Upscale a photo without losing the truth
A 4x AI upscale makes 15 of every 16 pixels from a guess. How to keep the original safe and know when not to trust the copy.
The fix: original untouched, copy labelled
Never save over the original. Put the upscale next to it with a name that says what it is. 4x means 4 times the width and 4 times the height, so 16 times the pixels. Only 1 of every 16 came from your file.
dad_2003.jpg 320x240 76,800 px original
dad_2003_x4-ai.png 1280x960 1,228,800 px AI copy
# 1,152,000 of 1,228,800 pixels (15 in 16) are newWhen not to trust it
A model predicts detail, it does not recover it. Adobe's own tutorial says its Face Recovery is designed to restore, not change expressions, though minor variations can occur since the AI is reconstructing pixels. So do not use the copy where the exact detail matters: faces of people you know, scars and marks, text and numbers on documents, anything that may be used as evidence. Use the original there.
Check the copy against the original
In Photoshop, Image > Generative Upscale gives two layers: the first is the upscale with no generative AI, the second is the generated image with enhanced details. Toggle the top layer and look for features that appear or change. Adobe's advice: work at 100% zoom, because any other zoom level can be misleading.
Pro tip: pick the model for the job
Adobe's page lists Topaz Gigapixel for images where it is important to preserve the natural appearance and original details. Topaz Bloom is not meant to perfectly preserve the original details: it re-imagines the image and adds new artistic details. Its Creativity slider controls how much the AI will re-interpret your image. For old family photos, pick the model that preserves.
Pro tip: a free upscaler, no Python needed
Real-ESRGAN publishes a portable executable for Windows, Linux and macOS with the models included (download link in its README). Set -n yourself: its default model is made for anime video, not photos. Face enhancement is a separate option of the Python script, off by default; this build does not have it.
./realesrgan-ncnn-vulkan.exe -i dad_2003.jpg \n -o dad_2003_x4-ai.png -n realesrgan-x4plus -s 4Common mistake
Sharing the upscaled file as if it were the photo. Once the original is gone, nobody can tell which details were real. Keep the original, label every copy, and say it was upscaled when you share it.
Official docs
One fix of twenty: the whole Claude Code survival kit.
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