Making photos sharper

[UberMac]

Ok, I'm no photographer. I admit that here at the door. Also, I'm no editor.

So I've been in spain for the last week and had an awesome time. This photo totally sums up the holiday for me...but it's totally out of focus . If somebody could do something with it to make it look a bit better, not only would I love them forever but some good karma would be sent their way!

Any of you able to help me? I wish it wasn't out of focus!

Uber

EDIT: I've used iPhoto but that just makes excessive noise and such...

 

[Over Achiever]

Out of focus pictures are extremely hard to fix, if not impossible ... however this picture isn't as bad as I've seen.

I'll see what I can do with the unsharp mask ... not sure how much help it'll do.

EDIT - There, sharpened ... looks a little more defined. Didn't tweak the colors or contrast or anything.

My settings were 65% - 4 - 3

 

[spicyapple]

If you print it at 5x7, it should look OK.

 

[emw]

This one wasn't too bad. I used Unsharp Mask in Photoshop to make it a little better. Have to be careful not to introduce too much artifacting, but this should be a little better.

I also cut it down by 50% since it was such a large image. If you really want it on the larger image, let me know.

Edit: Sorry, Over Achiever, took too long working on this. I used 150-1-1

 

[UberMac]

There, sharpened ... looks a little more defined. Didn't tweak the colors or contrast or anything.

My settings were 65% - 4 - 3

Ooooh! Thanks, that's much better than iPhoto's meagre effort. So about those colors and contrast - any tips. Heh, I should turn this into a "Make my photo generally more awesome" thread

Uber

EDIT: If you post the settings you use, then I can recreate it on the full-size image in photoshop...

 

[emw]

I wouldn't play with the color - you've got reasonable highlight and shadow detail, and the colors are nice and vivid. What camera were you using?

 

[UberMac]

I wouldn't play with the color - you've got reasonable highlight and shadow detail, and the colors are nice and vivid. What camera were you using?

Ok, that sounds like a sound tip to me (if only because it involves much deliberating ) I was using a Pentax Optio S - taken by a strange old spanish man in a sort of *point at camera, point at friends, walk away sexily and hope for a good photo!* manner...

Uber

 

[Over Achiever]

This one wasn't too bad. I used Unsharp Mask in Photoshop to make it a little better. Have to be careful not to introduce too much artifacting, but this should be a little better.

I also cut it down by 50% since it was such a large image. If you really want it on the larger image, let me know.

Edit: Sorry, Over Achiever, took too long working on this. I used 150-1-1

*laughs* I did about the same thing, he's right, cut it down 50% helps a lot. I actually like emw's sharpening more, it feels crisper overall.

 

[spicyapple]

A little richer in color. Which one of you is Ubermac?

 

[emw]

taken by a strange old spanish man in a sort of *point at camera, point at friends, walk away sexily and hope for a good photo!* manner...

Must have worked - the photo has good composition, even if it's a little out of focus because you apparently got him too worked up or something.

A little richer in color.

Sort of, but it really plugs up the shadow detail and eliminates the light and airy feel of the picture. I think if this were a picture of a flower or bowl of fruit, pumping up the color like this could be a good effect.

As it is, IMHO, it makes the whole scene appear too heavy, especially given that it's about friends hanging out on a beautiful summer day. Sometimes it's better to let the photo stand on it's own.

 

[UberMac]

A little richer in color. Which one of you is Ubermac?

I quite like that actually - maybe a lil' over saturated for me...(now I have deliberating to do...)

I'm the one that could "walk away sexily" and hopefully encourage a good photo! (If that didn't clear it up, I'm the one at the back in the middle, my boyfriend is lying on the floor...and I'm wearing Dan's (Green shirt) hat.)

Man I love this photo the more I see it!

Uber

 

[beavo451]

A little richer in color. Which one of you is Ubermac?

I like the photo better this way. The original had a sort of hazy look to it, probably resulting from low contrast.

 

[UberMac]

A little richer in color. Which one of you is Ubermac?

What settings did you use for this effect - seems to have (much) less noise than the others even if it is a bit deep

Uber

 

[spicyapple]

Not sure which settings I used. Was just playing around trying to make it look nicer.

 

[emw]

So I've spent a little more time on this (it's Friday afternoon, and I'm bored at work ). Unfortunately, my web hosting service appears to be down, so I can't post my changes. But trust me, they're fantastic

Anyway, what I did was use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to try and build up the color without clogging the detail, then added a Selective Color layer to add some yellow into the reds to improve the skin tone a little bit. I also added a .2 pixel Gaussian blur to help with the noise introduced by sharpening the focus.

Here's the thumbnail, anyway...

Edit: Back up, so here's the link to the larger image:



Also, here's the 3MB PSD file: http://www.mremw.com/MR_Images/imgp3931kt9_emw.psd