# Restore Old Image

> This prompt instructs the AI to take an attached aged black-and-white photograph and restore it into a natural-looking, era-faithful color image by repairing physical damage artifacts, correcting tonal range and white balance, and applying realistic period-appropriate colorization while preserving authentic texture, identity details, and subtle film grain. The expected outcome is a clean, gently graded, film-like color version with controlled contrast, believable skin and material tones, minimal noise and sharpening artifacts, and no invented content or unnecessary cropping.

- Skill: `betterpromptme/restore-old-image` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add betterpromptme/restore-old-image`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/betterpromptme/restore-old-image/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/restore-old-image

---


## What it does

This prompt instructs the AI to take an attached aged black-and-white photograph and restore it into a natural-looking, era-faithful color image by repairing physical damage artifacts, correcting tonal range and white balance, and applying realistic period-appropriate colorization while preserving authentic texture, identity details, and subtle film grain. The expected outcome is a clean, gently graded, film-like color version with controlled contrast, believable skin and material tones, minimal noise and sharpening artifacts, and no invented content or unnecessary cropping.

> For more installation instructions go to https://skills.sh/betterpromptme/betterprompt/betterprompt to check out this skill.

## Inputs



### 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 to restore | `--image-input-url <url>` or `--image-input-base64 <base64>` or `--image-input-path <absolute path to image>` |


### 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 images:
  - **Exactly 1** images: image 1 (image 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 (image to restore)"**.

### Step 2: Run via BetterPrompt CLI

Use the frontmatter's `name` as the positional argument (for this skill, use `restore-old-image`).

Command form:

```bash
betterprompt generate restore-old-image \
  [--image-input-url <url>] \
  [--image-input-base64 <base64>] \
  [--image-input-path <absolute path to image>] \
  [--model <model>] \
  [--options <options JSON>] \
  [--json]
```

Notes:

- Pass each image using one of `--image-input-url`, `--image-input-base64`, 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):

```bash
betterprompt generate restore-old-image \
  --image-input-url https://example.com/image1.png \
  --model gemini-2.5-flash-image-preview \
  --options '{}'
```