Restored the wrong backup

I was going to try backing up the ipad but I wasn't aware of the correct procedures and "restored" a backup from early 2020 instead...the files on my ipad are intact but the photos are all gone. I guess the photos are still there as the file storage doesn't add up and there's a whole chunk of data listed as "others". There are also pending apps to be downloaded but I can only remove them using my previous icloud account. There aren't any recent back ups of the ipad I'm using now, or there was but it was overwritten by the old device (the device name changed to the old ipad!) I'm trying to find a way to get back the photos I've saved, as they are important for me.