Adobe Premiere Pro: it’s one of the most powerful and versatile video editing apps on the market today. One key skill is knowing how to sharpen a video in Premiere Pro.
Let’s face it: we’ve all found ourselves working with footage that isn’t as crisp as we might like. Perhaps the conditions at the shoot weren’t optimal. Or maybe, you caught video in the moment with your phone, or even an older camera.
While not every clip is fixable, you might be amazed by how much you can do for your footage. Let’s learn how to fix out of focus video in Premiere Pro in this tutorial.
How to Fix Blurry Video in Premiere Pro (Step by Step Tutorial Guide)
Learning how to sharpen video in Premiere Pro is very easy. When you know how to sharpen a video, you’ll be able to use more of the footage that you capture. And you’ll even be able to create cool effects using those same settings.
This works with features included with Premiere Pro, so you won’t need any add-ins or other apps to do it. And remember: even perfectly sharp clips can benefit from these edits. They’re a good way to add a unique aesthetic to footage that isn’t actually blurred.
We’ll explore these effects using a premium stock video clip from Envato Elements. This clip – The Light of Blurry Lanterns on the Street of the Night City in the Rain – is one of millions of clips available right now on Envato Elements. These are the perfect companions for all of your video projects in Premiere Pro. Download today to follow along!
Below, you’ll learn how to fix blurry video in Premiere Pro. We’ll be using the stock video clip shown above in this example.
1. Select Your Footage
Begin by opening the video clip to learn how to sharpen video in Premiere Pro. Then, familiarize yourself with the key menus and features that we’ll be using to see how to sharpen a video.
In the lower center of your Premiere Pro screen is the Timeline menu. On it, you’ll see the video clip, which appears as a light purple bar. This purple bar controls where your clip fits into your overall project; where it stops, starts, and more.
To fix blurriness in a clip, click into it on the Timeline. Then, press the Up arrow. This moves the playhead to the first frame in the clip. If you’re looking for the playhead, it’s the blue vertical line that controls the frame in view.
Above the timeline is the Program Monitor. This one is easy to spot, because it’s where you’ll see the video preview. Any edits and changes that you make will appear in real time on the Program Monitor, and thus in the finished clip.
2. Open Effect Controls
Now, you’ll want to open two critical panels. The first is Effects. If you don’t see it, you can launch it by clicking on the Effects button on the toolbar in the upper right corner of your Premiere Pro screen. What the Effects panel does is let you add an array of different effects, animations, and styles to a video clip.
Second, you’ll want to launch the Effect Controls panel. This can be done by going to Window > Effect Controls. Think of Effect Controls as the nerve center of edits that you make to effects in Premiere Pro.
You’ll add an effect from the Effects menu. And you’ll manipulate it using the Effect Controls. This menu shows on the left side of the Program Monitor with your video preview inside.
Now, let’s get to work! In a moment, you’ll see how to fix focus in Premiere Pro. If you play through the video, you can see that it’s a cool night capture of a city street in a rainstorm.
But of course, these are extremely challenging conditions for even the best cameras! It would be great to sharpen the video to remove some of the blurriness seen there.
3. Utilize Unsharp Mask
With the clip still selected in the timeline, navigate to the Effects panel on the right side of your Adobe Premiere Pro screen. You’ll see several folders listed there. These contain a vast array of effects that you can add and edit to your clips. Here, go ahead and click on the Video Effects dropdown.
Then, from the list of options, find the last one listed: Unsharp Mask. This is the ultimate way to see how to sharpen video in Premiere Pro. It’s an extremely powerful effect that you can modify to your exact needs. Now, go ahead and add it to the video clip that you want to sharpen.
To do that, click and drag on the effect, Unsharp Mask. With it selected, move your cursor over the video clip in the Timeline. Drop the effect into place, and it will automatically apply to the clip.
You won’t see a change to the clip itself in the Program Monitor. That’s because you’ve not actually made edits to the effect itself quite yet. What you will see is that Unsharp Mask appears as a listed effect on the left side of your screen. It’s now listed in the Effect Controls panel. Remember how I said this is the nerve center for edits? Go ahead and move to Effect Controls, and let’s get to work in the next step.
4. Modify Effect Controls
Under Unsharp Mask in the Effect Controls menu, you’ll see three items listed. They’re labeled Amount, Radius, and Threshold. Each one forms an integral part of how to fix blurry video in Premiere Pro.
To understand what these three do, it pays to understand how sharpening videos in Premiere works. What you’re really doing is increasing the contrast between individual pixels in your video. In blurry videos, pixels tend to merge together.
In other words, one pixel tends to blend in with other pixels. Of course, on an individual level this is completely invisible. But spread this effect across an entire video frame, and you’re left with a blurry scene.
The Unsharp Mask works to increase the contrast between pixels. Again, individually you won’t notice this. Yet, on a full video frame, you’ll see blurry images get much sharper. In essence, that’s because each pixel is crisper.
The three Unsharp Mask effects do the following:
- Amount. Setting this higher increases the level of contrast between each pixel. It’s the core edit responsible for most video sharpening in Premiere Pro.
- Radius. This controls the size of each individual pixel. It should be used extremely sparingly. Even a tiny change can wildly distort the look and feel of your video. But it’s useful if you’re trying to salvage extremely blurry or hazy footage.
- Threshold. Think of this one as controlling the power of the other effects. It specifies the level of change happening in and between pixels in your video.
Leverage these three controls is the key to learning how to fix focus in Premiere Pro. The Amount slider is your main workspace here. For example, in this video, let’s set the amount to 200, from the default value of 50.
When you do, watch what happens to the video in the Program Monitor. It gets noticeably crisper and less blurry. But it’s also not artificial, nor does it appear distorted.
A slight change to the radius, up to 1.1, unlocks even more details. Notice however that if you go to a higher value, the video takes on a wild, almost watercolor look. While it can be a fun effect in some cases, it’s best to avoid a high Radius value.
Finally, you can adjust the Threshold. In many cases, it’s not necessary. But it can preserve a bit of stylistic blur while retaining the higher level of detail that you’re searching for.
Keep in mind: there’s no single set of optimal settings. Part of knowing how to fix blurry video in Premiere Pro involves trial and error. Take your own videos, and experiment with the effects. Remember that Premiere Pro edits are non-destructive. If you go too far, or make an edit that you don’t like, you can easily revert back to the original.
Just remember the key idea: focus on the Amount first, and adjust the Radius if you need to go farther with pixel edits. And don’t hesitate to try out higher and lower values. Keep in mind: the Program Monitor is your best friend. Use it to preview your finished edits in real time.
Just like that, you learned how to fix blurry video in Premiere Pro! Thanks to the amazing Unsharp Mask effect, it’s fast, easy, and powerful. Give it a try today.
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More Resources for Premiere Pro
You just learned a crucial skill: how to fix out of focus video in Premiere Pro. It’s an important technique to help you use more of your footage. Learning how to sharpen video in Premiere Pro means you can save that key shot you needed.
Why stop there? We have a huge library of tutorials that can help you level up your Premiere knowledge. Add to your new skills of how to sharpen a video with more tutorials below:
You Just Learned How to Fix Out of Focus Video in Premiere Pro
In this tutorial, you learned how to sharpen video in Premiere Pro. Thanks to the Unsharp Mask effect, the process is almost effortless. You have three key controls, amount, radius, and threshold, to transform any clips. Knowing them is the art of how to fix blurry video in Premiere Pro.
Think about how to fix out of focus video in Premiere Pro on your own. What clips are you now able to share? How can you create amazing videos yourself? With Unsharp Mask, you really unlock a new world of editing. Test it by sharpening footage you might’ve discarded in the past.