Quick answer: slightly soft photos can be improved; truly blurry ones mostly cannot. In Local Photo Upscaler, Sharpen gives almost-sharp photos a gentle edge boost, Upscale often improves softness in small photos, and Faces can help a soft face. None of them can undo motion blur.
Three kinds of “blurry”
| Problem | What it looks like | Can it be fixed? |
|---|---|---|
| Slight softness | Edges are a little mushy; detail is there | Yes, with Sharpen, or Upscale if the photo is small |
| Low resolution | Looks fine small, soft or pixelated when enlarged | Often, with Upscale |
| Motion blur or missed focus | Double edges, streaks, or everything smeared | No. The detail was never captured. |
How Sharpen works
Sharpen is a conservative luminance sharpen: it increases contrast along edges in brightness only, which avoids color fringes. It normally keeps the original dimensions and colors. On iOS 1.1.10, very large photos may be processed at a smaller size on devices with less memory. It is not an AI deblur model, and that is deliberate. Aggressive AI deblurring tends to invent detail, and with people that can mean inventing features.
A better order for soft photos
- If the photo is small, try Upscale first. The model tends to produce cleaner edges than sharpening.
- If it is full size and just a touch soft, use Sharpen.
- If the soft part is a face, try Faces, and compare the result closely.
- If nothing helps, the photo probably has motion blur. Keep the original.
When a cloud tool may do more
Cloud apps such as Remini apply heavier generative models to faces and can make a badly blurred face look sharp, at the cost of uploading it and of the result looking less like the person. If that trade is fine for a particular photo, it is a legitimate choice. See the comparison.