Blurry pictures help

[CTH]

I have 2 pictures with my son and two armwresling champions from Romania.
He was very mad at me because i couldn't do some better photos.
If you can help me, i will be very thankful.
http://img339.imageshack.us/i/p1010817p.jpg/
http://img682.imageshack.us/i/p1010818.jpg/

[mistermonday]

CTH, the 1st image is not too badly blurred. You can apply some sharpening to it then darken the area on the right which is overexposed. The 2nd image has a bad case of motion blur. You can try to sharpen it somewhat but you will not be able to unblur it.
Regards, Murray

[0lBaldy]

Originally Posted by CTH

I have 2 pictures with my son and two armwresling champions from Romania.
He was very mad at me because i couldn't do some better photos.
If you can help me, i will be very thankful.
http://img339.imageshack.us/i/p1010817p.jpg/
http://img682.imageshack.us/i/p1010818.jpg/

CTH, welcome to RetouchPRO Hope you enjoy your stay here and make lots of friends. Poke around, ask questions, take part in some of the discussions, challenges, etc., have fun!

To insure threads remains useful in the future, regardless of external links always attach an under 100K version of your picture(s) in the thread, unless prohibited by copyright... If you want to post a larger resolution that is over 100K then you can host your image elsewhere and attach a link in the thread, as you did here.

FAQ: Will you do my restoration/retouch/repair for me?
No. This is a site for learning, and we will gladly help you learn to do it yourself. There is a "Classifieds" forum if you're willing to pay one of our members to work on your photo.

The blur might be caused because of the DMC-LS80 settings and not using a fill flash.. the settings of 1/30th sec exposure combined with the shallow depth of field using F-stop of 2.8, along with the noise associated with an ISO rating of 400 plus being hand held ... ALL contribute to getting a blurred picture, no matter who is holding the camera

If your son is unhappy with the photos, perhaps he should take a deep breath, settle down and be happy you were there to at least capture the moment for his memory wall..

If he was unhappy with what you did he will probably not like what I attempted either because it is still blurred and grainy... life is tough and sometimes we just don't get everything we want!

Larger (Grainy/blurry) version Here

~ Originals ~ ~ Combined ~

[Chain]

Originally Posted by mistermonday

CTH, the 1st image is not too badly blurred. You can apply some sharpening to it then darken the area on the right which is overexposed. The 2nd image has a bad case of motion blur. You can try to sharpen it somewhat but you will not be able to unblur it.
Regards, Murray

+1

Sharpening filters/techniques can enhance details already present in the picture making it appear sharper, but it can unfortunately not remove blur (just slightly reduce the appearance of it). :/

Some tips for the future when shooting similar images:

1. Move closer (or zoom in). Then more pixels will be used to describe the important stuff and they will have more detail. Note that zooming in exaggerates camera movement (so be careful on hand-held with long shutter speeds).
2. Take a lot more than 1 photo. Take at least a series. Your camera should have a setting for continuous shooting that allows you to simply hold down the button while it fires several in a row. Bonus: This will also reduce camera shake from you pressing the button (except for the first in the series)!
3. Avoid shutter speeds as low as 1/30 unless you have a tripod or some sort of support. The image stabilization in your camera is not that great (as you can see you still easily get blurry images). Compensate by e.g. increasing ISO (this will give you more noise but that is better than blur). See if there is any convenient way on your camera to get some extra control.
4. Use flash in dark conditions. This might give an unflattering light, but it might be worth it to avoid the long (blurry) shutter speeds and high iso (noise). Note: Flash is also beneficial in sunlight as a fill light to lighten the shadows.
5. Buy a new camera - not really helpful advice, i know, but a low-end SLR camera or today's high-end pocket cameras will do a considerably better job in low-light conditions like this.

To fix the images you linked:
1. The "sharp" one is OK considering the conditions. Run noise reduction, correct colors, adjust lighting a bit as you have some areas that are too bright and some too bright. Then add some general sharpening with maybe a 2 px radius or something.

2. The motion-blurred version is badly blurred. The general adjustments like noise reduction and color/lighting is like the previous photo, but very little can be done about the motion blur.
I have applied a 58degree 30px "motion blur"-sharpening to help it a bit, and used a mask to contain the sharpening to the main subjects as it brings out some ugly noise in this image.

Here are my take (i have not focused on color correction):
Large version #1
Large version #2
(I recommend placing them on top of the originals in Photoshop to see the difference)

[Kraellin]

CTH, welcome to RP.

blurred images are perhaps the hardest thing for us, or anyone, to restore. the problem is that you're not really restoring, you're enhancing. to restore would be to take it back like it was and that means, in this instance, take it back to a blurred image. so, we're really trying to enhance and/or correct for an improperly taken image.

that being said, that second one is almost too blurry to do anything with unless you get an artist to work on it. however, i ran it through paint shop pro and used an unsharp mask on it. i then ran it through 'Unshake', a de-blurring program (free) and helped it a tiny bit. you might try other settings and see if you cant get it better. i then took it back into paint shop pro and fiddled with 'sharpen more' and 'digital camera noise removal'. i layered some of these things and applied a blend mode of 'screen'. this last also helped to brighten it up.

i didnt really help it too much, but maybe a smidgen. you could try other deconvolution programs. i think image analyzer has one and there are some stand alone apps, too. you might also try some of these, found by entering the keywords 'de-blur programs' into google search: http://www.google.com/search?q=de-bl...x=&startPage=1

[spotter]

I stuck it in neat image and smart sharpened in PS too.
A bit of masking to keep the faces realistic.
armwrestlersharper.jpg

[Chain]

spooter; the extra noise reduction you did helped a lot. I probably should get Noise Ninja or something so I can clean up noise more efficiently...

[julianmarsalis]

One of the best methods I have seen to sharpen blurry images is using frequency separation check out this article and the action they have made:


Smarter Sharpen - Multiple Frequency Deconvolution

This article will introduce a new approach for sharpening with the Smart Sharpen filter, which does not use masks or selections and minimises excessive noise amplification and distracting halos. The method outlined below makes use of a 25+ year old image processing technique that may be unknown to many Photoshop users, in order to facilitate the application and improve the results of the Smart Sharpen filter. Although the sharpening properties of this approach are best suited for acquisition/capture and monitor viewing sharpening, it is also possible to exaggerate the effect to produce wider, less subtle halos which are suitable for output sharpening for halftone or stochastic based print. Read the full article here.


http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binar...ersharpen.html

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binar...sharpen_v1.zip

[Chain]

Originally Posted by julianmarsalis

One of the best methods I have seen to sharpen blurry images is using frequency separation check out this article and the action they have made(...)

+1

Separating the frequencies to separate layers and then sharpening them separately is a great technique when sharpening images. However it is very advanced and is not something I would recommend for regular users (although it is made a lot easier by using actions).
Tip: Frequency separation is also awesome when retouching (e.g. you can retouch LF skin tones without touching the HF skin texture).

I think regular users will get far enough using Smart Sharpen.

Summary from the above link on how to achieve the best results using Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen in Photoshop:

• View the image at 100% magnification
• Process in 16 bpc mode (where possible)
• Process with the More Accurate option enabled (in 16bpc mode!)
• Accurate blur description is critical to the deconvolution process
• Radius - start slightly smaller than the estimated blur radius and adjust higher in small steps (0.1, 0.2)
• Amount - a larger radius blur requires minor amount values, while a smaller radius blur can accommodate high/maximum values

---

Edit: Here's my action-set for Sharpening.

[CTH]

No one could do a better work with those pictures.
Thank you very much for your help.

[Kraellin]

sadly, the technology you see on the cop shows where they stick a pic in a machine and twirl a few knobs and the image magically unblurs just doesnt exist... at least for us peons. maybe the fbi or somebody actually has something like this, but if they do, they're not sharing.

[Chain]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

maybe the fbi or somebody actually has something like this, but if they do, they're not sharing.

Nah, even if they kept it a secret they can't do magic. If the information isn't in the picture, it's not in the picture :/

[4personnen]

Originally Posted by Chain

Nah, even if they kept it a secret they can't do magic. If the information isn't in the picture, it's not in the picture :/

It exists I saw it on "blade runner"

[Kraellin]

hehehe. normally, we refer to CSI. blade runner is a new one. i'll have to watch it again

[4personnen]

Actually Blade runner was the response to "How can I enlarge my 400*600 px 72 dpi to make a 3600*7200 px 300 dpi poster for granddad's birthday" vital question.
It's not really a new one, it's 1982...