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The faces keep changing because of what the tool actually is, not because you are using it wrong. The chat-based AI image tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, Midjourney) are generative. When you ask them to "restore" a photo, they are not repairing pixels in the original. They are making a new image that resembles your input. With a face you do not know, that often looks fine. With your dad's face, you spot the difference immediately.

How I'd approach it

You want a different category of tool. The label to search for is "photo restoration" or "photo enhancement", not "AI image generation". These tools are built to denoise, deblur, fix scratches, and sharpen what is already there, rather than invent what is not.

Three I would actually try, in order of how much effort and money they ask of you.

Remini. A consumer app on iPhone and Android with a free tier. You take a photo of the original print with your phone, or upload a scan, and it does a one-tap enhance. It is the simplest option and for many family photos it is good enough. The free tier is rate-limited and adds a watermark on some exports. The paid plan is around A$10 a month and you can cancel after one month if you only need to do a batch.

Photoshop with the Photo Restoration neural filter. Adobe's restoration tool sits inside Photoshop and is built to repair damage rather than reimagine the picture. If you already pay for Photoshop, or you are comfortable with a one-month subscription (around A$35), this gives you the most control. You can mask the face so the tool does not touch it, fix the background and frame, then sharpen the face by hand.

Topaz Photo AI. A specialist desktop app for Mac and Windows that does face recovery, denoise, and upscaling as separate, controllable steps rather than as one black-box pass. The catch is the price. It is roughly A$300 as a one-off purchase, which is a lot to spend on a single tool. The maths only works if you have a shoebox of family photos to work through, not just one. For one or two photos, do not bother and pay A$10 for a month of Remini instead. For a hundred photos, Topaz pays for itself, and there is no monthly bill afterwards.

Whichever tool you pick, scan the original at the highest resolution your phone or scanner allows before you start. Restoration tools can only work with what you give them. A blurry photo of a faded photo will produce a blurry, faded result no matter which AI you point at it.

What I'd avoid

Do not keep using ChatGPT or Gemini for this and expect a different answer. They will keep regenerating the face because that is what they are designed to do. Save them for the jobs they are good at and use a restoration tool for this one. And before you accept any restored version, put the original and the new one side by side at full size. If the eyes, the mouth, or the shape of the chin have shifted, that is no longer your dad. Either redo it with the face masked off, or accept that some scratches and softness are part of what the photo is.