Improve product photo quality without changing the product

A phone screen shows a photo far smaller than its real size, so almost everything looks sharp there. A store page does the opposite. It stretches the file to fill a large gallery, and shoppers zoom in to check stitching, labels and surface finish. Every weakness in the file shows at that point.

The causes are easy to spot once you know them. Supplier images are often small, because they were made for an old catalogue. Photos taken in a stockroom or garage carry sensor noise, which the phone tried to hide by smoothing, so fabric and wood look waxy. Files that went through a chat app or a marketplace export have been compressed more than once, which leaves square blocks in plain backgrounds.

Open the photo at 100 % zoom and name the main problem. Then pick the tool that matches it:

• The photo is clean but too small: use Upscale 4×. It makes the photo four times wider and taller. It accepts photos up to 5 MP and gives results up to 80 MP.
• The photo is tiny, such as an old 400-pixel catalogue image: use Upscale 8×. It accepts photos up to 1.25 MP and uses 2 credits per photo.
• The photo is the right size but grainy, blotchy or smeared from a dim room, or damaged by a chat app: use Enhance. It keeps the size and removes noise and compression damage.
• The image is a graphic, a label close-up or a banner with blocky JPEG edges: Enhance removes that compression at the same size too. It was built for photos, so check flat colour areas and small print at 100 % before you publish.

Many supplier photos are both small and damaged. Clean first, then enlarge. An upscaler treats noise and compression blocks as part of the picture, so it enlarges them along with the product. Run Enhance on the original, then run Upscale 4× on the enhanced file.

Each run is a separate job and uses its own credits. On the free plan both results carry a watermark, and the second run would process the first watermark. Test the look with one photo on the free plan, then do the real two-step work on a paid plan.

Some AI tools redraw a product to make it look sharper. On a landscape that may be harmless. On a listing it is a problem: a redrawn knit may not match the real knit, and a sharpened finish may look brushed when the real one is polished. A shopper who receives something that does not match the photo is a likely return.

PhotoRescue's models remove damage and rebuild edges and texture from what is in the pixels. Enhance adds natural fine texture where noise or compression wiped it out, so a sweater looks like knit again rather than plastic. That texture is plausible, not a record of the exact original, so always compare the result with the real item.

Labels need extra care. The models detect text and protect it, so readable text is kept rather than redrawn. Small, dense print can occasionally be missed, and print that is unreadable in the original stays unreadable. Read every label in the result before you publish it. Our guide to faithful and generative upscaling explains the difference in more detail.

Each platform sets its own limits, and they change. The table lists only figures we checked on the platform's own help page on the date shown. For other marketplaces, check the seller help centre before you resize anything, and keep your original files.

As a working rule, aim for at least 2000 pixels on the shortest side of a square product photo. A 500-pixel photo reaches 2000 pixels with one Upscale 4× run. If the result is larger than the platform accepts, reduce it in any editor. Reducing a sharp image keeps it sharp.

Sort the images first: one folder for photos that only need enlarging, one for photos that need cleaning. Test three typical photos on the free plan, which gives you 3 free credits a day with no sign-up and no card, and compare them with the originals.

Free results carry a watermark, so they are for testing, not for publishing. Paid plans remove the watermark, accept uploads up to 20 MB and 30 MP, and process up to 50 photos in one batch. Pro includes 200 credits a month for $9.99 and Pro+ includes 500 for $19.99. One photo with one model uses 1 credit; Upscale 8× uses 2.

No tool recovers a product that was out of focus, blurred by movement, or so small that the details are only a few pixels across. In those cases a quick reshoot next to a window beats any repair.

PhotoRescue also does not remove backgrounds, retouch products or change colours. Do those steps in your usual editor, before or after the repair.