"Mr. Photoshop" uses AI for restoring photos

My History with Photoshop

I've long been fascinated with Photoshop. I had bought Photoshop CS6 back in the day when you could actually buy software on disks. Those days it was for creating 3D letters, buttons, drop shadows etc for websites. I cancelled Photoshop when it went to the subscription model.

I've used Superimpose X on the iPad extensively from 2018, becoming one of the leading users in the world. However, in 2022, I switched my image editing to a PC. At that time, I found out I could sign for the unadvertised Photoshop "photography plan" for only $10/month, which lets you use the latest Creative Cloud or CC versions. And of course, I did sign up, because it is the de facto industry standard. If you don't have time to spend in it, the learning curve can be very steep. Fortunately, there are tons and tons of free tutorials on Photoshop on YouTube. And by far one of the most popular channels was PiXimperfect led by Unmesh Dinda. He is one of the most popular YouTubers in the world.

Probably number one in Photoshop.

5.42 million viewers subscribe to the channel as of this writing!!

I had even purchased one of his courses for about $450, during Black Friday 2024, but never really found the time to try his amazing lessons.

This week I came across his new tutorial:

What really caught my eye was a comment by one of the users that summed up the state of where we are today!

The Photoshop guy is telling us to use AI as a graphic designer. It's official, we are cooked.

The prompt to restore an old photo is very basic.

"Restore this photo to look as if it were taken with a high-resolution modern digital camera in color."

And you attach your old black-and-white photo as a reference image.

Use a modern model like SeedDream 4.5 or Nano Banana Pro and generate four variations. At highest resolution, 4K.

Then you overlay the best of these photos with the original black and white photo in Photoshop and compare the difference. Make minor adjustments.

The trick is to get the pupils of the eyes to exactly line up.

So there you have it.

If viewing on Web, click thumbnail for larger view.

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