The restoration of old photos has always been a challenge. This new AI model has just resolved it

The ability of AI to generate texts, images or video have proven to be amazing, but there was still a problem that These systems were resisted: the one Restore old photos to leave them perfect.

That has just changed with Flux.1 Kontexta family of generative AI models with a very special characteristic: instead of following the line of the traditional text-imagen models, Flux.1 Kontext generates in-conntext images: it is possible to use as prompt a reference image and a text (prompt) so that the combination is much more powerful.

You don’t need to look at the camera. The AI ​​is able to generate an image of yours looking from the original (on the left) and even a smiling. Source: Black Forest Labs.

The possibilities, as explained by Black Forest Labs – the startup that develops these models – are spectacular. It is possible to maintain the context – paids, faces, objects – to modify the rest of the image at our whim: it is enough to combine those reference images with more or less detailed prompts to obtain the desired result.

What Black Forest Labs engineers did not say is that this same idea could be applied to an old need: the aforementioned Old photos restoration. It is enough to load any image damaged by the passage of time or for any other reason, and Flux will do a spectacular restoration work in just a few moments.

An old woman (I will not say how much) mine: if I see her from afar the result is spectacular, credible. When I do zoom, somewhat more weird things begin to appear: the face somewhat more elongated, more “square”, the nose and forehead. It’s me, but it’s not me.

It is possible to test the tool in the “Recreo Patio” (Playground) of Black Forestor in services such as Fal.AI. We wanted to try it in Freepik, the Spanish generative the AI ​​platform that from the first moment has given access to previous Black Forest Labs models and of course already available Flux.1 Kontext in their two modalities, Pro and Max.

Real Madrid. Commonwealth Regional Championship, October 28, 1934. Source: Institute of Cultural Heritage of Spain

The results have really been striking, as can be seen in That old photo of the Real Madrid of 1934. The image headed by the article is a clear example, and here there are some details that are common in this generative model.

Thus, it is possible to turn old photos into current photos that also have color and much more detail than the originals. It may even in portraits the result is similar but strange, artificial, or that traits of the person who make the result are somewhat shocking are modified. It happened for example with a Lincoln portrait obtained of the US Congress bookstore.

Of course, that can end up being counterproductive. We have used a very simple prompt for this process: “Restore and Colorize This Image. Remove Any Scratches or Imperfections, Keep Fidelity”, but it is possible to adjust the results more if we introduce much more specific requests and prompts.

Of course, miracles do not exist and if we zoom in the images, the problem of “hallucinations” applied to the generative image of images can arise. In the famous photograph of ‘Lunch atop a Skyscraper’ (Wikipedia) The detail of the original is scarce, so when AI tries to restore it, invents small details or features that are not. The result seen from afar, yes, is fantastic.

Although Flux.1 Kontext fails to improve the definition of the image too much, sacrifices that level of detail to maintain loyalty, color and fix all the cracks of the original photo. Source: Reddit.

The examples speak for themselves and demonstrate that the restoration of photos reaches thanks to this model a really spectacular quality, as happens in the photo of that family (Reddit).

To get an idea of ​​the cost, each image restored with Flux Pro in Freepick costs 100 credits, and with a monthly subscription at its premium service (10 euros/month) 18,000 credits are achieved. Thus, 180 of these restorations for 10 euros, less than six cents per image.

Other Black Forest Labs models are available in Github And they can be installed and used at home – ideal if you have a good GPU – but for now Flux.1 Kontext is not included in that catalog. We do not know if they will add it soon, but for the moment it is possible to experience for free with the model in services such as those mentioned. Without a doubt, a great option to perform this type of task.

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