Blured/Out Of Focus

[leapyear52]

What is the most effective technique (PSE 5) for dealing with photos that are blurred or out of focus, especially the face ?

[douglas m scott]

Leapyear,
If you are trying to get a picture that is very much out of focus to look in-focus, you probably ar out of luck, but if it is just slightly out of focus you can try the Unsharp Mask, after opening picture in PSE Editor go to Enhance> Unsharp Mask-- Just try different combinations in the three Slider Options.
doug

[TonyW]

Like Doug says if it's badly out of focus you won't be able to correct it but the other thing to try (as you have PSE5) is Enhance>Adjust Sharpness and in the Remove drop down select Lens Blur. You'll need to play with the sliders but it can sometimes rescue an image.

Tony

[Rusty]

There was a thread on this subject w/in the past 2 months; I can't remember enough about the subject to do a search. Maybe somebody will remember.

A fantastic result was achieved turning the image into a sketch.

Rusty

[kayser]

Yeah, that was what I was going to suggest- sketch or watercolor might work. I wonder if this is the thread you were thinking of?

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14610&highlight=blurry+sketch

[leapyear52]

Thanks for you guys replies....I'll give sketch a try, gonna google for a plugin

[kayser]

Hi - the sketch is actually pretty straightforward to do. There are instructions all over- here are some that Kimi posted:

Carol.... it looks fantastic. :D


Here are the instruction that I sent to a few people. It is from the Photoshot TV video.

Ctrl J to make a copy
Ctrl+Shift+U to remove color
Ctr J to duplicate the black and white layer. On this layer go to Filter, Adjustment, Invert.
Change the blend mode on the inverted layer to color dodge
Filter, Other, Minimum. Adjust to what looks good.

Now go back down to your original image that still has color in it.
Ctrl J to make a copy. Drag that layer to the top and reduce the opacity. I think I also added a colored image between my two black and white layers and changed that blend mode to hard light. Lower opacity.

It's quick and easy. :p