Saving Blurry Photos


This is a simple technique I came up with that enables you to save a blurry photo from the trash, but you have to know up frontthere are limitations. First, it produces a photo that is really only suitable for emailing to friends and family, using in slide shows, or creating a 4x6" print. If you're okay with that, it works wonders. It's based on the premise that everything looks in focus when it's small (for proof of that, see the LCD monitor on the back of your camera, where every photo looks in focus, but when you open the full-size photo in Photoshop, you find out the truth).

Step One

Open your blurred digital image. In the example shown here, I used a blurry high-res image imported directly from my digital camera and opened in Photoshop.

Step Two

Go under the Image menu and choose Image Size (by the way, in CS2 there's now a keyboard shortcut for Image Size: Command-Option-I [PC Control-Alt-I]). When the dialog appears, you're going to leave the physical size alone (so it will still be 10" wide), but you're going to lower the Resolution from 300 ppi to 72 ppi, and then click OK. Note: If you're already working with a low-res image, you won't need to lower your Resolution setting (sorry, just in case you didn't know that already).

Step Three

To get the resolution high enough to print to a color inkjet printer, go back to the Image Size dialog again. Turn off Resample Image and lower the Width to 6" (giving you a 6x4" finished size at 120 ppi in this case).

Step Four

This is where CS2's Smart Sharpen filter really works wonders. Go under the Filter menu, under Sharpen, and choose Smart Sharpen. When the dialog appears, set the Amount at 58%, leave the Radius Set to 1 pixel, ensure the Remove pop-up menu is set to Gaussian Blur, turn on the More Accurate checkbox, and click OK to apply this first level of sharpening. Now, press Command-F (PC: Control-F) to run Smart Sharpen again, using the same settings. This second pass of sharpening really does the trick.

Before: This was one you'd simply delete.

After: Thanks to Smart Sharpen, she doesn't look oversharpened.



    The Photoshop CS2 Book(c) for Digital Photographers
    The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)
    ISBN: B002DMJUBS
    EAN: N/A
    Year: 2006
    Pages: 187
    Authors: Scott Kelby

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