Creative Ideas for Blurry Photos

[kev67]

When a photo is just a little too blurry or out of focus to be sharpened into a nice crisp photo, what are some options to still use the pic and make it look good?

Sometimes it seems like such a shame to trash a great photo that just happened to be a little blurry (I'm thinking mostly of shots with people in them). Other than making it b&w, do you have any ideas or examples on what to do to these photos to produce something worth keeping. Or any websites that offer some suggestions?

Thanks for your ideas - I'm sure there are alot of us who are looking for solutions to this problem.

[Doug Pardee]

Lipstick on a pig. Or is it perfume on a pig?

Whatever, a messed up photo is a messed up photo and wasting time on trying to fix it is a waste of time. (I seem to be in a repetitively repetitive mood tonight.)

If the photo is irreplaceable and simply must be salvaged, consider something like Focus Magic, FocalBlade, or Focus Fixer. With a lot of careful work, you can salvage a photo that is somewhat blurred.

As for tricks—which is what I think you were asking for—you can shrink the picture down to a size where the blur takes up less than a pixel.

[viperx27]

combine with textures to make graphic art?
lower the transparency and put a crisp photos with it to make a collage?

[Barb42]

Sometimes its just a snapshot for fun and other times it can be an art photograph. Can we see the photo?

You will find that this crowd is mostly in the 'sharp' or nothing category - which is neither good nor bad. It just is. However, many famous photographs are not sharp at all - its the composition and the intent of the maker (check out some photos at your local art museum). Some images are famous because of the amazing sharpness (A. Adams), and some great photos were blurred for a reason (HIROSHI SUGIMOTO's dreamy seascapes is a great example).

[Mark_Cohran]

It depends on how soft the image is. I've taken a few soft images and used them with filters to create some interesting images, but the examples I have are only suitable for the Glamour and Nude forum :)

Mark

[SwingBopper]

Try solarization.