Artificial Intelligence (AI) has caused radical change in a small amount of time and in various industries, from self-driving cars to virtual assistants. At the same time, AI has been having a significant impact also in the world of photo and video enhancements. What had to be done manually before can now be solved in a couple of minutes, with results that are not only fast but also impressive. This happens thanks to advanced AI trained to recognise and restore visual media.
In this article, you’ll find out how AI is revolutionising the photo industry, with particular focus on photo and video enhancements, why it matters, what the best tools available today are, and how innovative companies are helping thousands of people preserve their most precious memories and relive them.
Why photo and video enhancement are still important today
Everyone has old memories at home. Whether they are old photos, videotapes or film reels, they capture special moments of the past, for example weddings, birthdays or family trips. Unfortunately, analogue media deteriorates over time. Some of the main issues are fading colours, magnetic degradation, scratches and other imperfections.
To relive past moments in the best possible way, it’s important to restore them. That’s when AI advancements bring much of their value.
How AI improves the quality of old photos and videos
1. AI helps restore old pictures
AI-powered tools automatically detect and fix problems like scratches and cracks on photographs, stains or fading colours, and dust and noise present on scanned pictures or videos. Deep learning models analyse the image, predict the missing parts, and reconstruct them in an accurate way. And the interesting part is that no human intervention is required!
2. AI improves video resolutions through upscaling
One of the most popular uses of AI is upscaling. Upscaling means increasing the resolution of images or videos without making them look pixelated. How does that work? Well, the AI adds realistic details to low-quality visuals. This way, the videos are enhanced to 1080p or 4K quality.
3. AI can be used to colorise black-and-white photos
AI can colourise black-and-white photographs or videos, making them feel more “alive” to modern viewers. It works this way: the AI analyses greyscale values and assigns probable colours based on millions of reference images in its system. Modern algorithms account for skin tones and natural elements like grass or sky. This way, an old picture appears freshly taken.
4. AI can be used to recognise and improve faces
There is a special type of AI that is focused on improving faces. It sharpens facial features and corrects skin tones to make people look better. It can also be used to rebuild missing or blurred facial details.
5. AI can increase the frame rate and stabilize shaky footage
When dealing with old cine films or VHS tapes, AI can be used to increase frame rates (e.g., from 18fps to 30fps or even 60fps), interpolate frames or stabilise shaky footage automatically.
6. AI can be used to remove noise and grain
Noise and grain are two common issues in analogue media. AI identifies and removes digital noise without smudging the details and enhances edges for a clearer look. This type of restoration cleans up footage frame by frame.
Benefits of using AI for photo and video enhancement
There are four main benefits of using AI to enhance old pictures and videos:
- Speed: AI is much faster than manual tools
- Accuracy: AI can analyse images in detail and apply elaborate restoration methods.
- Accessibility: Most AI tools to enhance photos and videos are not expensive. Some of them are even free!
- Scalability: AI can help professionals restore thousands of pictures at once.
Disadvantages and limitations of AI enhancement
While AI is definitely helpful in restoring old pictures, it’s not perfect. Sometimes these issues may arise:
- Over-smoothing: AI may remove too much detail, creating unnatural results
- Wrong colours: Automatic colourisation tools may guess colours incorrectly
- Artifacts: Upscaling can sometimes introduce fake details that were not there in the original picture
- Biases: AI models trained on limited datasets may not perform in the same way across diverse photo types.
For these reasons, even if AI is a huge help, a human always has to look at the results. A combination of AI and human expertise is the best way to achieve quality results.
The most popular tools to enhance old media
There are various AI tools to restore old photos and videos, each one with its unique characteristics. One of the most popular ones is Topaz Gigapixel, used to upscale pictures and videos to make them suitable for high-resolution screens. Another great tool is DeOldify, available on MyHeritage, which is designed for colourising black-and-white photos. Otherwise, programs like Photoshop also offer AI tools to correct colours and sharpen images.
The future of AI in photo and video restoration
In the future, we can expect even more advancements, since AI is growing fast. Some applications could be real-time footage enhancements, voice restoration, 3D reconstruction of 2D photos, and even smarter and more accurate photo restoration.
How MEDIAFIX uses AI to enhance your old tapes and films
MEDIAFIX is a pioneer when it comes to professional digitisation and restoration of your old memories. It’s a European company specialised in digitising photos, negatives, slides, VHS tapes, cine films and much more. MEDIAFIX uses advanced AI in the following fields to colourise black-and-white photos, negatives and slides, and upscale videos up to Full HD resolution (1,920 x 1,080 pixels). This way, old media are not only converted to digital formats, but also improved.
Conclusion
As we’ve seen, AI is disrupting many industries. The photo and video industry is not an exception! From advanced upscaling and colourisation techniques to noise reduction and face restoration, AI is helping professionals and private individuals to be more effective in their work and reach faster and more accurate results. One of the companies that embraced the AI revolution entirely is MEDIAFIX, Europe’s market leader in the digitisation of analogue media.