Restore.

I restore my grandma's 1960s photo & animated it with AI. Here's how:

I restored my grandma's 1960s photo & animated it with AI.

(I explain at the end of this guide why it matters to me)

Here's how:

Upload the picture to Gemini.

✦ Go to https://gemini.google.com/app.

✦ Upload your (very old) picture.

✦ Give it the following prompt:

Restore an old black and white picture I took. I want it now to have natural daylight colors, as naturally as you can. Make it seem like an iPhone took the picture. And turn it into a photo instead of a photo of a photo. Don't change any elements in the photo itself.

Here’s the step-by-step with images:

✦ Select on the top right “2.5 Flash”:

✦ Upload the old picture, with my prompt (copy it above):

✦ Enjoy the (first) result:

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Animate the generated & restored photo

Now it’s time to animate it gently.

Stay on Gemini, and go to “Create video with Veo”.

Add the following prompt: “Animate [person] like a slow-motion movie”.

I have to share my frustration from that point onward.

Gemini-Veo didn’t let me animate my grandmother because “it violates guidelines” since a kid (my uncle) is in the picture…

So I had to switch to another picture of my grandmother:

And now I am animating it:

I can’t believe I can see my grandmother, who passed away in the 1970s.

My mother can’t believe it either.

And that’s more important than any “productivity prompt hack using AI”.

Restoring memories, reconnecting with our pasts.

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I never met my grandmother.

I simply have a collection of old pictures that seem nothing but real.

Photos of photos.

Damaged pictures.

So blurry, so black & white, it’s like a history book.

Being able to restore it & animate it feels like magic.

I bring her back to life, for a couple of seconds, like a 2025 woman enjoying the beach. She feels real. So I did again (and again, and again):

Not everything AI is about productivity or hacks or money-making machines.

Download some of your family’s old photos. Animate it. Make your family smile.

This is worth every minute I invested in it.

I am sharing more (personal) restored photos in my Substack chat.

This newsletter has over 120,000+ readers.

So this chat is for members only (roughly 300 members).

Join us:

If you can’t, you can still leave a comment:

archive: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pWuMCBVQo1zKcgKltX_BZxAr31KgxmOlp3Vzvmc5Hxc/edit?usp=sharing