Google Gemini Restores Photos

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Review: Google Gemini 2.5 Flash Image and the Urgency to Digitize Your Old Photos

By Mitch Goldstone, CEO & Chief Photo Archivist at ScanMyPhotos.com

Why You Must Digitize Now

Every box of prints, every carousel of slides, every sleeve of negatives is quietly fading. Paper yellows. Colors shift. Film warps. Once details vanish, they’re gone forever. Fires, floods, or even a move to a new home can erase decades of family history in a single moment. That’s why digitizing today is urgent. Once your photos are safely scanned, new tools like Google Gemini 2.5 Flash Image — also known by its playful codename, Nano Banana — can breathe new life into those fragile images.

Old photos don’t last forever. They fade, tear, and can disappear in a second. That’s why I believe it’s so important to scan them now. Once they’re digital, Google Gemini can step in to make them brighter, fix scratches, and bring back lost colors. You upload a photo, tell it what you want, and it does the work. To me, this feels like giving family memories a second life. But it all starts with getting those pictures scanned before time takes them away.

What Is Google Gemini 2.5 Flash Image?

Gemini is Google DeepMind’s multimodal AI platform. It understands both text and images. Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) is Google’s latest image model, released in August 2025. It introduces native image editing in the Gemini app, allowing you to upload your own photo and edit it directly with prompts such as “Remove scratches,” “brighten faces,” and “restore colors.” Edits include an invisible SynthID watermark for transparency. Google is also testing visible watermarking. Features include background replacement, object removal, multi-image blending, style transfer, and improved likeness consistency when editing people or pets.

These are not “future promises” — they are live, rolling out now across Gemini and Google Photos.

Step-by-Step: How to Restore Old Photos with Gemini

Digitize First
Start with high-resolution scanning (ScanMyPhotos.com scans are archival quality). Better scans give Gemini more to work with.

Upload to Gemini
Open the Gemini app or Google Photos (where Gemini tools are being integrated) and upload your scanned image.

Use Plain Language Prompts
Say: “Please restore colors, remove scratches, brighten background.” Gemini understands natural instructions.

Adjust & Refine
Review the edit. If skin tones are too strong or the background too clean, ask Gemini to soften, adjust saturation, or make it look more natural.

Export & Safeguard
Save the restored image in high resolution, always keep your original scans, and store copies in multiple places for long-term preservation.

Special Features That Matter Most

• Conversational Editing: No technical skills required.
• Background & Object Fixes: Remove clutter or distractions.
• Color Revival: Re-energize faded reds, blues, and greens.
• Multi-Image Blending: Combine multiple scans into a composite.
• Style Transfer: Apply a look or feel from one photo onto another.
• Consistency: Keep faces and pets recognizable across edits.

Limitations (and Honesty)

• Severely damaged or nearly blank scans may only be partially restored.
• AI sometimes “guesses” colors — it may not perfectly match the original shirt, dress, or sky tone.
• Over-restoration can look too artificial if not fine-tuned.
• Not every feature is rolled out globally yet.
• Review Score: 100%
• Ease of Use: 100%
• Innovation: 100%
• Integration: 100%
• Restoration Accuracy: 95% (best-in-class, but not flawless)
• Overall: 100/100

Final Word

Digitizing your photos with ScanMyPhotos is the critical first step. Once scanned, Gemini 2.5 Flash Image offers a toolset so powerful that restoring your family history is no longer science fiction — it’s accessible, conversational, and available now.