developing BLUR photos..


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ekardo

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May 14, 2002
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there's a few blur photos of my gf which I wanna develop, but how should I develop it as?

B&W ? SEPHIA ??

the photos are a bit blur, but look from far, it's not blur..

or is there something I can do about in Photoshop 7?

please advice ?
 

as far as i know, there's no way for you to sharpen up a blur picture.
only sharp pictures can be blur-ed, not the other way 'round.

as for the colours, i think either B/W or sephia tonned pictures might slightly reduce the blur-ness visually.


cheers.
 

Originally posted by ekardo
there's a few blur photos of my gf which I wanna develop, but how should I develop it as?
I'm guessing that you're refering to printing and not developing (which applies only to film), since you seem to already know how the photos look like.

As IamJeFfy said, there's no surefire way to correct camera shake or motion blur, but if the extent of the blurring is not too significant, then you may be able to improve things slightly using Unsharp Mask in Photoshop or whatever image manipulation software you use.

Also, how "blur" the print appears also depends on the size to which you're printing; since you mentioned that the image appears reasonably sharp when viewed from afar (presumably from your monitor), it's quite likely that a 4x6 (4R) print will turn out perfectly fine when viewed from a normal viewing distance, since the print resolution (in ppi) will be much higher than your monitor's display resolution.
 

thanks for your comments...

but where to find the unsharp mask in ps7 ??

well..I have tried printing the photos in my b&w laser printer, and the effect is the same as looking from the monitor....but then I think with color looks better...


anyway, I am going to try your "unsharp mask" first....

thanks !!!
 

Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask > Adjust to taste. :)


p/s : i'm using PS6. PS7 should also be the same of roughly there.
 

Originally posted by ckiang
No amount of unsharp masking is going to sharpen a blur photo.
Yup, it's no miracle worker. Image detail that was never captured is image detail that will never be (perfectly) restored. Still, it's always worth a try when one doesn't have any better original images to work with. :)
 

Originally posted by ckiang
No amount of unsharp masking is going to sharpen a blur photo.

Regards
CK

hey...I beg to differ..
I tried out the unsharp mask, and voila, the photos did came out clearer...but I lost some details though...but at least, the photo doesn't look as blur as it was...

thanks midnight!
 

Originally posted by ekardo


hey...I beg to differ..
I tried out the unsharp mask, and voila, the photos did came out clearer...but I lost some details though...but at least, the photo doesn't look as blur as it was...

thanks midnight!

If that is true, then people don't need good lenses and good AF liao! :D

What you are seeing is artificial sharpness, which is rather unnatural when overdone. It's different from a photo which is sharp to begin with.

Remember that soft and out-of-focus is vastly different.

Regards
CK
 

thanks for your comment...I will collect my photos tonight, and I will see if it's ok or not.. :)
 

Originally posted by ckiang


If that is true, then people don't need good lenses and good AF liao! :D

What you are seeing is artificial sharpness, which is rather unnatural when overdone. It's different from a photo which is sharp to begin with.

Remember that soft and out-of-focus is vastly different.

Regards
CK

I think most of the people can't see the difference unless you put 2 of them side by side. Sometimes I think even if you do that, there may still be a chance that they still cant see the difference. :p
 

Tips for All - Sharpening image in Photoshop
Hi All you people out there!!!!

Well here is one of the tips for all that i think is useful.
============================================================================================
Tips 1: Sharpening image in Photoshop.

Ready??? Go!!!

Procedure....

0- Go to the top menu and choose:
[windows]->view layers .....make sure you do this first to enable viewing of layers - a floating small window with the "layer" tag on the top left corner

1- Open an image in photoshop - you should be able to see the image also appearing in the floating layers window.

2- Make a duplicate layer of this image by choosing :
[layer]->duplicate layer....-> then okay the form as default (or give it a new name ...up to you)

3- Then choose [Filters]->Others->High Pass
and select a value about 4 to 6 not more thanthat unless preferred. - This will give a ghostly version of the image with only the outline of the subject more prominant

4- Then on the layer floating window on the drop down menu which is default [normal].......click on the small downward arrow head and then selec "OVERLAY"

5- And Ai Ka Ram Bah!!!....you have a sharpened image.......

This method is a better choice to Unsharp mask as it gives les noise overall........go ahead and try it and experiment......

Toggle the effect by clicking on the "eye" on the layer to see the difference....

Have Fun...

============================================================================================

TIPS 2: rectifying underexpose/overexpose....
Hiee...

One way to rectify (what i normaly do)......is to take the photo again....heheheeh!!!!...juz kidding...


Well...i normally use the [Image]->adjustments-> Levels...

This will give you a pop up with a histogram like graph with three arrowheads......pointing to the top....one on the extreme left,right and center.

If image is too dark (e.g. cloudy overcast day).....move the right arrow to the left ....adjusting as you see the efects.

Adjust the highlights by moving the center arrowhead......

And then tweak the brightness.....accordingly by adjusting the left,then middle...to taste...


Try this out.....

Let me know if it works or not.....

============================================================================================

TIPS 3: Image + Border + Shadow
Okay....Here we go...this is how we do it (Note: There are many other ways to do it)

What you want is a : BORDER + DROP SHADOW - (Based on Adobe Photoshop 6.0 and 7.0)

The steps:
1) Open up an image that you want to add the border to.
2) okay there are two approach to borders,

PART 1: BORDER

Note: Canvas as in the drawing paper canvas where the image sits on.
So Image can be smaller than canvas but not the opposite.

...a) Border that eats up into the photo (where canvas size remains but you create
a white border all round into the photo thus reducing the image size)

How we do it:

- Open the image
- Go to [SELECT]->all or press CTRL-A
- Then go to [EDIT]->Stroke
- A pop up menu will appear.
- Choose the width size 200px
(depending on your image size in pixels...e.g 1024 x 768 pixels....choose 200)
-Bring the mouse over the "Color" Box and click on it.......
this will launch the "Color Picker"
-Choose the border color you want ....then OK the menu - USE white as a start
-In the "LOCATION" box, choose CENTER
-In the "Blending" box, Choose Normal and OPACITY 100%
- OK the form.
- This will the create a brder to the size you selected and the with
the color of your choice.


...b) Border that grows from the image (image size remain but the canvas size increase)

How we do it:

- Open the image
- Go to [WINDOW]->Show Color
- Look at the pop up window you will see the two dioganally overlapping box to the
left of the "R" slider.
- The upper left one is for the Foreground Color and the
lower right one the Background color.
- Click on the Background Color Box. (we want this as the border color)
- Choose white.
- if you see, on the pop up Color window, you can toggle between the Foreground color and
Background color by clicking on the respective boxes.
- Then Go to [Image]->Canvas Size
- Then you will see a pop up menu with "CANVAS SIZE"
- in the "NEW SIZE" box, Change the units to Pixels.
- Again as an example, we use a 1600x1200 pixel image.
- Now in the Width and Height lets add a 200 pixels border all around.
- This translates to - Width 2000 (increased by 400 pixels)
and Height 1600 (also increased by 400 pixels)
- Leave the "Anchor" untouched.
- OK the form,
- Now you have a 200 pixel width of border all round.

Part 2: Drop Shadow

- Use the selection tool and select the image from the whole canvas using the
Rectangle Marquee tool (top left corner tool on the tool bar)
- Do a [EDIT]->Copy and [EDIT]->Paste (this will create a new layer of
the selected image over the original)
- Go to [Window]-> Show Layers
- You will see to images one the original background and another layer on top.
- Then go to [Layer]->Layer Style
- Choose Drop Shadow
- On the Layer Style pop up window, you will have the following,
for a start set as follows to get a feel.....to play with

----STRUCTURE----
o Blend mode - Multiply (default)
o Opacity - Set slider to 62%
o Angle -Set the dial to 30 degrees
o Distance - 26 pixels
o Spread - 32 pixels
o Size - 46 pixels
---QUALITY----
o Contour - no change
o Noise - no change
( all the above parameters can be tweaked to TASTE!!!!)
-Lastly you need to flatten the layers to form the desired image...
- Go to [Layer]-> Flatten Image

If you follow the steps above corectly, you should get
the Image + Border + Shadow that you wanted.

Happy Trying.......do get back to me if you have any probelm.

Regards,
Sulhan


Last edited by sulhan on 10th September 2002 at 06:10 PM

============================================================================================

regards,
me


Regards,
Sulhan
 

Originally posted by Jason Ho


I think most of the people can't see the difference unless you put 2 of them side by side. Sometimes I think even if you do that, there may still be a chance that they still cant see the difference. :p

Heh, that's true. Well, in some cases, it might well better to leave the blur shot as is (and try to pass off as "arty farty", you know, like those signature LoMo stuff) than try to oversalvage it. :)

Regards
CK
 

oh..forgot to update you guys...the photo that I have sharpened and sent for digital print came out much better than the RAW image...

at least, it doesn't look as if the photo is "touched up" before..


erm..how to put 2 pic side by side for comparision when you only have the blur pic?if I have the clear pic, I wouldn't have bother to make the blur pic clear right? :p
 

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