04/13/2025
When is a photo not a photo anymore? Here's an example of a restoration that I recently did on a WWI portrait. The original is likely a solar enlargement - a technology from the past used to make large format prints. These were often touched up with crayon to enhance details. As the technique became popular this became a stylistic choice that left the photo so embellished that it ends up looking more like a drawing than a photo. For this restoration I used several AI tools to try and bring back a more photo realistic look. Ironically this only adds another layer of artifice to the photo and has some of the same drawbacks as the original enhancements from a century earlier. I used reference photos of the subject to try and retain an accurate likeness and while I believe there is a high level of accuracy, it's not actually possible to make a perfect recreation of the original. When My client saw the restoration of her grandfather's portrait, she ended up feeling a greater connection to the photo than she had to the original. So 100% accuracy is not always possible and not always the main goal.
