Help With Blurry Photo!

[Steph]

I want to use this on our Christmas card next year - anyone can see
I'll never get a shot like this again - all four animals with one smacking the other one!

Any help is GREATLY appreciated! Photo attached

[mstates]

In all honesty, I would give up on using that shot for a Christmas card.
Unsharp masking will only take you so far. I don't think you'll ever get it to
Christmas card quality. Maybe you can restage the shot as close as you
can and then just retouch the animals as needed. In my opinion, you'll be
happier in the long run and less aggravated.

[Gary Richardson]

Sorry Steph, you are not going to be able to salvage this one. Real sharpening just cannot be done by image manipulation. Unsharp mask, and most other sharpening tools create the illusion of a sharper image by edge emphasis, and whilst this will work for slightly out of focus images, with one as badly focused as yours, there will be no real improvement. If you go through some of the earlier posts in the forums, you will find this topic discussed in some detail.

[FrannyMae]

One option to save this photo would be to use a photoart technique on it. Maybe turn it into a watercolor or sketch? There are some great tutorials available to walk you though the process. I wouldn't give up just yet!

[v.bampton]

I'd agree wholeheartedly with what the others have said. You're not going to get a pin sharp photo from that.

On the other hand, if your heart is really set on using it, take a look at www.focusmagic.com. I've always been fairly skeptical, but after a dodgy lens left a number of important wedding group photographs even more blurry than your picture, I downloaded the demo. The effect is far from ideal, but combined with a noise reduction plugin, it's much better than we started with. Might be worth a try!

[Duv]

Speaking of which, here is what I was able to do with Focus Magic and Grain Surgery. Not perfect but I think better.

Cheers
Dave