I was given a preview last night by MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com) of a new feature which has now gone live today within its photographs tool kit - an option to facilitate repairs.
Introducing Photo Repair: New Feature to Automagically Fix Scratched and Damaged Photos
We did it again! We’re excited to introduce Photo Repair — the newest tool in the MyHeritage photo toolbox. Photo Repair automatically fixes scratches, tears, holes, stains and other damage on historical photos. With this additional tool, MyHeritage is the only company to offer a complete suite of features for colorizing, restoring, enhancing, animating and now repairing historical photos, all of which produce exceptional results.
Photo Repair is extremely easy to use. Simply upload a scratched or damaged photo to MyHeritage, and if we detect damage, we will suggest that you apply Photo Repair by displaying a Repair button. If you choose to use it, with a single click, the scratches and damage in the photo will disappear like magic!
The technology for Photo Repair was licensed exclusively by MyHeritage from DeOldify, created by deep learning experts Jason Antic and Dana Kelley. Photo Repair is one of several technologies that have been licensed from DeOldify and integrated into MyHeritage’s photo tools.
Old photos can be priceless treasures. They give us glimpses into moments in our ancestors’ lives, frozen in time. The photos themselves may have traveled across continents, witnessing the trials and tribulations of those they depicted and their loved ones; or they might have been tucked away in an attic or basement and forgotten for decades. Old photos have often been stored in less than ideal conditions, making them susceptible to tears, creases, and stains.
At MyHeritage, we believe that photos are one of the most tangible and powerful ways to connect with the past, and consider their preservation as paramount to documenting family history, both on the personal and family level and on a greater scale. That’s why we make it easy for you to scan, upload, and preserve your photos on MyHeritage. We believe there is great value in restoring and enhancing photos, and allowing users to view them as they may have looked when first printed. But we are also committed to the integrity and authenticity of the original photos, which is why any improvements we make, including Photo Repair, never modify the original, which is always left intact. We always create a new copy alongside the original, on which the improvements are applied.
When a photo is uploaded to MyHeritage, a specialized detection algorithm runs in the background and determines if it has sustained damage. If so, a Repair button is made available, ensuring that users won’t waste time attempting to repair photos that don’t need it. Photos may be repaired effortlessly in a single click and the process takes only a few seconds. The default repair model, named Gentle Repair, will fix most types of damage with minimal changes to the rest of the photo. For photos with more substantial damage, an Extensive Repair model can be applied.
The full release is at https://blog.myheritage.com/2021/05/introducing-photo-repair-new-feature-to-automatically-fix-scratched-and-damaged-photos/
COMMENT: I have had a go myself earlier today on a photograph of my grandfather taken as a wee boy in Brussels, Belgium, in 1907, which was sent to Scotland as a postcard and which has been fairly damaged down the years.
The image on the left is obviously the original, and the repaired image is to the right. The image is an improvement, although in this case, if I tried to further improve the contrast and to colorise it, problems begin to emerge - although I have been able to further correct some of those using Microsoft's own paint tools.
Nevertheless, there is a substantial amount of good stuff going on here in the non-colourised version, with the tears that were in the original nicely repaired, and I can easily see me now going in to manually address some minor 'dots' and specs through another programme. So overall, a big thumbs up, but as with any technology, it will work better in some circumstances than others.
(With thanks to Daniel Horowitz)
Chris
Just out, Sharing Your Family History Online is on sale at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.
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