Field guide
Reading a blurred photographed document
Document photographs fail in several different ways that all look like softness at first glance. The best rescue begins by identifying which information is actually still present.
01
Zoom to a high-contrast letter. A one-direction tail indicates camera motion; a uniform soft halo suggests defocus; square blocks point to messaging-app compression.
02
Correct perspective before judging character shapes. A page photographed at an angle gives distant text fewer pixels, so sharpening first exaggerates the unequal sampling.
03
Use repeated letters as a truth check. If two instances of the same printed character emerge differently, the reconstruction is guessing rather than recovering stable evidence.
04
Never use reconstructed wording as the sole basis for a legal, medical or financial decision. Ask for a new scan when one uncertain character changes the meaning.