Saving old, blurred, or out-of-focus images using traditional tools is hard. You need a certain level of skill and expertise with the tool to bring your images back, and even then, they might not look natural. An image manipulation program like Photoshop does give you a lot of tools to fix such images, but you can only patch them to a certain extent.
After discovering that editing images with Gemini is actually better than Photoshop, I gave Gemini a shot at my blurry photos. And the results were nothing less than shocking.
Nano Banana can do wonders with blurry photos A simple prompt goes a long way
I photograph pets at several pet events that happen nearby. If you've ever tried to take a photo of your pet or any other fast-moving subject, you know getting the focus right can be a challenge. As a result, I have plenty of photos that turn out blurry because of missed focus from every shoot.
Gemini's Nano Banana model can not only fix these photos, but also any composition mistakes I made. Take a look at this photo of a dog where I focused on the feet instead of the face, and the fixed photo Gemini provided.
Original
Gemini's edit
Not only did it get the focus right, it rebuilt the dog's face at a natural angle, aligning with the rest of its body. It also got other details right, such as the collar and the person standing behind. The rest of the image is completely unchanged, including the color temperature and palette.
I didn't need to use a complicated prompt to achieve this either. All I did was upload the original image and asked Gemini to "make the photo sharper and fix focus." The entire process barely took 30 seconds.
You're not limited to photos taken on modern cameras either. If you can scan old photos with your phone and make them look good, Gemini can easily handle the rest and get rid of any blurriness, scratches, or other defects in the photo.
More complicated prompts and precise descriptions of the changes you want will give you better results, especially if you're giving Gemini a really tricky image to work with. In any case, blurry photos -- modern or vintage -- can easily be fixed. Although there is a limit to what Gemini can do.
Limitations you should know about Gemini can't save every photo
There's only a certain extent to which Gemini can fix your blurry photos. In some cases, the AI model generates a result that is identical to the photo you provided, with no blur or focus fix applied.
I tried fixing a similar photo to the example above, where the dog's face is out of focus. With an identical prompt as before, Gemini once again tilted the dog's head to face the camera very naturally, but just couldn't fix the focus even after multiple attempts.
Original
Gemini's edit
This is generally true for images that are extremely blurred or you've missed the focus on by a lot. There seems to be a limit after which Gemini fails to reconstruct the image as described.
The limit seems to vary from image to image, and there is a chance Gemini might fail to fix an image that isn't very blurry in the first place. If it works, it works wonders. But when it doesn't, you keep getting the same flaw in each result.
Then there's the output resolution. Gemini-generated images tend to top out at 720p, so they're not quite viable for professional use. However, the results are perfectly acceptable for casual uses such as social media posts or photo albums, where you don't necessarily need a high-resolution image.
Using Gemini is easier than photo editing tools Tired of sliders? Just upload and relax
So if Gemini can't magically fix any image you throw at it, why am I still recommending you use it to fix your blurry images? Because fixing your photos with Gemini is significantly faster and easier compared to most photo editing tools. You also don't have to spend a penny in subscriptions or software licenses as Nano Banana is available in Gemini's free tier.
It doesn't matter if you've taken your photo on a point-and-shoot or a professional camera; you can't change the focus once an image is taken. Capturing photos in RAW gives you more headroom, but no sharpness slider in any program will bring an out-of-focus subject perfectly into focus without severe artefacting.
And that's assuming you already have the software expertise and hardware required to use specialized tools, not to mention the subscription or license cost you would incur to use them in the first place. Tools like Adobe Photoshop, Remini, or Topaz Photo AI might let you fix images that Gemini fails at, but these edits can be challenging to make. There are free tools that can restore ruined photos, but you still need to learn how to use them.
Besides, if you're a professional looking to get AI help to fix photos, Gemini's output resolution is too low anyway. For the average person, running a blurry photo through Gemini to attempt a fix is a far more viable option than paying hundreds of dollars for a specialized tool and learn how to use it only to fix a couple of photos now and then.
You can save those blurry memories Gemini gives blurry photos a new life
Gemini can't fix every single blurry image you've taken. There are programs that let you take manual control and fix the image, but unless you have the required skill, the process is far more complex than uploading an image to Gemini and asking it to make the fixes instead. And even then, there's no guarantee that you'll be able to fix the image.
The next time you end up taking a blurry photo, give Gemini a shot before sending it to the trash. You might be surprised by how much of a difference a simple text prompt can make.
