Move the slider to see the before and after images
There are other ways to take advantage of these improvements in photo restoration over the internet, but pricing for these seems to all be on a picture-by-picture basis and we will not recommend them if you have technical skills and more than a few to repair or colorize. If that is a more practical way for you to work, then a simple search will produce dozens of services.
One of the most exciting and important developments in photography, and in particular consumer restoration of old photographs, is the introduction of very sophisticated restoration software. The dividing line between artificial intelligence and just content aware software is a blurry line, but for most of us it does not matter where they begin and end. The image at the top of the page is obviously Albert Einstein, color enhanced with just one click of a Photoshop button.
I am a user of Photoshop and they have just introduced new features including the ability to easily restore old photos, but more importantly the ability to analyze the pictures and intelligently add color. This capability was there in the past, but it took a lot of work to accomplish a transition like this one.
Photoshop is neither inexpensive nor easy to use for the novice. But the addition of tools like this moves it closer to a consumer tool for those with a lot of daily graphics work.
To illustrate just how far this technology has moved in recent years we are offering these before and after photographs. This is my paternal grandmother in 1915 with my father. This is one of the few images we have of her, and the only one we have of them together. The black and white image on the left is the one the family has always had to view and while good, it is a bit spotty and has little life. The color rendition brings them to life in a way we had never seen.
The technology extends to the automated repair of images to sharpen images, remove tears and scratches, isolate portraits, and blur backgrounds.
These images of Marie Curie help us understand her in quite a different way. Her fatigue is still obvious to us, but in her photo on the right, she is much more personal.
Teddy Roosevelt is more robust and healthy with this view and presents himself as the outdoorsman and hunter we all know.
This is a cousin of ours who we only knew late in life. After her passing we found this picture of her taken in about 1903. This photo brings her to life in a way we never knew.
And now with the click of a button, people can come to life. You can get a feel for long lost relatives as if you knew them at a moment in time.
The future developments in AI will allow us to leave behind more and better information for future generations and leave less to interpretation.
