# Self-Supervised Selective-Guided Diffusion Model for Old-Photo Face Restoration

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.12114 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.12114/

## Key facts

- Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Inverse problems and image restoration, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 39 of its 50 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Oct 2025.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Inverse problems and image restoration](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/inverse-problems-and-image-restoration/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 39)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04948/) (2018)
- [Taming Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.09841/) (2020)
- [Real-ESRGAN: Training Real-World Blind Super-Resolution with Pure Synthetic Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.10833/) (2021)
- [Denoising Diffusion Restoration Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11793/) (2022)
- [BiSeNet: Bilateral Segmentation Network for Real-time Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.00897/) (2018)
- [Zero-Shot Image Restoration Using Denoising Diffusion Null-Space Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.00490/) (2022)
- [MANIQA: Multi-dimension Attention Network for No-Reference Image Quality Assessment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.08958/) (2022)
- [Exploiting Diffusion Prior for Real-World Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.07015/) (2023)
- [Towards Real-World Blind Face Restoration with Generative Facial Prior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.04061/) (2021)
- [SeeSR: Towards Semantics-Aware Real-World Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16518/) (2023)
- [One-Step Effective Diffusion Network for Real-World Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.08177/) (2024)
- [Towards Robust Blind Face Restoration with Codebook Lookup Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.11253/) (2022)
- [TOPIQ: A Top-down Approach from Semantics to Distortions for Image Quality Assessment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.03060/) (2023)
- [Generative Diffusion Prior for Unified Image Restoration and Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.01247/) (2023)
- [GAN Prior Embedded Network for Blind Face Restoration in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.06070/) (2021)
- [GLEAN: Generative Latent Bank for Large-Factor Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.00739/) (2020)
- [InstructIR: High-Quality Image Restoration Following Human Instructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.16468/) (2024)
- [VQFR: Blind Face Restoration with Vector-Quantized Dictionary and Parallel Decoder](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.06803/) (2022)
- [DifFace: Blind Face Restoration with Diffused Error Contraction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.06512/) (2022)
- [Bringing Old Photos Back to Life](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.09484/) (2020)
- [DR2: Diffusion-based Robust Degradation Remover for Blind Face Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.06885/) (2023)
- [Restoring Images in Adverse Weather Conditions via Histogram Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.10172/) (2024)
- [Efficient Diffusion Model for Image Restoration by Residual Shifting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.07319/) (2024)
- [PGDiff: Guiding Diffusion Models for Versatile Face Restoration via Partial Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.10810/) (2023)
- [OSDFace: One-Step Diffusion Model for Face Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.17163/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [The Second Challenge on Real-World Face Restoration at NTIRE 2026: Methods and Results](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.10532/) (2026)
- [Seeing Through the Rain: Resolving High-Frequency Conflicts in Deraining and Super-Resolution via Diffusion Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.12419/) (2025)
- [Transformer-Progressive Mamba Network for Lightweight Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.03232/) (2025)
- [PASDiff: Physics-Aware Semantic Guidance for Joint Real-World Low-Light Face Enhancement and Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.24969/) (2026)
- [GS-STVSR: Ultra-Efficient Continuous Spatio-Temporal Video Super-Resolution via 2D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.18047/) (2026)
- [Loop-Mamba: A Loop Mamba with Degradation-Aware and Shared Memory for Old Photo Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.02346/) (2026)
- [ReconMIL: Synergizing Latent Space Reconstruction with Bi-Stream Mamba for Whole Slide Image Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.19925/) (2026)
- [WaveFreqAnchor: Wave-Structural Anchoring and Frequency Correction Diffusion for Training-Free Face Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.06717/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Old-photo face restoration poses significant challenges due to compounded degradations such as breakage, fading, and severe blur. Existing pre-trained diffusion-guided methods either rely on explicit degradation priors or global statistical guidance, which struggle with localized artifacts or face color. We propose Self-Supervised Selective-Guided Diffusion (SSDiff), which leverages pseudo-reference faces generated by a pre-trained diffusion model under weak guidance. These pseudo-labels exhibit structurally aligned contours and natural colors, enabling region-specific restoration via staged supervision: structural guidance applied throughout the denoising process and color refinement in later steps, aligned with the coarse-to-fine nature of diffusion. By incorporating face parsing maps and scratch masks, our method selectively restores breakage regions while avoiding identity mismatch. We further construct VintageFace, a 300-image benchmark of real old face photos with varying degradation levels. SSDiff outperforms existing GAN-based and diffusion-based methods in perceptual quality, fidelity, and regional controllability. Code link: https://github.com/PRIS-CV/SSDiff.