How to Restore and Sharpen Faces in a Photo (Face Restore)

The problem

Faces are the first thing anyone looks at, and in old or casual shots they’re often the softest part: small in a group, slightly out of focus, faded by decades. Sharpening the whole photo makes the rest look harsh without helping the faces.

What Restore does

1. Finds each face in the photo.
2. Aligns it to a standard position using the eyes.
3. Rebuilds the face’s detail with a face-restoration model (RestoreFormer++) running on the device.
4. Pastes it back through a soft oval edge so the surrounding photo is untouched.

All of this runs on the phone with no upload.

Steps

1. Open Restore and choose the photo.
2. Run it. If it can’t find a face, it says so.
3. Compare before and after, zooming into the eyes and mouth.
4. Save.

Getting a good result

• Front-facing, reasonable size faces work best. A face 40 pixels wide has little to work with: enlarge first.
• Check likeness. The model can make a face look smoother or slightly different from the person. For family photos, compare carefully.
• Don’t expect miracles on faces that are badly blurred or turned away.
• Combine with Enhance for photos that are both small and soft.

Limits

• It needs a detectable face.
• It restores faces, not the whole photo.
• It counts as an AI edit, so the free plan allows 3 a day.

See restoring a whole old photo.

FAQ

What if no face is found? The tool reports that it couldn’t find a usable face. Try a clearer or more frontal photo.

Does it change the rest of the photo? No. Each restored face is blended back with a feathered edge and the rest is left as it was.

Does it work on tilted or tiny faces? It works best on near-frontal faces of reasonable size. Very small or sharply angled faces can come out less well.