Can I sharpen a portion of the image that's not in focus?

[amishval]

Hi...I'm very new at this, and I can use some help! I took a great shot of my niece, where the object she is holding is in sharp focus, but she ended up being the background. Is there any way I can save this?

[msbrad]

Well, if you can post the photo, that would help. If... she is not too much out of focus, you could select just her and place onto its own layer.
Then, filter >sharpen > unsharp mask with settiings of 20,60, 0.
It might help it.

[amishval]

Here's the photo...

[nu2scene]

You've got a few things going on here that can be causing your problems. The first one, and probably the one causing the biggest problem, is the wrong focus point. When you use auto focus, the camera really guesses as to what's important. Depending on how it's set up, that can make a huge difference as to what it focuses on. It looks like in this shot the camera thought the tray was the subject and it focused on that. Once it decided on that focus point it's very hard to make corrections after the fact.

The next thing is that looking at your exif, you were at f/3.5 which is pretty wide. When you do that, your depth of field is kind of shallow. Meaning that your acceptable focus is not too deep. So for example if your f was something like f/22, the focus would have probably been much further into the pic and the face would have been in more focus. The problem with that is, you would have made the picture under exposed.

The last thing is that you were shooting at 1/60 of a sec at 60mm, which could lead to camera shake being seen in the picture.

Anyway, in this shot I think your problem was the camera used the wrong focus point. I tried getting more focus on her face, but it's difficult to correct this after the fact. Here's my attempt at it.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1tqGugvW1lYJ4qE651PC5NtCFLKOH_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1tqGugvW1lYJ4qE651PC5NtCFLKOH)

[amishval]

Thanks...I was also using the wrong lens. I do learn from my mistakes, though. This was nowhere near my best work, but she looked so cute I thought there might be a way to save it. That's what I get for taking snapshots! I appreciate the advice.

[nu2scene]

Oppss... forgot to say what I did. I first opened the pic in ACR. You can never 'really' change focus. When you make other corrections to a pic like contrast and things like that, it 'appears' like focus changes, but it doesn't.

So I first did a white balance off the tiles in the back. I added a bit of exposure. I increased contrast a little, and then added clarity, vibrance and saturation.

Then in still in ACR I went into the details tab. There I increased the sharpening amount, and also increased the color noise reduction.

Then I opened the photo into the editor, and did the usual, levels, contrast and saturation. Then I selectively only sharpened her face. Flattened, and then only selectively sharpened just her eyes.

[nu2scene]

Hehe, yea I make mistakes all the time. I also re-make the same mistakes too...lol. But as long as you have a good time with it, that's all that matters. That and you wind up with fun photos too.

[ken1]

I gave it a try and came up with this:

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1zEGBM870ZARZ47944gm6XxF239HtT

I selected the young lady, put her on her own layer, and sharpened with unsharp mask. Then selected the cake, and sharpened, but at reduced setting. Finally flattened the image and applied Photo filter adjustment layer with warming filter(85) - density=33%

[shrinkie1964]

What I did was duplicate the image on its own layer and sharpened the heck out of it with the Adjust Sharpness tool (I prefer it to Unsharp Mask). I then attached a layer mask (not build into Elements, I use the Grant's Tools add-on) to the sharpened layer and painted black into to mask over where I didn't want the oversharpening to come thru--basically the cake, which is already in focus, and the background, which we still want blurry.

Results would be much better on a full size image but I think you could easily save this one.

There are many ways to skin this cat. Some very good third party sharpening and focus correction tools are out there too and you could trial the trial downloads. I like Nik Sharpener and Focus Magic.

Elements Village doesn't permit uploading of large files but if you wanted to link to a larger version on, say, a flickr account it would be even easier to help you.

Les

P.S. Edit after the fact: Safari doesn't seem to use the same color space as Mac Preview or Elements on my computer, so the upload looks a bit duller and thus a bit softer than I at first thought it would. Oh well!

Also, to supplement what others have posted on DoF and focussing, I would suggest you go to a place like dofmaster.com and fiddle with the online calculator and get a sense of how various factors affect DoF and focussing. You do NOT have to resort to pinhole apertures, contrary to popular belief. In fact, looking at the math, the more powerful way to change how much of an image is in focus is to change the magnification--namely, zoom out with lens or with feet. You may have to do some cropping later to get the composition you want, but you get to keep a bigger aperture, and the loss in quality due to cropping will be in part compensated by achieving your desired DoF and sharper focus.

I love to MacGyver my own photos and in interesting shots try to rescue stuff a lot of people would just throw away. If you could link to or send the full size JPEG it would be a pleasure to play with this more to see what I can come up with. Working on these tiny versions doesn't do the work justice.

[amishval]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amishval/2996592026/

Here's the link. Thanks for your input. I just got the software a few days ago, and I'm a total newbie!

[Jancy]

Here's my try:

[msbrad]

Looks like you are able to fix it up!
m

[shrinkie1964]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amishval/2996592026/

Here's the link. Thanks for your input. I just got the software a few days ago, and I'm a total newbie!

I did repeated high-pass sharpening, focussing on the face. Due to the glint in her eyes one can only go so far--that will get distorted more the further you go.

I upload a downsized refinement. The larger version you linked me too is very blurry. Really, this cute snapshot is too compromised to really work for anything other than web posting or small printing (i.e. 4x6). But there are lots of legitmate ways to restore focus provided one is willing to live with some compromise.

Les

[shrinkie1964]

Val, I just wanted to let you know I want to take a closer look at this later. It would be really nice if one could selectively improve focus without worsening the haloing around her jaw and overemphasizing the specular highlights in her eyes. She is a pretty young girl with a smooth complexion so recovering a lot of detail in the face isn't crucial.

Maybe you can cross-post to the advanced forum? There could be a wealth of ideas there.

One way or the other, it would be nice to get you a nice printable 4x6 out of this for the family scrapbook.

Another think I was thinking for future reference--I don't know what the Canon Rebel is like, but I know that with my various Nikons it is painfully easy to accidently reset the main focus point if one is not careful. On the D40, when I had one, my cheek would hit the wheel that moved it, and, unlike on my D70 and D80, that switch didn't have a safety lock!

Les

[amishval]

Thanks! She is cute isn't she? I appreciate all the time you've spent on this. I feel like such a dufus, but its the only shot I took of her.