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Is There a Way to Get the Blur Out of a Picture?

Blur within a picture is undesirable unless you want to demonstrate motion or create an artistic effect. Motion blur occurs when the camera's shutter speed is too slow to freeze a subject's movement. Photographing while walking or in a moving vehicle or other instances of camera shake can also cause a loss of sharpness. Selective blurring, such as when the background of an image is blurred while the foreground remains sharp, is a result of shallow depth of field (DOF) or a short range of effective focus. Panning, or following a subject slowly by moving your camera horizontally, can also blur the background while keeping your subject sharp.

Things You'll Need

Image editing software

Instructions

Behind the Lens
- 1
  Increase your camera's ISO setting. A higher ISO makes the digital sensor more sensitive to light, enabling you to use faster shutter speeds while preserving image quality. A setting of ISO 400 or higher will allow faster shutter speeds that can freeze most motion.
- 2
  Move your camera's mode dial to shutter priority mode. The mode appears as "TV" on digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras and "S" on most digital compacts. Shutter priority lets you select the shutter speed while the camera's exposure system picks a correct aperture, or lens opening.
- 3
  Set your shutter speed to 1/1000th of a second. This speed will freeze most motion you'll encounter, from a plane in flight to an auto race.
- 4
  Compose your photograph through the camera's viewfinder.
- 5
  Press the shutter button halfway to auto focus on your subject, or focus manually using your camera's focusing ring.
- 6
  Track your subject through the viewfinder. Hold the camera steady and fully depress the shutter button to take the picture.
In Post-Production
- 7
  Run your preferred image editing software and open the blurred image.
- 8
  Open the software's "Filters" menu. This is often located on the top menu bar of the software program, or in a small window to the side of the screen.
- 9
  Select "Sharpen" from the list. A menu of filters which help correct different types of blur will appear.
- 10
  Click "Motion Blur" to correct streaking and blur caused by camera shake or fast subject movement. Select "Gaussian Blur" to correct blur as a result of poor focusing.
- 11
  Save your image and repeat the above steps for other blurred pictures.

Photography