u/ShadowyFlows

Everyone has varying opinions on the morality of using AI to restore old photos and I understand both sides. Personally, I think it’s great if it’s done carefully, tastefully, and guided by very strict human prompts. The cheapo, one-click apps like Remini? Not a fan.

Anyway, last night I stumbled upon a photo “restoration” on a man’s Find A Grave memorial that I can only describe as… well, remember the “Ecce Homo” Jesus painting in that Spanish church an old lady tried to “restore” in the early 2010s? Yeeeah.

Poor guy looked like he was melting and was colorized by Crayola.

I felt so bad for the deceased victim of this botched photo that I went to Ancestry to find the source photo and did my own very conservative restoration. I also grabbed the man’s death certificate and his World War II draft card so I’d have enough images to push the botched “restoration” below the “see more” threshold. (Luckily, the memorial was managed by Find A Grave when I found it, so I was able to do this without marking the documents as “grave” or “person.”)

All that to say if you restore photos, make sure you’re doing it with a light hand and strict parameters. Anything less than that is an insult to the deceased. And always mark down in the caption that it’s an AI restoration and show proof of work, either by also uploading the original, unrestored photo or noting in the caption where the original can be easily found.