Enhance! It's a myth popularized by shows like CSI, but a new site called Let's Enhance may be the closest thing available to the public that can take a low-quality photo and turn it into something more pleasing to the eye.

Let's Enhance is easy to use. Just drag and drop a blurred or low-res image from your computer and the website will perform its magic on the photo. You can process multiple images at once, and Let's Enhance will give you an idea of how long you have to wait.

You will have to sign up for a free account to view the results, and due to the site's popularity, you may have to wait a little longer than usual to see the final image. In our experience, we didn't really have to wait that long. Despite delays, the photo was ready in a matter of two or three minutes.

You can see in the example above that the original image on the left is pixelated, while the enhanced image on the right is smoothed and not pixelated. However, depending on the image, the smoothing effect may look a little unrealistic at times.

Let's Enhance is not alone in providing this capability to end users. You can upscale images using Photoshop or free Windows app A Sharper Scaling, but none of the available services appear to be so easy to use as Let's Enhance.

Based on what Let's Enhance says, this is what the site does to images:

  1. Removes JPEG artifacts or "blocky noise."
  2. Upscales images by boosting image resolution by four times, while keeping edges and features sharp.
  3. Preserves image quality and adds missing details.
  4. Adds missing details to make images look more natural.

Once the image is processed, you can download several different versions. The "Boring" filter upscales the image without adding missing details. They recommend this setting for illustrations, logos, and vectors. The "Magic" filter adds missing details, so is recommended for photos.

What do you think of the service? Impressive or gimmicky? Let us know in the comments. 

Image Credit: Eric Prunier