Retouching
Removing glasses, oxygen tubes and hospital gowns from a memorial photo
How to remove glasses, nasal cannulas and hospital clothing, add formal clothing, and check that an AI edit has not changed the face before it goes on stone.
6 min read · Updated November 9, 2026
The most recent photos of someone are often taken late in life. There is an oxygen tube, a hospital gown, or glasses with glare across the lenses. Families ask for the person as they want them remembered. These edits used to take a retoucher hours. With AI they take seconds. But they carry one real risk: the face can change.
Glasses
Ask first. If the person wore glasses every day, the family may want to keep them. A familiar face without its glasses can look like a stranger. Sometimes glare is the only problem, and the family is happy to keep the frames.
If they want the glasses removed, the edit has to invent the eyes behind the lenses. That makes the eyes the part most likely to change. Check the eye shape, the eyelids, the eyebrows, and the lines and bags under the eyes. Check the bridge of the nose, where the frames sat.
Oxygen tubes and medical items
A nasal cannula crosses the cheeks, sits under the nose and loops over the ears. Removing it means rebuilding skin on the cheeks and the upper lip. Look for other items too: hospital bracelets, IV lines, monitor wires and medical tape. Remove them all in one step. Then check the nostrils, the upper lip and the shape of the mouth, since these sit right next to the tube.
Hospital gowns and formal clothing
A gown or a casual shirt can be replaced with formal clothing: a dark suit with a white shirt and tie, or an elegant dark blouse. Some families prefer what the person really wore, like a favorite sweater or a work uniform. Ask. Clothing edits change the neck and shoulders, so check the jawline, the neckline and how the head sits on the shoulders.
On black granite, a dark suit stays mostly unetched polished stone. A white shirt and collar etch bright, which frames the face well.
Why faces drift
An AI edit doesn't paste in a patch. It redraws the image. Even when you ask it to change only the glasses, it can subtly change the nose, the mouth, the shape of the eyes, or the age of the skin. Each edit can add a little more. The change may be small enough to miss on a phone screen, and still large enough for a widow to say "that isn't him." Every AI editing tool has this risk, including ours.
How to check a face
- 1.Compare at the same size, side by side. Not a thumbnail next to a full screen.
- 2.Flip between the original and the edit in the same position. Changes jump out when you toggle.
- 3.Check the fixed points: eye shape and spacing, nose, mouth corners, ears, hairline, moles, scars and teeth.
- 4.Check the age. AI tends to smooth skin and make people look younger. The family may not want that.
- 5.Look at it in grayscale and in the stone preview, not only in color.
- 6.Ask someone who knew the person. You didn't. They did.
Fewer edits are safer
Every edit is another chance for drift. Make only the edits the family asked for. If the photo needs a repair and a plain background, don't add new clothing just because you can. If an edit keeps changing the face, a smaller manual fix may be the better choice for that photo.
Get approval before etching
Show the family the original photo next to the edited portrait and the stone preview, and get a signed approval before anything is etched. See family proof approval for what the proof should include.
How Stone Portrait does it
Stone Portrait has one-click edits to remove glasses, to remove an oxygen tube and other medical items (cannula, hospital bracelet and equipment), and to add formal clothing. You can also describe any other edit in plain words. Each edit runs as its own step and becomes a new version, so you can compare it with the original and go back. The page warns that AI edits can change a face, and the proof puts the photo supplied next to the edited portrait so the family can check. Start a free trial.
Questions
Should I always remove glasses?
No. Ask the family. If the person wore glasses every day, keeping them often looks more like the person. Remove them when the family asks, or when glare hides the eyes.
Can AI remove an oxygen tube without changing the face?
Usually it gets close, but there is no guarantee. Compare the result with the original at the same size, paying attention to the nose, upper lip and cheeks. Run it again if something looks off.
The edit changed the face. What now?
Go back to the previous version and run the edit again. Use fewer edits, or a smaller manual fix for that one area. Never etch a face the family has not approved.
Can I choose the clothing?
Yes. The formal clothing edit uses a dark suit with a white shirt and tie, or an elegant dark blouse. For anything else, describe it in plain words, such as a navy sweater or a military uniform.