Surf It Up: How to Transform Your Blurry Surfing Photos

You’ve just come back from an epic surfing trip, stoked and full of memories, but when you look through your photos, you realize that many of them didn’t quite turn out as you’d hoped? We all have been there… Blurry and out-of-focus shots can be a real bummer, especially when capturing those perfect waves or your friends shredding down the line. But don’t worry! With a little editing magic, you can breathe new life into those pictures and preserve your cherished surfing memories for years to come. In this article, we’ll explore how you can sharpen your blurry surfing photos and enhance their detailing using PhotoWorks, a powerful yet easy-to-use photo editing software. A further tutorial can be found here: https://photo-works.net/how-to-sharpen-blurry-photo.php.

Why Sharpening Matters

We all know that photos are not just pictures; they encapsulate experiences, emotions, and moments that we want to relive. To put it in very simple words: every shot — especially a “dynamic” one — tells a story. Enhancing the sharpness and detail of your images can significantly elevate these narratives, making them more vibrant and impactful. Blurry photos, while still dear to us, can lose their magic. Thankfully, you can transform these images and make sure your surfing adventures are beautifully documented. Below, let’s look at what can be done with flawed photos of your surfing.

1. Find out what’s wrong with your photo

Basically, sharpening can fix two types of problems that are similar, but still distinctly different. One of them is an “out of focus” picture (it can happen when the surfer is very much in the foreground or something is wrong with the camera). Another is a “blurry” photo. This can happen for various reasons, one of which is that the surfer is in motion.

Different techniques and approaches could be applied to either of those two problems — we’ll talk about that later.

2. Decide if the photo still can be rescued

Look at the picture below. It is so much out of focus that its sharpening would only show two distinct figures instead of one. Unfortunately, such photos should be rejected altogether.

The next photo can be edited, though. There are two ideas about how to proceed with it. The first one is to crop the surfer in the foreground from the photo altogether. Another one is to increase the sharpness, so that the waves can be seen in all their details. By the second approach, the human figure still remains somewhat blurry — which, however, doesn’t spoil the general impression.

3. Adjust Sharpness and Clarity for dynamic pictures

Once you know what exactly is wrong with your photo and what type of problem it shows, try different approaches to fix this specific problem.

We suggest that you use two tools, namely, “Shapness” and “Clarity,” for a surfer who is in motion — so much that he or she gets somewhat disfigured. And this is how you get access to those tools in PhotoWorks:

• Click on the Enhancement tab in the upper right corner.
• In the right sidebar that opens, select the Main category and shift the Clarity slider to the right. 
• Then go to the Sharpness category and adjust the amount of sharpness with another slider. Be careful not to overdo it! Usually, a moderate adjustment is best. Too much sharpness often results in a “grainy” surface.
• Don’t forget to save the new photo!

Please see what was achieved with these two tools in the photo below. The surfer, who now appears to be much more distinct, still has a certain “halo” around him. We suggest that you don’t try to remove this “halo,” though: it produces the impression of dynamism and gives the photo a touch of authenticity.

4. Apply the Autocorrection, Clarity and Vibrance tools to static pictures

Can a photo of a surfer be static, that is, can it show someone who hardly moves at all? Sure! We all enjoy our moments of rest… But then, “tranquil” photos can be poorly lit — or, again, there may be somewhat too much light in them, considering that they are often taken from the surface of the water. All this leads to a certain blurriness of such pictures.

What is to be done? We suggest that you use three specific tools — namely, Auto Correction, Clarity, and Vibrance — to fix the problem.

• To do that in PhotoWorks, please open the photo and click on the Enhancement tab.
• In the right sidebar that opens, hit the Auto Correction button. The program will adjust the level of brightness and do anything else that can be done automatically.
• If you are still dissatisfied with the result, shift the sliders for Clarity and Vibrance to the right and see how the quality increases instantly! (Those sliders are right below the Auto Correction button.)

The final result, applied to a static photo, is shown below. It has made a difference, hasn’t it?

Conclusion

Transforming your blurry surfing photos into stunning visuals isn’t that hard as you imagine it to be. Modern photo editors, such as PhotoWorks, sometimes allow us to do that with almost no effort. By adjusting the levels of Sharpness, Vibrance and Clarity, and also by smartly using Auto Correction when needed, you can enhance the quality of your images, ensuring your cherished memories are preserved beautifully.

So don’t let those imperfect shots languish in digital obscurity! Give them new life, and let your surfing adventures shine through every detail. Surf’s up!