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Remove a date stamp printed on an old photo
How to remove an old camera's orange date stamp from a photo without leaving an obvious patch behind.
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Retouch a portrait without over-smoothing skin
How to soften blemishes and marks in an old portrait while keeping real skin texture so the person does not end up looking airbrushed.
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Batch-edit a set of scanned photos the same way
How to apply the same fix — like brightening or straightening — to a whole folder of scans at once, instead of repeating it photo by photo.
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Compare two AI restoration results before choosing one
A simple way to look at two different AI restoration attempts on the same photo and decide which one to keep.
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Soften heavy AI restoration so a face still looks right
If an AI restoration tool has smoothed a face until it looks unnatural, here is how to dial it back so the person still looks like themselves.
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Colourise a black-and-white portrait with an AI tool, and check the result
How to use an AI colourising tool on an old portrait, and the checks worth doing before you trust the result.
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Colourise a black-and-white portrait with Photoshop Elements
A guided, step-by-step way to bring natural-looking colour to an old black-and-white portrait using Photoshop Elements.
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Adjust contrast in a flat, hazy scanned photo
How to bring life back into a scanned photo that looks flat, grey or hazy, without losing detail in the brightest or darkest areas.
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Fix motion blur in a photo of kids or pets
What can realistically be done about motion blur in a photo of a moving child or pet, and when it is better to let the blur be.
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Reduce the "AI look" in an over-processed restoration
How to spot and fix the waxy, over-smoothed, slightly unreal look that heavy AI restoration can leave behind.
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Even out a badly cropped scan from a photo-scanning service
What to do if a scanning service has sent back photos that are cropped too tightly, at an angle, or inconsistently sized.
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Remove a finger or thumb from the corner of a photo
How to remove an accidental finger or thumb that has crept into the corner of a photo, without leaving an obvious patch.
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Fix a green or pink colour cast from a faded slide
Why old slides fade toward green or pink or magenta over time, and how to correct that shift once the slide is scanned.
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Use Luminar Neo's sky replacement on a travel photo
How Luminar Neo's Sky AI feature works, and how to use it to replace a dull or overexposed sky in a travel photo.
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Compare Topaz Photo AI and Photoshop Elements on the same photo
How the two tools differ in approach, cost and results, using the same photo as a test case.
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Restore faded colour in a 1970s print
Correct the pink or magenta colour cast in a faded 1970s print before boosting saturation, using Photoshop Elements.
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Even out uneven lighting across a scanned photo
Use Photoshop Elements' Dodge tool to gently brighten the darker side of an unevenly lit scan.
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Fix an overexposed sky in a holiday photo
Pull down the Highlights slider in Google Photos to bring back detail in a blown-out sky.
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Upscale a small old photo for a larger print
Use a dedicated AI upscaler like Topaz Photo AI to print a small old photo larger without it looking blocky.
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Remove a background object with Apple Photos' Clean Up tool
Use Apple Photos' Clean Up tool on iPhone to brush out a distracting object from a photo's background.
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Remove a background object with Google Photos' Magic Eraser
Use Google Photos' Magic Eraser to remove a distracting object from the background of a photo, free, on your phone.
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Crop a group photo without cutting anyone off
Use a Freeform crop in Google Photos instead of a fixed ratio so a group photo keeps everyone fully in frame.
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Reduce grain in a low-light photo
Use Photoshop Elements' Reduce Noise filter to smooth grain from a low-light photo without losing too much detail.
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Sharpen a slightly blurred phone photo
Use the Sharpen slider in Google Photos to add back some crispness to a mildly soft phone photo.