’m not sure why it’s complaining now. I’ll have to try a different browser.

Diane

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If you happen to be on Monterey, just sign in and use Hide my Email to give them a one-off email address.

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Thank you for the info. It seems to do a better job of colonizing photos than the “Colorize Photo” option that I frequently use in Photoshop Elements.