The use of AI, artificial intelligence is becoming a fact in our society, like it or not.
Therefore, I am trying out several computer driven methods of resurrecting some old family photos. I have no idea what the fate of the originals are, knowing my brothers, probably at the town dump. So, I do with the few scans I have.
I am showing a few of the results that I have to date. A couple of them use Photoshop’s access to a couple of AI photo engines and one is using a stand alone service Kaze. AI. Let the results fall where they lie.
The original. A scan from a 620 size contact print from about 1950. The print, while lacking in many qualities does have enough basic information to work with.
The colouring looks nice though the AI has taken some liberties. The jacket that my mother is laying on has become a plaid blanket and her blouse now has a floral pattern.
This one has the colours being too saturated and not as sharp looking as the next one.
This one has lots of good things to be said about it. The AI has produced a sharp image, I like the colouring. It looks hand coloured which would be era appropriate. The AI added a bit around the edges and created details in the boots.
But who is this man substituting for my mother? The facial expression has changed and I don’t remember my mother ever having a 5 o’clock shadow.
Another AI retouch. The overall image is good but the skin looks too processed. And the facial shadows are a bit too dark. Just like all those ‘glamour’ shots of people who don’t want to look their age. My mother was in her early 20’s, no need for the plastic skin look.
The overall effect looks like a hand coloured photo from a not that good original. Probably the most accurate AI work. The face looks a bit too contrasty, though some of the facial shadows have been opened.
A very nice cleaning up and colouring of this photo. But, AI has taken some liberties. The scarf around the neck is missing, the jacket looks too clean, The lettering on the motorcycle tank is changed. If the AI was doing image comparisons and trying to fill in the blanks, it should have caught this.
The biggest crimes are, the face doesn’t look the same and my father looks like he gained some weight.
Kaze.AI
Here, I took the above photo and compressed it about 10% on the horizontal axis. Its better.
What a mess! A badly faded colour photo from the 1950’s. My wife’s grandparents.
This is Kaze.AI at work. The image looks far better than the original. My wife says that the faces don’t look quite right, but I have no idea what they did look like and I have no images to compare against. But not bad for a $0.35 computer driven AI retouch.