Restore And Colorize Photo

What it does

This prompt instructs an AI to act as a photo conservator and digital colorist to restore an old or damaged photograph by repairing defects like scratches, fading, and softness, then colorize it with realistic, historically accurate tones guided by optional reference inputs. It emphasizes preserving the subject’s identity and period authenticity, avoiding over-retouching or artificial saturation, and producing a high-resolution result suitable for printing and archival use without adding or altering scene elements beyond faithful color reconstruction.

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.

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.

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:

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:

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:

• Optional text inputs (use defaults if not provided by the human):
  • seed (default: 42 → results can be reproduced)
  • detail_level (default: "soft" for smoother look, "natural" for balanced detail, "sharp" for maximum clarity.)
  • color_reference (default: “warm natural tones”, “sepia look”, “pastel colors”)
• Required images:
  • Exactly 1 images: image 1 (The old or black-and-white photo to restore). Images must be provided in this order.
• Optional: model and options.
  • Present the human with the default model gemini-2.5-flash-image-preview and its available options. Look up gemini-2.5-flash-image-preview 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: {}.
  • If the human does not specify, defaults are used: model gemini-2.5-flash-image-preview, options {}. Other models from the resources call are also available.

If 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 (The old or black-and-white photo to restore)".

Step 2: Run via BetterPrompt CLI

Use the frontmatter's name as the positional argument (for this skill, use restore-and-colorize-photo).

Command form:

betterprompt generate restore-and-colorize-photo \
  [--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: gemini-2.5-flash-image-preview.
• If the human does not mention options, omit --options and BetterPrompt will use the default options: {}.
• If the run times out, the response will include a runId you can use to fetch the result later.

Example (using defaults shown above):

betterprompt generate restore-and-colorize-photo \
  --input 'seed=42 → results can be reproduced' \
  --input 'detail_level="soft" for smoother look, "natural" for balanced detail, "sharp" for maximum clarity.' \
  --input 'color_reference=“warm natural tones”, “sepia look”, “pastel colors”' \
  --image-input-url https://example.com/image1.png \
  --model gemini-2.5-flash-image-preview \
  --options '{}'