FIDELIUM / WHY AI CHANGES FACES
Why AI photo restoration changes faces.
Many people restore a photo of a grandparent and find someone who looks almost right — and not quite them. That is not bad luck. It is how most AI enhancers work.
Why it happens
When a face in an old photo is blurred or damaged, the information about that person is partly gone. A general AI enhancer fills the gap with what faces usually look like — sharp, smooth, a little younger, a little more symmetrical. The result looks convincing and is often someone else: the eyes, the smile or the age drift away from the person you knew.
Five things to check before you trust a restored face
- Ears and hairline. They are hard to invent consistently; compare them with the original.
- Moles, scars and freckles. Real marks should stay where they were; new ones should not appear.
- Teeth and smile. An open smile should stay open, a closed one closed.
- Eyes and glasses. Same eye shape, same gaze — and glasses should still be there.
- Age. Look at the skin and the jaw: restored faces often come back years younger or older.
Look at the face at full size, side by side with the original, not as a small thumbnail.
How Fidelium keeps people themselves
- Every rebuild starts from that person’s own face — in this photo, or in other photos of them you add.
- Every rebuilt face is checked automatically against the original, and runs that fail are redone.
- Every face is labelled in a written record: kept, rebuilt or preserved — and you can always keep the original face.
- Faces too small for an honest rebuild are left as the photo shows them instead of being invented.
When a human retoucher is worth it
For a single irreplaceable portrait with large missing areas — half a face torn away, or a face nobody has another photo of — a skilled human retoucher, working with you over several rounds, can be the better choice. They typically charge from about $25 to $200 per photo.