# Old Portrait Photo Restoration Prompt

> This prompt instructs the AI to restore an old portrait photograph by repairing physical damage and improving clarity while preserving the subject’s authentic appearance and the photo’s historical mood. It uses the provided ethnicity/nationality, age, gender, and chosen restoration type (color or black-and-white) to guide accurate, natural-looking enhancement without adding new elements or over-editing. The expected outcome is a high-resolution, archival-quality restored portrait with balanced tones, refined facial detail, and culturally appropriate coloration if colorization is requested.

- Skill: `betterpromptme/old-portrait-photo-restoration-prompt` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add betterpromptme/old-portrait-photo-restoration-prompt`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/betterpromptme/old-portrait-photo-restoration-prompt/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: BetterPromptme (https://skillmd.com/u/betterpromptme)
- Updated: 2026-09-10
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/betterpromptme/old-portrait-photo-restoration-prompt

---


## What it does

This prompt instructs the AI to restore an old portrait photograph by repairing physical damage and improving clarity while preserving the subject’s authentic appearance and the photo’s historical mood. It uses the provided ethnicity/nationality, age, gender, and chosen restoration type (color or black-and-white) to guide accurate, natural-looking enhancement without adding new elements or over-editing. The expected outcome is a high-resolution, archival-quality restored portrait with balanced tones, refined facial detail, and culturally appropriate coloration if colorization is requested.

> For more installation instructions go to https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BetterPromptme/skills/refs/heads/main/betterprompt/SKILL.md to check out this skill.

## Inputs


### textInputs

Pass each text input using `--input <key>=<value>` flags.

| Variable key | Required? | Description | Defaults |
| --- | ---: | --- | --- |
| `Age` | Required |  | (none) |
| `Gender` | Required |  | (none) |
| `Restoration_type` | Required |  | (none) |
| `Ethnicity_or_nationality` | Required |  | (none) |



### imageInputs

This prompt requires **exactly 1 image**. You **must pass exactly 1 image flag** (no more, no fewer), in the order matching the descriptions below.

| Index | Required | Description | Allowed CLI flags |
| ---: | ---: | --- | --- |
| 1 | Yes |  | `--image-input-url <url>` or `--image-input-path <path>` |


### Models and options

This skill's modality is: **`image`**.

To discover which `model` values you can use (and which `options` keys/values are valid for each model), run:

```bash
betterprompt resources --models-only --json
```

Then filter the returned JSON array to entries where `modality` is `"image"`.

## How to run

### Step 1: Collect inputs

First, run `betterprompt resources --models-only --json` and filter to `modality: "image"` to discover valid models and available options:

```bash
betterprompt resources --models-only --json
```

Use only the models and option values that appear in the filtered results.

Then collect all inputs from the human:


- Required text inputs:
    - `Age`
  - `Gender`
  - `Restoration_type`
  - `Ethnicity_or_nationality`
- Required images:
  - **Exactly 1** images: image 1 (image 1). Images must be provided in this order.
- Optional: model and options.
  - Present the human with the default model **`gpt-image-1`** and its available options. Look up `gpt-image-1` in the `betterprompt resources` output (filtered to modality `"image"`) and show its `availableOptions` as: `key: val1, val2 (default), val3  |  key2: ...`. Mark a value `(default)` if it matches these defaults: `{"size":"1024x1536","quality":"medium"}`.
  - If the human does not specify, defaults are used: model `gpt-image-1`, options `{"size":"1024x1536","quality":"medium"}`. Other models from the resources call are also available.

If any required text input or the required images are missing, **ask the human for what's missing**. Do not assume or fabricate values. Tell the human: **"Please provide images in this order: image 1 (image 1)"**.

### Step 2: Run via BetterPrompt CLI

Use the frontmatter's `name` as the positional argument (for this skill, use `old-portrait-photo-restoration-prompt`).

Command form:

```bash
betterprompt generate old-portrait-photo-restoration-prompt \
  [--input <key>=<value>] \
  [--image-input-url <url>] \
  [--image-input-path <path>] \
  [--model <model>] \
  [--options <options JSON>] \
  [--json]
```

Notes:

- Pass each text input as a separate `--input <key>=<value>` flag.
- Pass each image using `--image-input-url` or `--image-input-path`, in the order matching the imageInputs descriptions (image 1 first, then image 2, etc.).
- If the human does **not** mention a model, **omit** `--model` and BetterPrompt will use the default model: **`gpt-image-1`**.
- If the human does **not** mention options, **omit** `--options` and BetterPrompt will use the default options: **`{"size":"1024x1536","quality":"medium"}`**.
- If the run times out, the response will include a `runId` you can use to fetch the result later.

Example (using defaults shown above):

```bash
betterprompt generate old-portrait-photo-restoration-prompt \
  --input Age=<value> \
  --input Gender=<value> \
  --input Restoration_type=<value> \
  --input Ethnicity_or_nationality=<value> \
  --image-input-url https://example.com/image1.png \
  --model gpt-image-1 \
  --options '{"size":"1024x1536","quality":"medium"}'
```