Blurry Group Photos

When blur reaches a group photo, the result is soft edges, doubled outlines on faces and hands, and detail that never resolves however close you look. The cause is nearly always a slow shutter, a subject who moved, a lens that was never sharp or a camera held by a child, and group photos kept in albums, frames and boxes were all exposed to it.

The restoration reads the blurry group photo as a repair job: it removes the blur and rebuilds what was underneath from the surrounding grain, keeping every face, the row order and the banner as photographed. Faces of a whole family, club or congregation arranged in rows that were lost to the blur are plausible reconstructions, so compare them with other pictures.

For blurry group photos the order is blur first, faces second, upscale last, each step taking the previous result. Standard suits a group photo for a screen; Pro or Max gives a blurry print more detail for reprinting.