AI Photo Restoration: Essentials Workshop

"AI Photo Restoration and Enhancement: Essentials Workshop"

That faded, creased photograph of your great-grandmother holds more than a face — and the right AI tool can bring the detail back, once you know what to trust and what to question.

Old family photographs carry clues we can’t always see: faces, clothing, a regiment badge, a shopfront, the writing on the back. Fading, scratches and water damage hide them. AI restoration tools can lift a surprising amount of that detail back into view — and, used carelessly, they can also quietly invent things that were never there.

In this small, hands-on session, Shelly introduces several AI photo tools and shows what each does well, where it goes wrong, and how to tell the difference. You’ll work on your own photographs and compare the results side by side.

In this Hands-on practical workshop you’ll

• see faded, scratched and damaged photos refreshed in front of you
• learn to judge whether an enhanced image is genuinely useful, misleading, or simply a nicer version to share with family
• try the tools yourself on your own photographs 
• learn how to compare before-and-after results and determine the "best" image for family history use.

How we work

We treat a restored image honestly. The original scan stays the record; the enhanced version is clearly that — an AI-assisted copy, never passed off as the original. You’ll leave knowing how to keep your originals safe and how to label what’s been changed.

Booking & details

• Cost: Members $17.50  ·  Non-members $25
• Where: In person — Cook Community Hub (41 Templeton Street, Cook)
• Bring: your own laptop, a few family photos to work on, and a current AI account (ChatGPT, Gemini or similar — a free account is fine; a paid one gives more options)
• Suitable for: anyone curious about using AI with family photographs
• Open to members, non-members and visitors from other societies

This workshop is part of our 2026 AI in Genealogy program and is open to everyone from curious beginners to confident experimenters. For more information about the activities of the AI in Genealogy SIG, including details of future events, click here 

Family History ACT values the intellectual property of our speakers and the privacy of all meeting participants.
To protect these rights, the use of third-party AI note-taking or transcription tools,  including but not limited to Otter.ai, Read.ai, Fireflies, or similar services is not permitted during FHACT meetings, webinars or events.