More on iPhoto 4.0 picture blurriness: Brighter images more blurry; Using Zoom; more

Continuing our coverage of an issue where some users' images become blurry - with an exaggerated smoothing effect - when using "Edit" mode in iPhoto 4:

The brighter the blurrier Some users have reported that iPhoto 4's tendency to make pictures appear blurry in "Edit" mode is more apparent in pictures where a bright object is surrounded by dark space.

One reader writes "I too am having some photos turn out blurry in iPhoto 4. I upgraded my iPhoto 2 library to iPhoto 4 and some pictures that were sharp now seem blurred, with duller colors. The pictures this seemed evident on were pictures with bright objects framed by a dark background. I took a whole bunch of pictures of a big christmas tree lit up in the dark and the lights on the trees look very muddy in the new version of iPhoto."

Zoom instead of "Edit" Some have noticed that if you use iPhoto to "zoom" into a picture instead of going to "edit" the picture, the blurriness is not evident.You can also temporarily eliminate the blurriness by framing the picture with the crop tool, tough actually cropping the image does not result in a smaller, less blurry image.

Steps to reproduce Terrell Smith has a list of steps that he says can reliably reproduce the blurry image effect:

• View a slide (it does not need to be a vertical) in Edit mode. Choose a picture that's very sharp.
• Change the size of the photo by clicking on the slider bar at about the 1/8 position.
• Click to the left of the previous position on the slider, halfway between the smallest and 1/8 position watching closely. The photo will be sharp, then "pop" un-sharp.
• Move the contrast slider very slightly and the photo will become sharp again.

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