Help to restore MIL's 70th birthday pix

[gks]

Mother-in-law's 70th birthday bay; camera battery was running low, and caused focussing and multiple image shots. What a time to happen! Can someone help to restore some quality to the pix?

Thanks

[TommyO]

Typically these never restore to the sharpness of a good clean shot. Many people post out of focus shots and think there is a tool to refocus them. Sorry, but there is not.
This image appears to be mostly a motion/shake problem, not a focus problem. We'll see what can be done. However, even that problem never restores an image 100%.

[mistermonday]

I agree with everything TommyO wrote. In the case of this image, it turns out that the Blue channel does not show as much of the motion trail and so it can be used to significantly improve the image. However, you first need to upload a better quallity image or post a high resolution version somewhere. You did not downsize your image (its al;most 26 x 17 "). In order for you to get it under the 100K attachment limit you would have saved it on jpg 0 or 1 which left it very pixelated and destroyed a lot of valuable color information.
Regards, Murray

[gks]

I have submitted original image at

http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/ima...0864bdeb97.jpg


*Sigh* many of the shots during her birthday party turned out with motion/camera shake as the camera flash was erratic because the battery was dying. If it was not such an important event, I would probably drop the effort. Seriously, I am not expecting to achieve 100% improvemen; just enough for the pictures to be of keepsake value. Hopefully, I can get some tips on how to do the restoration.

Thank you. I notice that there are plenty of wonderful folks with wonderful tips hanging around Retouch Pro.

[Flora]

Hi gks!

Welcome to RetouchPRO!!!

Yep, TommyO is absolutely right!! ... I've worked on your bigger size picture but, really, I couldn't get anywhere close to what I consider an acceptable result...

But while working on it, I tried some of the filter (brush strokes, water colour etc.) and it looked much better .... But art is definitely not my cup of tea...

So, if nobody here comes up with a result you like ... why don't you post your image on our Photo-Based Art Forum? .. There you'll find brilliant artists willing to help you ... and you'll be amazed by what they can do!!!

[gks]

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/att...9&d=1216371092

Mother-in-law's 70th birthday bay; camera battery was running low, and caused poor focussing and shaky shots. What a time to happen! Can someone help to transform the pix to a printable portrait?

*Sigh* If it was not such an important event, I would probably drop the effort. Seriously, I am not expecting to achieve 100% improvemen; just enough for the pictures to be of keepsake value. Hopefully, I can get some tips on how to do the restoration.

Either repair/restoration or "arty" rendition will be welcomed.

Original:
http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n...7_edited-1.jpg

Thank you. I notice that there are plenty of wonderful folks with wonderful tips hanging around Retouch Pro.

[DannyRaphael]

I don't do this sort of thing very often or very well, but here's an attempt...

Perhaps it will inspire others to give this a go.

[Kraellin]

ok, i hate these. alright, i dont hate them, but they tend to be very unsatisfactory in results. this was somewhat true of this one, as well

for info, try these things: the tool 'sharpen', the tool 'unsharp mask', the program 'unshake' or the program 'focus magic'. (you can look those programs up on google for more info)

what i used was a combination of two unshake results and a usm followed by Paint Shop Pro's digital camera noise removal.

there's more that could be done to make the image better, but not much to do with focusing, so i'm leaving it at this.

(make sure you click the image to see the enlarged view)

[Flora]

gks,

I have merged the following Threads:

1) Help to restore MIL's 70th birthday pix

2) Restore Help with Mother-in-laws 70th birthday pic

[saby]

my try:

get the blue channel of the original to use as a luminosity...cloning...curves... etc

I don't know, how could U load up the orig in that size, I can't so it lost saturtation

[gks]

Thanks DannyRaphael, Kraellin and saby for the improvements on the poorly taken pix.
Thanks Flora for merging the threads; that makes it easier to track any inputs.

[Verywierd]

Here's my try. You could probably smooth it a lot more using varous methods, but it would soon become painting rather than restoring. Mostly done by layering, shifting the layer and "trimming off " the duplicate images and strengthening the desired image by painting on black masks. Cleaning up with the clone tool and a bit of sharpening and saturation using high pass and soft light layers. Attached is a 800x536 version. Let me know if you want the full sized one and I'll upload it somewhere for you.

[gks]

Thanks, it is definitely looking better. Can you e mail the full sized to gbegks@msn.com ?