Can I take a small (320x240), blurry image, and make it a clear, large image?

[Mike521]

Just wondering if there is an easy way to do this? I'm sure it won't be perfect cause photoshop can only work with what's there, but maybe it can make it a bit better at least?
I'm very new to photoshop and have no idea how to go about using it..

Thanks in advance for any advice

[Mike521]

:/ well its a pic of me and my dog when I was 2, I don't want to put it up on the internet LOL

but could you give me some pointers as to what to try? I don't expect it to be huge and pretty, but any better than what it is now would be great

I don't plan on printing it, just want to clean it up a bit if I can. Maybe I'll print it one day, but thats not why I'm trying this..

[dave milbut]

So are you scanning it? I'd suggest 1st step is to scan at as high a resolution as your scanner would allow. I've done plenty of old pix this way. If you don't have an original photo to scan from can you get it? If not, what's the quality like is it clear and clean, just small? or is it really bad.

There's some good general tips here (I used google searching for "clean up photo photoshop")

<http://ict.cas.psu.edu/Training/instrmats/Intro/Photos.html>

but without either seeing the image or having a lot more detail on the quality of the image it's kinda hard to say exactly what you need to do to fix it.

[Lundberg02]

Filter>Sharpen> Unsharp Mask. Shake well before before using.

[Philip Shantz]

There's a very impressive plugin I use called FocusMagic - you can download it and try it out for free on 5 files before you have to buy it. It's light years beyond any combination of sharpen and unsharp mask filtering you can do in photoshop, no matter how many years of experience you have...and it's pretty well automatic after you set the pixel width. To download go to:
[url]www.focusmagic.com[/url]

[Burton Ogden]

Mike,

I have to agree with Dave's skepticism about what you can do with a blurry 320x240 image. I assume you are stuck with that size and can't improve it by rescanning at a higher resolution from some source print.

On that basis, I concur with Philip's recommendation of Focus Magic. It uses a unique deconvolution algorithm that can actually restore some focus. It can also upsize by a factor of two or four. Focus Magic comes in two parts: a standalone application and a Photoshop plug-in. I usually use both the plug-in and the standalone on an image because each has capabilities that the other lacks.

I am enthusiastic about my purchase of Focus Magic and it is one of my most-used tools. Focus Magic has a limited usage demo that will let you have some idea what it can do on your image. Click on this link for more information:

<http://www.focusmagic.com>

-- Burton --