How to Fix Blurry Pictures in Affinity Photo

A photo editing program like Affinity Photo can take your image to the next level. A well-shot photograph requires minor adjustments to enhance the beauty within the shot. When you’re doing a photoshoot of any kind, there are always images that don’t turn out as you’d hoped. Sometimes those images can be discarded, but other times it might be the only shot of its kind.

What do you do when you need an image, but it has some problem areas to fix? Luckily, there are ways to save a photo that needs more than just minor enhancements. Keep reading to find out how to fix blurry pictures in Affinity Photo.

4 Ways to Fix Blurry Photos in Affinity Photo

You can have the ideal circumstances for that perfect shot, i.e., the right lighting and angle, and still discover in the editing process that the perfect shot produced a less than perfect photo. A slightly blurry photo can be saved using some features in Affinity Photo.

The level of blurriness in the photo is a factor in whether or not the picture can be saved. If a photo is too blurry, it loses its texture and detail, which can not be recovered. Remember when attempting these steps in fixing your blurry photos in Affinity Photo.

1. Using High Pass to Sharpen

To use high pass to sharpen, open Affinity Photo and import your picture via File > Open. From there:

  1. Make any adjustments, like cropping, before moving on
  2. Highlight the layer in the Layer Panel to the right of the canvas by clicking on the layer
  3. Press CTRL+J to duplicate the layer. You can also find this function under the Layer menu at the top right-hand corner of the screen.
  4. With the duplicate layer highlighted in blue, navigate to Filters > Sharpen > High Pass
  5. The entire canvas will turn grey. Now you can begin to slide the radius slider in the High Pass dialog box to the right.
  6. Keep sliding until you see the details of the photo come through, then click Apply.
  7. Go into the Layer Panel and change the Blend Mode to Linear Light.

Now you can compare the original layer to the duplicate layer and see the difference in the sharpness. The blur should be removed; however, if you zoom into the photo, you will notice that the noise has also been sharpened in more detail. To address that, use the following instructions:

  1. Select the duplicate layer in the Layer Panel
  2. Navigate to Filters > Noise > Denoise
  3. A dialogue box will appear, slide the Luminance and Color to 20%, then select Apply.

When performing this operation, you don’t want to go beyond 20%, or the picture will become blurry again.

2. Using the Brush Tool to Sharpen

Once you’re done removing the noise, you can continue finishing the sharpening process on your photo. This part of the process will focus on a specific area in the picture you would like added sharpening.

  1. Add a mask layer in the Layer Panel
  2. Select CTRL + I, which will Invert
  3. Select the Brush Tool in the horizontal toolbar to the left of the canvas.
  4. Select the Round Soft Brush under the Brushes in the Layer Panel
  5. Set your foreground colour to white in the Layer Panel

From here, you can paint over the area you want to sharpen to achieve the desired result.

3. Using Details in Develop Persona to Sharpen

Though there is a debate about which approach to addressing our in a photo is more effective, it remains that there is more than one way in Affinity Photo to sharpen an image.

  1. Navigate to the toolbar at the top of the canvas and click on the Develop Persona icon.
  2. Click on the Details tab in the Layer Panel
  3. Select Detail Refinement

In the drop-down, slide the Amount to 100% and slowly slide the Radius to the right until the photo has been sufficiently sharpened

4. Using Blur to Sharpen Your Picture

It might sound counterproductive to fix the blurriness of a picture by adding more blur, but there is a method to the madness. This method may be complicated to follow, but it will sharpen your image.

  1. Create a Dark Edges group layer by duplicating your original layer three times. You should have four layers altogether.
  2. Make two of the duplicates a child or sub-layer of the top layer. Now you should have two layers, the Dark Edges layer with two sub-layers and the original layer.
  3. Select the first sub-layer under the Dark Edges layer and set the Blend Mode to Difference
  4. On the same layer, Add an Invert by selecting the Masks Icon in the Layers Panel and clicking on Invert in the drop-down menu
  5. On the second sub-layer, apply the Gaussian Blur by clicking on the Blur icon in the Layer Panel and selecting it from the drop-down menu. Set the Radius to 2.0 px in the pop-up dialog box
  6. On that same layer, set the Blend Mode in the Layer Panel to Lighten

Once this is done, you can then navigate back to the top of the Dark Edges layer group and duplicate the entire group. From here:

  1. Set the Blend Mode of the duplicate group to Multiply and place it under the Dark Edges layer. You should now have two groups under the Dark Edges layer.
  2. Duplicate the entire Dark Edges layer and rename it Light Edges
  3. In the Light Edges layer, remove the Invert Adjustment from both groups. There should be two sub-layers that require the Invert removal.
  4. Set the Blend Mode of the layers in each group with the Gaussian Blur to Darken. It should be two sub-layers you are resetting.
  5. The Blend Mode of the top group will change from Multiply to Screen

Now you should have the Dark Edges layer, the Light Edges layer, and the original layer. Move the Dark Edges and Light Edges layer into the original layer. Finally, you’ll just want to change the Blend Mode of the entire Dark Edges layer to Multiply and change the Blend Mode of the entire Light Edges layer to Screen.

Conclusion

No matter what method you use, the result will be the same, and your pictures will look much more crisp and clean.