Trouble with Focusing

DP
Posted By
david_pullum
Jul 30, 2004
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771
Replies
21
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Closed
Hi all

I know the answer to this is take a better picture, but I recently did a portrait and the focusing on my Canon EOS10D was slightly out.

How can I make the picture a bit sharper on the incorrectly focused parts using Photoshop 6.0

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BO
Burton_Ogden
Jul 30, 2004
David,

How can I make the picture a bit sharper on the incorrectly focused parts using Photoshop 6.0?

Use Focus Magic <http://www.focusmagic.com/> from Acclaim Software. It uses a computation-intensive mathematical deconvolution algorithm to actually reverse the process in which each point of light gets spread over a circle in the de-focusing process. Its a very difficult process because you have as many overlapping circles as you have original pixels in the image. I use Focus Magic routinely on the images that I take, and I like it a lot. Focus Magic can also help reverse the process of motion blur.

If you take your own pictures, from time to time you are almost certain to have some imperfect focusing and/or motion blur, especially if you handhold your camera. Sometimes the camera’s autofocus is a bit slow or it simply focuses on the "wrong" thing in the picture. But even if you mount the camera on a tripod, the subject itself can move. I routinely use Focus Magic on most of my images because most of them aren’t in absolutely perfect focus and can use at least a pixel or two of focusing.

Photoshop can do image sharpening — but it cannot do image focusing. Sharpening works only on edges while focusing works uniformly on the entire image. Sometimes after I have used Focus Magic to improve the focus of an image I also use Photoshop to sharpen the image, but that is a different process for a different reason. You can compare Unsharp Mask and Focus Magic <http://www.focusmagic.com/exampleunsharpmask.htm> to see the difference between focusing and sharpening. On that webpage, scroll down to Example 3 (very blurred image) to see how Unsharp Mask actually emphasized and called attention to the out-of-focus highlights in the eyes, while Focus Magic went a long way toward putting the highlights and the entire image back in focus. This example also shows that Focus Magic has its limits on a very out-of-focus image, but still makes a big improvement.

Focus Magic comes in two forms, a Photoshop plug-in and a standalone application. I use both. Explore the Focus Magic website for more information. You might want to download the free demo.

— Burton — (not associated with Focus Magic or Acclaim Software)
L
LenHewitt
Jul 30, 2004
Try Unsharp Masking on the image, or duplicate the layer, set it to Overlay, invert it and run a Gaussian blur on the inverted image
DP
david_pullum
Jul 30, 2004
Thanks Burton

What would you say is better the stand alone or plug in

And whats the difference?
BO
Burton_Ogden
Jul 31, 2004
David,

What would you say is better, the stand alone or plug in?

I like the Photoshop plug-in version of Focus Magic better for both focusing and motion blur because it has more options and control than the standalone version. And you aren’t limited to JPEG like the standalone version is.

And whats the difference?

For descreening a scanned newspaper or magazine image which has some sort of halftone dot pattern, the standalone version’s Despeckle filter is required because the plug-in doesn’t do descreening yet (a later version of Focus Magic may add that capability to the plug-in). Focus Magic’s Despeckle descreening is the best I have seen.

The standalone version also has an option to use the deconvolution to upsample an image. This is possibly a better way to upsample than Photoshop’s Bicubic resampling. The Increase Resolution filter is limited to 2X or 4X. The plug-in does not have the Increase Resolution option.

The standalone version also has a Defocus filter which defocuses an image. Presumably that is different from Photoshop’s Gaussian Blur, but I haven’t experimented with it yet.

The standalone version is limited to opening and saving images as JPEGs (JPG) and I find that to be a nutty limitation. For me it hasn’t been too serious yet because a lot of images come to me as high quality JPEGs but I resent being limited to a lossy format. I plan to fervently request that Acclaim Software support at least one non-lossy format in the standalone Focus Magic.

— Burton —
BO
Burton_Ogden
Aug 9, 2004
David,

What would you say is better, the stand alone or plug in?

Incidentally, in addition to what I said above, you don’t have to choose between the standalone or the Photoshop plug-in version of Focus Magic <http://www.focusmagic.com> when you do download or purchase because both are included in the download <http://www.focusmagic.com/download.htm> and in the product purchase. The $45 gets you both the standalone and the plug-in.

Sometimes I use both versions on the same image because their capabilities are somewhat different. If you have any further questions about this, don’t hesitate to ask.

–Burton– (not associated with Focus Magic or Acclaim Software)
EI
Enrique_Ivern
Aug 9, 2004
Burton,
I use Focus Magic on some images, resuts are impressive. But I find that I have to be careful with the amount of focusing because sometimes it tends to emphasize grain too much.
The best results I’ve obtained are with those images that were degrained first, then focused. just my 2c.
Y
YrbkMgr
Aug 9, 2004
This may be helpful, short term…

Phosphor "Haloless Sharpening – A Quick Tutorial" 2/20/04 11:03pm </cgi-bin/webx?50>

Peace,
Tony
DP
Donkey_Punch
Aug 9, 2004
Burton:

In the future, please surround phrases like this:

It uses a computation-intensive mathematical deconvolution algorithm to actually reverse the process in which each point of light gets spread over a circle in the de-focusing process

with the following tags <professor frink></pf>. Consider ending your sentence with a Goyvin, glavin!
DM
dave_milbut
Aug 9, 2004
nyea-ha-HEY!
FN
Fred_Nirque
Aug 10, 2004
Thanks, Burton – that’s the best after-scanning sharpener I’ve come across to really put the Nikon 8000 into the big-boys’ class. (It appears to work well with slightly out-of-focus images as well).

Something else to give me the 2GB DDR SDRAM "not enough RAM" message, though. Damn, I wish I could sort that out. (Falls over with files over about 170MB on my nightmare machine.)
BO
Burton_Ogden
Aug 10, 2004
Enrique,

But I find that I have to be careful with the amount of focusing because sometimes it tends to emphasize grain too much. The best results I’ve obtained are with those images that were degrained first, then focused.

I agree 100%. All of my images from digital cameras and my frame grabs from my camcorder have at least some noise and some have a lot. Interior shots under low light have a lot of noise, especially in the blue channel. I suppose you could use Focus Magic’s Despeckle filter to reduce noise, but I have found I get much better results using ABSoft’s Neat Image <http://www.neatimage.com/>. And yes, as you suggested, it is much better to remove the noise before you use Focus Magic to focus or remove motion blur. So I routinely run Neat Image and then Focus Magic.

Hmm, I see that they have come out with a new version 4.25 of Neat Image, and I am using version 4.2. Guess I need to download the latest version. Both Neat Image and Focus Magic have good developer support, with reasonably frequent improvements.

— Burton — (not associated with Neat Image or Focus Magic)
BO
Burton_Ogden
Aug 10, 2004
Fred,

Something else to give me the 2GB DDR SDRAM "not enough RAM" message, though. Damn, I wish I could sort that out. (Falls over with files over about 170MB on my nightmare machine.)

Well, the files I work with are significantly smaller than 170MB. At least, they are to start with. If I do any upsampling, I use something like Genuine Fractals, and I do that after de-noising and focusing. So I’m not having problems with big files because I am not feeding big files to Focus Magic.

However, I think your problems with large images would be of interest to Focus Magic Support <http://www.focusmagic.com/support.htm>. You might want to contact them.

— Burton —
FN
Fred_Nirque
Aug 10, 2004
Burton,

Previous advice in this and other forums has me thinking that this is an issue with XP addressing, Asus hardware/software, RAID 0 SATA (i 82801 ER controller), American Megatrends Bios and 2GB DDR SDRAM running as dual channel in combination with some or only one of the above. I’ve been having this problem since last October with PS7, then PS8, plus PanoTools, PanaVue Image Assembler, (and just about any other pano stitcher I’ve tried) and now Focus Magic.

It appears that there is something going west every time there is a call to max out the RAM. Something happens to prevent a smooth transition to Paging or VR, and the whole shebang gives in with a "not enough RAM" shrug. I’ve got bucketloads of RAID 0 SATA space designated to scratch & page, but something hits the wall before this can come into play.

I realize that PS manages RAM differently to most other things (winding back the RAM allocation to well under 50% stops the n.e.r. calls, but things get really slow), however it still has to work in harmony with XP, and having gone through a headache years ago when I had the temerity to install 1GB RAM over 98SE (that just ended with the computer refusing to boot until I installed Cacheman, which proved an easy cure compared with this), I’m more than a little inclined to be sniffing in the direction of M$.

This would be fine except that others with similar machine specs & XP Pro are having no problems, and as I have replaced the mobo and RAM twice, I can’t really blame faulty hardware (unless I’m having some really bad luck).

I will, however, contact Focus Magic Support as you suggest – they may have a clue as to this. I’m still only at demo stage, but maybe they’ll respond.

I’m just a dumb old photographer, so my understanding of the technicalities involved is bound to be lacking, but something sure ain’t right. I’m almost to the stage of building a machine identical to somebody who isn’t having the 2GB blues just to see if it is my combo of software that is to blame. Need more cash & time for that experiment, though.

Fred.
BO
Burton_Ogden
Aug 10, 2004
Fred,

You would think that a machine as powerful as yours could handle files over 170MB. It is particularly vexing that others with similar machine specs & XP Pro are having no problems. Hopefully Focus Magic Support can help. They invite you to send problem images, although the logistics of sending them a 170MB image may be troublesome. Right off hand, I think I would simply burn the image to a CDR or CDRW disk and mail it to them. You couldn’t attach 170MB to an email, or you shouldn’t. If Focus Magic had an FTP site you could upload to that would be one way. But I am thinking just mail a CD-R.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t pursue the 170MB problem, but just out of curiosity, where are you obtaining an image that large that needs focusing? I don’t think any digital camera would give you such an image. And even a flatbed scanner might not provide such a large file. I have scanned a lot of 4×6 color prints on my scanner and my files from that source are about 24MB each. Of course, if I stitch them in something like Image Assembler the file size could grow to 170MB. But I would do the focusing at the individual image stage (about 24MB each) before stitching. That is the same philosophy as focusing before upsampling.

— Burton —
BO
Burton_Ogden
Aug 10, 2004
Donkey Punch, (or should I say Cheesefood?)

I must admit the Professor Frink suggestion is probably appropriate. I can’t say I am an ardent fan of The Simpsons or that I identify myself as an animated cartoon professor, but I concede that the statement,

It uses a computation-intensive mathematical deconvolution algorithm to actually reverse the process in which each point of light gets spread over a circle in the de-focusing process

is a bit much. It certainly violates readability criteria. Perhaps it is Frinkish. Is Professor Frink Jewish? The words "Goyvin" and "glavin" aren’t English, are they? I think I may have heard Professor Frink use them on the Simpsons show, but I don’t know what their definitions are. They aren’t in my dictionary. A quick search didn’t find them in an online dictionary, either. Please give us an introduction into the lore of Professor Frink, Goyvin, and glavin.

— Burton —
FN
Fred_Nirque
Aug 10, 2004
Burton,

"where are you obtaining an image that large"

Nikon 8000 ED scanner, scanning 6×6 & 6×7 cm negs @ 4000dpi 16 bit gray gives around 170MB, 48 bit colour gives around 340MB.

I know, totally unnecessary resolution for current general output, but my work is primarily preserving photographic images for posterity and it therefore necessary to maintain the maximum detail possible.

You never know when some small section of the photograph may be needed (a sign in the distance, the number of panes of glass in a distant window, detail of a crest on a soldier’s buttons – I’ve had all these requests), and it is pointless to provide something that looks good in its entirety but dissolves into a mass of pixels under moderate, let alone extreme enlargement.

I use stitchers to provide maximum detail in copying old Cirkut and Panoramic camera photographs by photographing them in many smaller, close-up sections and joining these up for final outputs of up to 8 feet by 1 foot at as higher a resolution for the final file as possible.

By working in this way I am at least to some degree future-proofing the results by providing image files that allow for some major future improvements in output technologies.

Fred.
BO
Burton_Ogden
Aug 11, 2004
Fred,

OK, I concede that you really need those large file sizes. Future-proofing seems like a good idea to me.

I use stitchers to provide maximum detail in copying old Cirkut and Panoramic camera photographs by photographing them in many smaller, close-up sections and joining these up for final outputs of up to 8 feet by 1 foot at as high a resolution for the final file as possible.

OK, if you are applying Focus Magic to these, you could focus the smaller sections before you do the stitches and thereby avoid feeding a huge panoramic file to Focus Magic. You could also de-noise the small segments first.

But I’m all for improving the breed of focusers and de-noisers. Appealing to Acclaim Software to make Focus Magic work with large files on your seemingly capable system seems like a good idea.

— Burton —
FN
Fred_Nirque
Aug 12, 2004
Burton,

Things are getting weird, I’m doing some more tests & then will post a separate thread (as well as contacting Focus Magic with this) but:

The "Memory is full error" dialog halts were caused when Focus Magic was running as a plugin from within PSCS. I just ran it as a stand-alone and it performed flawlessly on the same 212MB RGB file (focus, 3, 150%).

Watching proceedings in Task Manager>Performance window, when operating from within PS, the Page File started at 914MB, then slid downwards (with very little cpu activity – 2-20%), halting at 585MB with a Focus magic "Memory is full error" dialog, followed by a PS "Could not complete……….because of a program error".

Operating as stand-alone, page file started at 510MB, rose to 780, flatlined there for the 7 minutes needed to successfully complete the action (with heavy cpu activity the whole time – 50-70%).

Possibly something is wrong with the PS plugin, or more gremlins being produced by the 2 Gig RAM thing.

Fred.
BO
Burton_Ogden
Aug 12, 2004
Fred,

I look forward to your separate thread. Do you really like the focus results at 150%? I usually use 100% or 75%.

— Burton —
RH
r_harvey
Aug 12, 2004
Perhaps it is Frinkish. Is Professor Frink Jewish? The words "Goyvin" and "glavin" aren’t English, are they? I think I may have heard Professor Frink use them on the Simpsons show, but I don’t know what their definitions are. They aren’t in my dictionary. A quick search didn’t find them in an online dictionary, either. Please give us an introduction into the lore of Professor Frink, Goyvin, and glavin.

His father is played by Jerry Lewis.

See The Professor John Frink File <http://www.snpp.com/guides/prof.frink.html>.
FN
Fred_Nirque
Aug 13, 2004
Burton,

It seems to depend on the resolution of the original – larger files seem to need a bigger hit percentage-wise. In this case it was an arbitrary setting, though, just for the sake of the test.

I’ll do a few more images at various settings this weekend, & contact Focus Magic for their response before posting a thread. I’m very curious as to why this is happening.

Fred.

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