The present invention concerns a method and apparatus for building an estimate (Ŷ) of an original image (Y) from a low-quality version (Yl) of the original image and an epitome (Eh) calculated from an image. The method is characterized in that it comprises: - obtaining (11) a dictionary comprising at least one pair of patches, each pair of patches comprising a patch of the epitome, called a first patch, and a patch of the low-quality version of the original image, called a second patch, a pair of patches being extracted for each patch of the epitome by inplace matching patches from the epitome and those from the low-quality image, - for each patch of the low-quality version of the original image, selecting (12) at least one pair of patches within the dictionary of pairs of patches, each pair of patches being selected according to a criterion involving the patch of the low-quality version of the original image and the second patch of said selected pair of patches, - obtaining (13) a mapping function from said at least one selected pair of patches, and - projecting (14) the patch of the low-quality version of the original image into a final patch (X͂h) using the mapping function.