A father has been overwhelmed by internet users' responses to his request for someone to digitally remove the medical tubes from the only photographs he has of his late baby daughter Sophia.

Nathan Steffel's appeal, posted to Reddit at the weekend, read: "My daughter recently passed away after a long battle in the children's hospital. Since she was in the hospital her whole life we never were able to get a photo without all her tubes. Can someone remove the tubes from this photo?"

Redditor Steffel07 posted this photo of his late baby daughter Sophia attached to medical tubes. Credit: Reddit / Steffel07

The Ohio father did not anticipate the speed, scale and generosity of the response.

The highest-rated reply, posted by Reddit user Funkybrewster, came with the comment: "This is super late but I really wanted to help out too. Here's my attempt. I hope I didn't overdo it on the color correction."

Reddit user Funkybrewster removed the tubes from the photo and altered the colours. Credit: Imgur / Funkybrewster

Another popular post, by ChangingYang, said: "I did a paint over for you (painting over the photo itself). I took some liberties with the color, and background."

ChangingYang added a paint effect to the image. Credit: Imgur / ChangingYang

Responding to the amount and quality of digitally-enhanced pictures he received, Nathan Steffel said: "This is really amazing. Everyone you have made my day.

"All I wanted was a nice picture. What I received was a lot of love and support from a bunch of strangers. A long with a lot of great photos, drawings and paintings. Thanks everyone!"

One Redditor produced this more natural-looking version of the picture.

Imgur user jloooong posted a more natural-looking version of the picture. Credit: jloooong / imgur

Redditor Izzyzzi even drew an original sketch of the baby.

Another Reddit user even produced an original sketch. Credit: Reddit / Allonsybadwolf

In another post, Mr Steffel concluded: "I just wanted a picture and what I received was a lot of wonderful drawings and pictures. I couldn't be happier."