Okay, I messed up

My daughters softball coach asked if I would take their team picture and I agreed as I have been taking photos of the team during their games all season. The night he asked for the picture was the last time the entire team would be together due to vacations and the like. The night was brutally hot, one player had the wrong uniform on and 3-4 kids were late for the picture. Once all gathered, I took the shots and more the rest of the game. When I got home for the PP, I couldn't believe my eyes as the team shots are blurry, not completely but also not sharp. After analysis, I realized that I had not set the lens back to auto-focus because I had been using the ExpoDisc to set white balance. Aaaaaaahhhhh...My only PP tool right now is Canon DPP but would anyone know of a way I can at least try to correct the blurriness? I have tried with the sharpening tools in DPP, it looks better but still not there so I assume I may be done but just wanted to see if anyone knew of any other options. Appreciate any advice.

Tom.

Perhaps. But you need to post an example of at least a portion of a sample image that represents what should be “in focus” - then we can help assess whether or not there are tools out there that might be able rescue the image.

Kirk

Blurred faces...

That's a tough one. I tried a few different methods (mostly deconvolution-based) and they were not so great. The Photoshop shake reduction filter does a semi-decent job at getting something ok, especially if you are going to reduce the image size for output to print or the web, but no miracles here.

Bummer.

Kirk

Thanks Folks, I thought so but wanted to check with the continuum. Appreciate the input...

tmwhitm wrote in post #18897607
Thanks Folks, I thought so but wanted to check with the continuum. Appreciate the input...

You could try Topaz AI Sharpen. No software can perform miracles but it might give you acceptable results. I haven't used the software myself, but others seem to think it's very effective.

The following is from their website:

"Three kinds of sharpening for a perfect photo.

There’s nothing worse than the feeling of taking the perfect photo, rushing home, opening it up on your computer… and realizing that it’s blurry at 100%. When this happens, it’s usually caused by one of three problems: camera shake, focus issues, or general softness. Sharpen AI includes a separate module to handle each one."

https://topazlabs.com/​sharpen-ai/

Can you share the raw file? It might be easier to start with that.

Here is a quick edit, but not really any better. I used pixel offset layering.

I'm sorry to say but I think those photos are beyond repair and you will need to accept this sooner or later.
Perhaps they would be somehow acceptable if you shrink them to a few inches size and look them on the cellphone.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #18898469
Here is a quick edit, but not really any better. I used pixel offset layering.

I am quite impressed about your result. Not worse then the typical oversharpened cell phone picture. Still better then no picture and most people are happier about the fact that there is a picture of a rare moment then the fact that IQ is not perfect.

Basically you take 3-4 layers of the main image in varying levels of opacity, and you shift the layers 1 to a few pixels in various directions while also sharpening those translucent layers. This is my attempt at trying to offset the blurred original. I feel if there is a raw image, it would be better to start with that and work down from there. I think one might be able to get a 5x7 that looks decent.

I just downloaded the Topaz Sharpen AI trial to see how it would handle this problem. Not a whole lot of functionality for a $79 program, but if it works I guess it would be worth it to someone. I used the stabilize feature which seems to have worked best and moved the slider to 100% and added noise reduction. If I had more experience with Sharpen AI perhaps i could have gotten better results. I think it's much better than the original of course, but still problematic. However I also think it's sharper with fewer artifacts than TeemSpeed's excellent effort, so perhaps Topaz Sharpen AI is the way for the OP to go. In a picture of the whole team each individual child's image will be much smaller and I think this might be a viable solution. See my second, smaller image to get a sense of how each player would look in a team photo. And, finally I took the image sharpened by Topaz and added a bit more sharpening and microcontrast In PhotoLab Elite. See my third and fourth image.


Processed in Topaz Sharpen AI only

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2gF9​Djc

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2gF9​Djc

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2gFa​PCF

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2gFa​PCF

Now that I've had a chance to work with Topaz Sharpen AI and found that it seems to be able to reasonably salvage an unsalvageable image without adding objectionable artifacts, I wonder what it will do for good handheld images that are just very slightly soft. It might also be a very useful tool for those who shoot with do-it-all super zoom lenses which tend to be soft on the long end. Hmmm. I'll try it with some soft, but otherwise good, images later.

Based on my experience with Topaz, I would say that at least some of tmwhitm's images will be usable.

If it makes you feel any better I have does the same thing with autofocus....... twice.

As as K Soze mentioned, I too have been there and done that.

Any shooter who has not poorly focused an important series of shots has either forgotten or not done enough shooting.

Depending on the importance you might consider doing another team shot and later adding players after they return from vacations. You could even -- long sigh assumed -- start over and do individuals for a composite.

AZGeorge wrote in post #18899829
Depending on the importance you might consider doing another team shot and later adding players after they return from vacations. You could even -- long sigh assumed -- start over and do individuals for a composite.

Or where you waste lots of time to try to repair the autofocus on your camera / lens just to figure out after hours (!) that you messed up the dioptric adjustments on your eyepiece..... Make mistakes, learn from it and learn how to gracefully confess to them. It makes the world a better place and you a better professional.