How to Zoom In on a Photo & Enhance

By Lucy Clarke

Updated September 22, 2017

When you return home from that vacation or special day, sometimes the most exciting part can be looking at the photos that you took and reliving the memories. A lot of these photos may have been taken in a hurry, or in an uncontrolled environment, so upon second glance you may not find them to be as clear and perfect as you had imagined. Thankfully, with the help of a few small tricks and Photoshop, you can have your photos memory-ready in no time.

Open Photoshop and to open the photo you wish to work with by clicking CTRL(PC) or Command (Mac) and the "O" key, then selecting the file from your computer.

To zoom in on the image, select CTRL or Command and the "+" button on your keyboard. Continue holding the first button and clicking on the "+" until you are zoomed in as close as you need to be to the problem area. Use the side scroll bar to center the area on the screen.

From Photoshop's top menu, select "Filter," and then "Sharpen." From the Sharpen menu, click on Sharpen again, the first option. This will automatically enhance the image.

If the results are not strong enough for the photo, from the Sharpen menu select "Unsharp Mask." This will allow for you to adjust the sharpening presets by using sliding bars and a preview screen until you are content with the result. If at any point you wish to undo the changes you made, simply press cancel.

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