Reviving a 2009 5MP Phone JPEG

I cropped the 5MP JPEG down to around 540 x 370 pixels.

Back in 2009 I used my Nokia 6700 mobile phone to capture a midwinter scene. The image above is a crop of the original 5MP landscape image* which I have now lost. Back then I used Corel PhotoPaint to smooth away most of the compression artifacts from the sky. To put it kindly, the full 5MP image was an average quality JPEG taken in fading light. Cropping it for better composition made the lossy compression even more limiting.

A few weeks ago I came on this image again and it struck me that I may be able to use AI to regenerate it. You can see the result below. To say I'm impressed would be an understatement. Existing detail in the tiny JPEG has been realistically refined to the extent it's now possible to have this AI-generated image professionally printed and framed. I'd probably lift the shadow detail here and there before having it printed.

If I'd had my Canon EOS 5D, zoom lens and tripod with me that evening 17 years ago, it would have captured this shot. No question.

*I've since learned that the Nokia phone I was using may have been an earlier 2.5MP model.

Ballymorran, Co Down, 2009.

The Nokia 6700 mobile phone.