I need a photo restoration tool that removes scratches and does not overly smooth skin texture.

Finding an automated AI tool that removes scratches without giving people that dreaded plastic, over-smoothed "AI face" is tough, because most consumer web-apps default to heavy face-enhancement models that wipe out pores and natural grain.

To effectively eliminate scratches while preserving authentic skin texture, you need tools that let you handle structural repair and face processing independently, or manual control to back off the smoothing effect.

• Topaz Photo AI
  • Why it works: It features dedicated Topaz Photo AI models for Dust & Scratch removal combined with a targeted healing brush. Crucially, its sharpening and face recovery modules have sliders or can be turned off entirely so you don’t get the hyper-plastic smoothing common in other tools. You process the scratches first, then selectively heal the stubborn spots.community.topazlabs.com
• Adobe Photoshop (Generative Remove / Contextual Taskbar)
  • Why it works: Instead of using a broad "restore photo" filter that processes the whole face, Photoshop’s Remove tool or localized Generative Remove lets you paint only over the scratches. Because it operates on small, targeted selections rather than a global portrait enhancement pass, it leaves the surrounding skin texture, pores, and natural film grain completely untouched.
• Remini / MyHeritage (Used with Caution)
  • Why it works / Caveat: While apps like Remini are famous for aggressively smoothing and "re-inventing" faces into plastic versions of themselves, they excel at structural recovery. If you use them, you must dial down the effect or use a layer mask in Photoshop to blend the original textured skin back over the AI-repaired structure.
• Manual/Hybrid Restoration (The Pro Route)
  • Why it works: For irreplaceable family photos, using Photoshop’s Healing Brush, Clone Stamp (set to lower opacity) , and Dust & Scratches filter locally gives you 100% control over keeping real skin texture intact without letting an algorithm guess a new face.

Would you prefer a desktop software you buy once (like Topaz), a subscription tool (like Photoshop), or a free/web-based AI option to test out first?

Finding a tool that removes physical damage like scratches without turning a face into a "plastic" or overly smoothed digital painting is tricky, because many aggressive AI face enhancers (like standard Remini or generic mobile apps) love to wipe away natural pores and skin texture.

Here are the best options that strike the right balance between structural scratch repair and texture preservation:

1. Adobe Photoshop (Best overall for control)
   • Why it works: Unlike automated one-click mobile apps that guess facial features and over-smooth, Photoshop gives you manual and AI-assisted control. Use the Spot Healing Brush or Generative Fill targeted specifically at the scratches. For skin, techniques like Frequency Separation let you repair the image while keeping 100% of the organic film grain and skin texture intact.
2. Luminar Neo (Best AI + Manual hybrid)
   • Why it works: Luminar Neo features dedicated Restoration tools powered by AI that clean up deep scratches and cracks without the aggressive facial plasticizing found in consumer apps. It allows you to dial back the AI effect or use local masking so you can fix the background/scratches separately from the face.
3. VanceAI Photo Restorer (Best automated option)
   • Why it works: VanceAI's restoration models are trained to handle creases, tears, and dust in a single pass. Crucially, their portrait recovery models are built to recover underlying features and hair rather than aggressively airbrushing wrinkles and pores into uniformity.

To help narrow down the best choice, tell me:

• Are you looking for a one-click automated web/mobile tool or desktop software where you can manually edit?
• How heavily damaged is the photo (light scratches vs. deep tears across faces)?

If your priority is removing scratches while keeping natural skin texture, I’d favor a tool that separates damage repair from aggressive face enhancement.

• Adobe Photoshop — Best if you want maximum control. Its Healing Brush can blend repairs with surrounding texture, and you can work non-destructively on layers.Adobe Help Center
• Topaz Photo — Very good for automated scratch/dust removal. Its dedicated Dust & Scratch v2 model is specifically designed for this and is intended to preserve original detail, though Topaz acknowledges that it can sometimes remove detail.Topaz Labs Docs
• ON1 Photo RAW MAX — Its Restore AI specifically targets scratches, dust, wrinkles and small tears while preserving surrounding details.ON1
• Avoid face-first apps such as Remini for this particular job. They're primarily designed to reconstruct/enhance faces, rather than carefully remove physical damage, which increases the risk of getting a smoother or more reconstructed-looking face.Gluely

What I'd choose

For the most natural result: Photoshop. For the easiest automated workflow: Topaz Photo.

A particularly good workflow is: scratch removal → inspect faces at 100% → manually heal any remaining scratches → only then consider sharpening/upscaling. Heavy restoration applied all at once is more likely to produce waxy skin and invented facial detail.pict.ai

If you tell me Windows/Mac/iPhone/Android and whether you want free or paid, I can narrow it to 2–3 specific choices.

For scratch removal without turning faces into plastic, I’d look at these:

• Topaz Photo — particularly promising for your use case. Its dedicated Dust & Scratch model is designed for scanned/damaged photos, and Topaz says the newer version focuses on cleanup while better preserving original detail.Topaz Labs Docs
• Adobe Photoshop — best if you want precise control. Its Healing Brush and Patch tools let you repair scratches selectively while blending with surrounding texture; the Healing Brush also has a Replace mode specifically useful for preserving texture/noise.Adobe Help Center+1
• Adobe Firefly — easier, browser-based option. It can repair scratches, cracks and other physical damage using surrounding texture and tone, while keeping the original in a non-destructive history.Adobe
• Retouch4me Heal — worth considering if your biggest concern is natural-looking skin. It explicitly says it preserves original skin texture rather than replacing it with over-smoothed patches, though it's primarily a skin-retouching tool rather than a general scratch-restoration system.Retouch4me
• PhotoRepair.app — a simpler online option specifically aimed at scratches and claims to use targeted repair rather than globally smoothing the photograph.photorepair.app

What I'd choose

If this is an old family portrait with scratches crossing faces, I'd start with Topaz Photo or Photoshop. The key is to use a scratch-specific repair rather than a general “enhance face” or “beautify” function. Photoshop's own restoration workflow even documents reducing Enhance Face to preserve more original film texture.adobepress.com

If you want, upload the photo here and I can tell you which type of restoration workflow would be least likely to destroy its natural skin texture.

Finding a tool that sweeps away scratches without turning a face into a "plastic" smooth blur is tricky, because most consumer AI restoration models are trained to aggressively "clean up" noise, which naturally misinterprets skin pores as damage.

Here are the best options that strike a balance, ranging from granular manual control to smarter AI models:

• Adobe Photoshop (Neural Filters / Remove Tool) : This remains the gold standard because it doesn't force a one-size-fits-all AI pass. You can use the Remove Tool or Generative Fill specifically targeted at the scratches, and then use traditional frequency separation or brush work to ensure skin texture remains untouched. Access it via Adobe Photoshop.
• Remini / MyHeritage (with caution) : These are popular for one-tap old photo restoration, but they do have a tendency to over-smooth faces if left on default settings. If you use them, look for intensity sliders or dial back the face-enhancement strength so it doesn't wipe out natural grain and pores.youtube.com
• Movavi Photo Editor : A lightweight offline desktop editor featuring an automatic scratch eraser for dust and minor lines. It relies less on heavy generative facial reconstruction than cloud apps, making it less prone to that synthetic, overly-smoothed portrait look on minor fixes. Explore it at Movavi Photo Editor.imagen-ai.com
• Manual/Hybrid Approach (GIMP or Affinity Photo) : If you want total control without a subscription, using a cloning/healing brush on a separate layer in Affinity Photo lets you manually paint out the scratches while 100% preserving the underlying skin texture.

To help narrow down the best choice, tell me:

• Are you comfortable using manual brush tools (like Photoshop/GIMP), or do you need a one-click AI solution?
• Is the photo digitally scanned at a high resolution, or is it a phone picture of a printed photo?

Finding a photo restoration tool that cleans up cracks and scratches without triggering the dreaded "plastic, overly-smoothed AI face" effect can be tricky. Many consumer AI apps aggressively smooth skin into a cartoonish or hyper-filtered look.

The best options that balance aggressive scratch removal with texture preservation depend on your comfort level with manual editing versus automated AI:

• Adobe Photoshop (with Generative Fill / Neural Filters / Healing Brush)
  Widely considered the gold standard. Unlike automated mobile apps, Photoshop gives you granular control. You can use the Spot Healing Brush or Clone Stamp tool manually over scratches to keep 100% of the natural grain and skin texture intact. If you use its AI features (like the Photo Restoration Neural Filter), you can dial back the enhancement slider or mask out the face so the AI only targets the background and physical damage.
• Luminar Neo (with Restoration Extension)
  Luminar Neo features an AI-driven Restoration tool designed to clean up splotches, scratches, and dust while retaining a much more organic photographic structure than typical face-enhancement apps. It analyzes the image layers well enough to avoid completely wiping out natural skin gradients and fine details.
• GIMP (Free / Open-Source)
  If you prefer a free, desktop-based manual approach [1.1.n, 1.1.g, 1.1.g2]. Using GIMP's Clone Tool and Healing Tool on a separate layer allows you to paint out scratches precisely. Because you are doing it by hand or via localized sampling rather than letting a face-generator hallucinate new skin, the original skin texture remains completely untouched.
• HitPaw FotorPea
  If you need an automated AI option, its face-restoration model includes adjustable sliders where you can target resolution and clarity without maxing out the face-smoothing parameters, preserving fine lines and realistic skin characteristics better than one-tap apps like Remini.youtube.com+1

To help narrow this down, let me know:

• Would you prefer an automated AI tool (fast, one-click) or a manual/desktop editor (where you control every stroke)?
• Is the photo digitally scanned or a physical print you're trying to fix?

If your priority is scratch removal without the “plastic skin” look, I’d shortlist these:

• Adobe Photoshop — best for maximum control. Use the Spot Healing Brush/Healing Brush and Clone Stamp on a separate layer, rather than applying an aggressive face-restoration filter. That lets you remove scratches while leaving natural pores and fine texture intact. Current restoration guides consistently put Photoshop at the top for precision work.Guideflow+1

• Adobe Photoshop CC - $263.88 (B&H Photo)

• SoftOrbits Photo Retoucher — best if you want mostly automatic restoration. Its scratch/dust repair is designed to affect damaged pixels rather than broadly smoothing the photograph, and it includes manual correction when the automatic pass gets something wrong.SoftOrbits

• PhotoGlory — good simpler Windows option for old family photos. It is specifically built around scratches, tears, fading and restoration rather than primarily being a beauty/face-enhancement app.SoftOrbits

I would avoid Remini as the first choice for your particular requirement. Its face enhancement can produce the smooth, reconstructed “AI face” appearance that is undesirable when preserving an older person's actual skin texture and identity.LeoRestorer

My pick

For the best-looking archival restoration: Photoshop. For easier automatic scratch removal: SoftOrbits Photo Retoucher.

A useful rule is: repair scratches first, then do any sharpening/upscaling very lightly, and don't run a strong face-enhancement model afterward. That workflow preserves much more natural skin texture.Imagic AI

If you tell me whether you're on Windows, Mac, iPhone, or Android, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 options for your setup and budget.

Yes. Adobe Photoshop is probably the best fit if your priority is removing scratches while keeping natural skin texture. Its Healing Brush blends with surrounding texture, and the Patch tool lets you repair specific damaged areas rather than applying a blanket smoothing effect.Adobe Help Center+1

adobe.com

My picks

• Best overall — Photoshop: Excellent control over individual scratches and damaged areas. Use the Healing Brush/Patch tool on a separate layer, and avoid aggressive global noise reduction. Adobe specifically recommends nondestructive layers for restoration.Adobe
• Best for natural-looking portraits — Photoshop + frequency separation: This separates skin tone from fine texture, allowing you to repair discoloration without wiping out pores.GIMP.cc
• Good for noise/detail cleanup — DxO PhotoLab: Its processing is designed to preserve fine textures, but it's more useful as a noise/detail tool than as the primary scratch-removal solution.DxO+1

If these are old family portraits, I'd choose Photoshop. The key is localized scratch removal rather than AI "enhance/restore" at maximum strength—that gives you much more control over preserving the person's actual skin texture.

If you want, I can also recommend the easiest one-click option versus the best professional option, including free choices.

Finding an automated tool that eliminates scratches without turning faces into a "plastic" or over-smoothed blur is tricky because many aggressive AI face-restoration models (like older versions of GFPGAN) aggressively hallucinate skin texture.

To avoid the overly smoothed look, you want a tool that lets you control the intensity/blend sliders or uses a texture-aware model like CodeFormer or specialized local software.replicate.com+1

Top Recommendations

1. Adobe Photoshop (Neural Filters - Photo Restoration)
   • Why it fits: It features a dedicated Photo Restoration filter with adjustable sliders for Scratch Reduction and Face Enhancement.
   • How to avoid over-smoothing: Crucially, Photoshop allows you to dial back the adjustments or use layer masks to blend the original skin texture back into the processed face. You can combine it with manual healing brushes for ultimate control.
   • Where to access: Available via Adobe Photoshop.youtube.com+2
2. CodeFormer (via Replicate or Web UIs)
   • Why it fits: CodeFormer is an AI-based face prediction and restoration model that relies on a prediction transformer. Unlike models that prioritize generic smoothness, CodeFormer has a fidelity slider (w weight) that lets you dial in how closely it sticks to the original face features vs. high-quality modern rendering. Lowering/adjusting this prevents the dreaded plastic skin look while still fixing degraded details.
   • Where to access: You can test/run it directly on Replicate CodeFormer.replicate.com+1
3. Dedicated Web Enhancers with Texture Control (e.g., PixExtender or VanceAI)
   • Why it fits: Platforms like PixExtender Photo Restoration handle scratch inpainting in a single pass. However, if an online tool over-smooths a portrait, the industry workaround is a two-step process: run the scratch-removal/inpainting first, and if the face loses grain, blend the original face back over the AI result at 30–50% opacity in any basic photo editor.pixextender.com

If you'd like, let me know:

• Are you comfortable using cloud/web tools or do you prefer local software (like Photoshop)?
• Is the photo black-and-white or color , and how severe are the scratches over the faces?

I can give you a step-by-step workflow tailored to your exact image.