I Tested The Top AI Tools For Fixing Blurry Photos

Who among us hasn’t come back from a trip or a photo shoot to find that one or more photos are blurry?

This is a very common problem because many things can cause blurriness in a picture. Should you just accept it and delete it?

No! You can save your blurry photos using any of the powerful AI tools that are currently available.

If you’re a photographer – professional or amateur – you might benefit from the AI sharpening tools that come included in photo editing programs.

So, I covered some of the best ones I could find. These programs usually have multiple settings to customize the tool and allow you to create masks to have even more control.

However, you might not need a full editor if you’re simply trying to fix a photo from your holidays or an old picture from the family album. No problem; I tried some online solutions that can help you even if you don’t have any editing skills.

Let me share my experience with these AI unblur tools, software apps, and websites so you can choose what’s best for you.

At the end of the article, you’ll also find a section where I talk about what may be causing your photos to be blurry and how to prevent it.

Let’s go!

What is the Best AI Unblur tool in 2024?

Supersharp (Luminar Neo)

Luminar is a popular photo editor with multiple AI-powered tools, one of which is Super Sharp AI.

Since it’s a robust software program, it will occupy significant space on your hard drive. However, if you’re looking for a full photo editor with a powerful AI sharpening feature, Luminar Neo is a great option.

(Check out our full review of Luminar Neo here.)

It’s also a good solution for Adobe users. Oddly enough, neither Photoshop nor Lightroom have a good AI sharpening tool. However, Luminar Neo can also work as a plug-in for both of these programs. So you can use them in tandem.

The Supersharp AI tool is on the Edit workspace under Image Quality on the right side of the screen. The Supersharp panel has two tabs – one for the Adjustments and one for Masking.

Before (left) / After (right). Credit: Rdne

This is already a plus. You can apply the sharpening to specific parts of the photo. This is useful when you want to keep the blurred background intact, for example. It’s also perfect if you don’t want to apply the effect with the same intensity to the entire subject.

You can use all the masking tools offered by Luminar, from the traditional brush and gradients to the AI-powered mask and object selection.

You can choose the model you want Neo to use on the Adjustments tab – Universal or Motion Blur. Then, you can select the intensity between Low, Middle and High.

Lastly, you can enable the AI Face Enhancer if you work with portraits.

Another great advantage of using Luminar Neo’s Supersharp AI is that you can always go back to the edit history and change the settings or remove the effect altogether – even after you’ve saved and closed the program. It’s completely non-destructive.

You can make other edits to your photo or just the unblur. Once ready, simply export the file to save it outside of Neo.

Luminar Neo is available with a subscription plan or as a one-time purchase.

Sharpen AI by Topaz Labs

Unlike Luminar Neo, Sharpen AI is not a complete photo editor. Instead, it’s dedicated software developed specially to fix blurry photos.

This has its pros and cons. The most significant advantage is that it was created with the primary purpose of sharpening images and keeps being improved. As a result, it gives the best results and has the most features.

On the downside, it’s a significant investment and takes up a big chunk of your hard drive space for a limited amount of editing. Therefore, you’ll most likely need another software tool to complement your workflow.

Fortunately, you can use Sharpen AI as a plug-in.

Regardless of how you choose to use it, you have access to all the features. First, you can choose from one of the many AI models depending on the characteristics of your photo.

Sharpen AI has a different model depending on what’s causing the blur (motion blur, lens blur, or soft focus) and the intensity of the problem. You also have the option to adjust the model parameters individually using the sliders for blur, noise, and artifacts.

Then, the program automatically selects the subject, assuming you want to sharpen the subject but keep the background blurry. You can disable this option altogether or refine the mask.

While Sharpen AI is very intuitive and easy to use, you may need to spend some time experimenting with the settings until you find the best solution for each picture.

Sharpen AI is only available as a one-time purchase. The current price is US$199, making the expense a bit hefty for non-professionals. This is especially true considering that a full editor like Luminar Neo costs about half that.

Fotor

Fotor is a photo editor that can be downloaded and used on your computer. There’s also the option to use it in your browser. To use Fotor on your desktop, you still need to be online.

I’ve used Fotor for many AI tasks as well as traditional edits, and in my experience, the browser version does a better job. Also, some tools have more features or customizable settings.

I tried the Face Unblur feature in both. Unfortunately, neither gives the option to mask parts of the picture or customize the effect. Face Unblur is a fully automated AI tool.

I noticed that the web version applies a stronger sharpening. This may be good for some pictures, but it can lead to unrealistic results. Since you can’t adjust the intensity of the blur, you may switch between versions to choose the one that works best in each case.

Another thing I noticed is that using the AI Upscaler sometimes delivered a better sharpening effect than the Face Unblur tool. So, you can also try this tool and resize your image afterward.

Either way, the results certainly improve over the original images. However, I didn’t find this feature potent enough to fix very blurry photos.

The good thing is that you can try Face Unblur with the free version of Fotor. Only if you like it and want to download the unblurred photo will you need to subscribe to one of the Premium plans.

Fotor offers two tiers and the option to subscribe monthly or annually.

Tack Sharp AI (ON1 PhotoRAW)

ON1 PhotoRAW is a fantastic photo editor often used by professionals (read our full review of it here). A couple of years ago, it incorporated the powerful feature Tack Sharp AI.

You’ll find four tabs when you open the Noise & Sharpening panel. The first one is the Classic panel, which you can use if you don’t want to use AI. Then, you’ll find the NoNoise AI tool, the Tack Sharp AI one, and lastly, a tab called Both.

Let’s start with the Tack Sharp AI tool. Here, you’ll find two sliders to adjust the effect – Deblur and Micro Sharpening. Deblur will take care of the overall blur, while micro sharpening helps to recover the small details.

You can experiment with both to find the best balance.

Now, sharpening an image often leads to digital noise. This is where the tab Both comes in. You have the sliders to control NoNoise AI and Tack Sharp AI here.

This allows you to find the best combination without constantly switching between tabs. I find the sliders much easier to use to customize effects compared to other programs where you need to load different AI models and adjust intensity to achieve the best results.

You can download a free trial of ON1 Photo Raw and check out these tools for yourself. If you’re convinced, the software is available as a one-off purchase, and they often offer discounts that make it a very appealing option.

Pixel Enhancer on Canva

Not everyone who’s looking to unblur a photo is looking for a photo editor. Sometimes, designers or content creators might need to work with photographs that aren’t super sharp.

So, if you’re a Canva user and you need to fix a blurry picture, I recommend using Pixel Enhance.

As you probably know, Canva has integrated third party apps you can use while you’re working on a project. Most of them are free to use or to try.

The apps I found that offer AI unblur features are Enhancer by Swapme AI and Pixel Enhance by PixelPerfect. I recommend Pixel Enhance because it gives you three free credits daily, while Enhancer doesn’t offer free credits.

Of course, new apps may be added regularly. So, feel free to browse the Canva apps and see if you find other solutions.

In any case, Pixel Enhancer is an automatic AI tool that will improve the overall quality of your photo – including sharpening it.

To use it, you can look for the app on Canva’s home page. Once you select it, it will ask you if you want to use it on a new design or an existing project. Choose the one that’s right for you.

Alternatively, you can reach it from the editor page. This is the most efficient workflow if you’re already working on a design when you realise the image you want to use is blurry.

Simply scroll through the menu bar on the left side to find the Apps tab. Click on it, and type Pixel Enhancer on the search bar.

Regardless of how you reached the app, once it’s there, you simply need to click the Choose File button. This will open a browser window so you can upload the photo.

If the photo is already in the design, select it and click on Enhance Selected Image.

You’ll see the bar advancing as it works on your picture and will appear on the app panel once it’s done. I appreciate that the photo is not immediately incorporated into the design – you can choose whether you want to use the original or the AI version.

You can see the original photo underneath it to compare the before and after. If you’re satisfied, simply add the picture to your project.

As I mentioned, you get three free credits per day. If you need more, you need to subscribe. Please be aware that this isn’t about your subscription to Canva – you can have a free or a Pro Canva account, and it won’t affect this.

This subscription refers only to the app and it costs US$5.99 per month for 150 daily credits.

Artguru.ai

If you’re not looking for robust programs and simply want to unblur your photo with AI, dedicated websites are the way to go. From the sea of choices, I found Artguru.ai to be an excellent option.

It doesn’t require an account for you to use it. Simply upload your photo and let it do its magic. There’s nothing to customize. So, it’s easy to use, but you don’t have any control over the result.

You’ll get assigned a queue and a spot to process your image. In my experience, it didn’t take long – maybe a minute or two each time.

Once it’s done, the image will appear, and you can use the before and after slider to compare the result with the original. I got pretty good results in general. However, sometimes, I noticed the effect was so strong that it didn’t look realistic.

You get five free credits, including a download in PNG format without a watermark. I really appreciated this because, very often, the free credits are only for using the tool but not for downloading or removing the watermark.

If you need more, you can get a monthly or an annual subscription. They both give you the same number of credits and benefits, but paying annually saves you 67% of the price.

Picwish

If you like the online solution but prefer something with more control than Artguru, then you should try Picwish.

As with Artguru, you don’t have to log in or pay to try the AI Image Sharpener tool. However, you must create an account to download a low-resolution version of the image. The high-resolution version is only available on payment.

You can upload your photo or paste a URL of an online picture. The latter is an option I hadn’t found in any of the other AI unblur tools on this list.

As soon as you upload it, the algorithm starts working with its default settings, which means that it runs the Face model even if your photo is not a portrait.

Don’t worry, though. If the result isn’t satisfying, you can change it and choose between the General, Face, or Text model. None of these previews will cost you any credits.

However, if you’re uploading a portrait, you can also enable the Beautify feature and choose one of its options.

Picwish works quite quickly. The unblurred image appears with a watermark, and you can use the slider to compare the before and after versions. If you decide to create an account and log in, the download won’t have a watermark – not even the free one.

There’s an Edit More button next to the image. If you click on it, you’ll have access to a Restore Brush.

If you want to download a high-resolution version of your image, you need to buy credits or get a membership. I appreciate how versatile it is because you can earn credits with different actions or buy them with the pay-as-you-go option.

Alternatively, you can subscribe to the Pro plan and choose the membership per week, month, or year – the longer the plan, the cheaper it becomes. Also, the annual plan has a 3-day trial.

Why Are My Photos Blurry?

Some of you reading this article might be trying to fix an old photograph or something you found online. In this case, the blurriness might be the result of a low-resolution scan or upload.

Old pictures, especially coloured ones, tend to fade, and by losing the contrast, they also lose sharpness.

If you’re looking for AI software to fix blurry photos that you took recently with a modern camera, here are some reasons why this could be happening.

Camera shake

If you’re shooting handheld, you need to use fast shutter speeds. Otherwise, the camera will register your body’s natural motion and you’ll get a blurry photo. The longer the focal length, the faster your shutter speed needs to be.

Motion blur

When photographing a moving subject, you can decide whether you want to freeze it or include motion blur. Freezing it means it will be completely sharp – as if there was no motion at all. You need to use a shutter speed that’s faster than the motion to achieve this.

Let’s say that you’re photographing a person moving. Then, 1/250 may be fast enough to prevent a blurry picture. If they’re running, you might need to use 1/500, and 1/2000 if they’re on a motorcycle.

Depth of field

When you place the focal point on your subject, a certain distance in front and behind it will also be in focus – this is called depth of field. If the DOF is too shallow, you might end up with your subject looking blurry.

To increase the depth of field, you need a smaller aperture, a wider focal length, and more distance between you and your subject.

Missed focus

If you don’t choose the focal point correctly, especially if you’re working with a shallow depth of field, your subject will look blurry. Think of a close-up portrait: you need to place the focus on the eyes, not the nose or the ear.

Mastering the autofocus settings or using features like focus peaking might help.

Aperture

The theory says that smaller apertures will increase the depth of field. This may lead you to believe that a photograph with an f/22 will be the best solution if you want everything in focus.

However, there’s something called the lens sweet spot, which is the point where your lens will deliver the sharpest images. This is usually between f/8 and f/11. You can take test shots and look for information online to find the sweet spot on your lens.

Lens

Some lenses simply don’t deliver the sharpest images. This may be due to the quality of the glass elements or the lens type – prime lenses are generally sharper than zooms.

Also, lenses in DSLRs aren’t always calibrated. So, make sure you calibrate your lenses if they’re not delivering photos of adequate quality.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can AI fix a blurry picture?

Yes, there are AI tools that can fix blurry photos. Most of them are labelled as unblurring or sharpening tools. However, AI enhancers, upscalers, and restorers can also sharpen your images.

What is the best AI sharpening tool?

Sharpen AI by Topaz is one of the best AI sharpening software programs. However, it’s expensive. A less expensive yet great solution is Luminar Neo. If you’re looking for the best online AI sharpening tool, Picwish gave me great results.

How do I unblur a blurry photo?

You can sharpen a blurry photo using AI tools online or the AI tools in your photo editor. It’s also possible to do it without AI – most photo editing software has that option, but these tools aren’t as powerful.

How to make a blurry photo clear online?

You can use unblur or sharpening AI tools on many websites, such as PicWish or Artguru. Many of them offer free trials. Simply upload your photo, adjust the settings if there are any, and run the software. They’re all easy to use and intuitive.