Complete Newbie question

[kleinfranken]

Hi everyone,
Everybody has seen TV cop shows where they zoom into a blurred photo and press some keys on the PC and make the photo clear again right? My question is, does software to do this really exist?
regards.....kleinfranken

 

[Funky]

In short, no, nothing to the extent that you tend to see. resolution is resolution, and if its not there, you cant creat it. there are how ever programs that can do little bits of clearing things up, kinda like the sharpen tool in PS.

 

[KmH]

Don't think so.

 

[Dwig]

In short, no, nothing to the extent that you tend to see. resolution is resolution, and if its not there, you cant creat it. there are how ever programs that can do little bits of clearing things up, kinda like the sharpen tool in PS.

Quite true, though sharpening in software can make important improvements. I've seen a number of images where small letters on a sign or license plate can be seen but not read. Sharpening can sometimes make such unreadable text legible.

The improvements, though, are never to anywhere near the degree you see on TV and in the movies. There is no way to create detail that doesn't exist. What you can do is make detail that is too subtle to be noticed or "seen" to become more obvious and decernable.

If you are a follower of the great historical photo blog "Shorpy" ( Shorpy Photo Archive | Best Pix on the Net ), you'll occasionally encounter a responce to a post where someone has yanked on a image to make some sign or license plate readable, often to determine an address to find a modern picture of the same building.