HELP with SLIGHTLY OUT OF FOCUS PHOTO ...

[Mike Wozowski]

can anyone help me with this.

i have a nice photo of DD. it is slightly OOF.

what PSE things do you usually use to correct this problem. i know SHARPEN and SHARPEN MORE, but i am not too familiar with UNSHARP MASK.

can anyone help?

also, any ideas for what to do with pic that is more than slightly OOF?

thanks!

mike

[Margie]

well i had a great pic that was blurry, so i covered it with vellum! :) i like how it turned out...
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=500

[Mike Wozowski]

that sounds like a pretty good idea.


thanks!

mike

[luvsPSE]

won't always resurrect a photo that looks blurry...I agree, sometimes there are other things you can do, like posterizing or making translucent...

But Unsharp Mask is something good to know about. You are supposed to use it as the very last thing you do to the photo, and when you click Filter, Sharpen, Unsharp Mask, and have the little dialog box open in PSE, you can drag the little "hand" over the photo in the dialog box and when you click you will see the USM effect you are going to get. I really like it...my manual gives suggested #'s to plug in to the dialog box. If it's waaaaay too much you'll see it and can back up, lower the amounts and try again.

[u.k. lady]

Mike ,I am doing a quick class (small tut) on the unsharp mask ,should be up real soon.
If it is really blurry then nothing will fix it but if it's slight and it is a portrait, sharpen the eyes and the one nearest to you slightly more than the one furthest away.
We always focus on eyes and particularly the brain expects the nearest one to be in focus.
hope this helps ya

Jacqui

[Emma]

Just a little factoid I read yesterday on unsharp masks. I've always wondered why the stupid name if it's not un-sharpening, and where's the mask?!

So I saw a great illustration: the filter makes the orginal photo more blurry, then uses that blurred photo to mask the original, so only the sharp stuff shows through! Pretty cool idea, and really explains the purpose of the silly name.

Have fun with it, I hear Unsharp mask in software is far superior to the one on cameras (though I have no idea how to use the sharpen function on my camera, I guess now I don't have to!)

[u.k. lady]

Cool Emma , I sharpen in camera, mine works really well ,I have the Nikon D70 but ,I think the unsharp mask is great for selective sharpening too ,it's a great tool.

Jacqui

[Fidelis]

I've heard that using software is better to sharpen images because it is so much more controlled & theres not such a risk of over sharpening. I've never tried sharpening my pictures in camera after reading what Thom Hogan said about this. Although it does depend, I would sharpen pics in camera if I just didn't have the time to do it later in PS & I was on a job that required the pics straight out of camera. It all depends on what you want! Although it seems to work well for UK lady!

Just my two penneth!

Emma. :)

[u.k. lady]

Your right Em ,
you do get a greater degree of control over sharpening with your software and for special pics I think it's great, but I hate having to sit and sharpen 70 pics , you could batch process them ,more work for me if I have to sharpen 70 pics less time for scrapping .If it's for a client or special occasion then I wouldnt sharpen in camera but most of the time it saves me more work :D