Defocused photos are becoming more popular for some reason, but apart from the much-loved filters like on Instagram, they're usually just annoying. Let's say you tried to shoot a unique family video just to find that the image is blurry and jittery..
It turns out there are programs out there that can sharpen photos without fiddling with Photoshop. Although in most cases you will never make a sharp and beautiful copy from a blurred photo or video, these tools can be used to restore important details and bring back sharpness to make the material a little better.
Naturally, you shouldn't expect that after taking a series of highly defocused photos, you will edit them so that they fit on the cover of a magazine, however, you can get fancy CSI style using these applications and get amazing results..
SmartDeblur
SmartDeblur is completely free to use and can be used as many times as you want and is friendlier than Focus Magic in many ways. On the other hand, its work is not very stable (the program hung a little while I tested it, especially when loading images that are too heavy), and the results that the program produces may be different.
There are several useful features in SmartDeblur - a zoom option as well as a Fit To Window option. You can also compare the results with the original by clicking on "Show Original". Preview is available for the entire image. The program contains a sample on which you can learn how to sharpen to read blurry text..
After testing the tool with my own photographs, I found that it didn't work as well as the Focus Magic. But I was able to get good results with a picture containing text.
- Pros: Completely free, has a friendly interface, very useful for reading blurry text in a photo.
- Cons: Not very stable, doesn't work very well with real photos (but try it yourself to come up with your own verdict).
Trying to recover lost parts will make you feel like you are working with CSI, but don't expect anything outstanding.
Focus magic
Focus Magic is more than just sharpening software. According to statements from their website, they use "advanced forensic deconvolutionary technologies that literally remove blur like by hand." In theory, the app handles out-of-focus images and blurry videos, restoring lost detail. But does it really work?
Focus Magic is far from an automatic tool. And this is a huge disadvantage, since the free trial only allows you to perform 10 operations. After that, you will need to purchase a full license, which costs $ 45. After loading the image, you first need to decide whether to focus, remove motion blur, defocus, or clear the image of debris. Then a long process of adjusting the parameters begins.
Since it is only possible to see a preview for a small area of an image, it takes many attempts to achieve a good effect for the entire photo.
- Pros: Looks like a professional tool with which you can really achieve good results.
- Cons: The work requires a lot of attempts, but the user has only 10 of them in the free version. In addition, there is no option to change the scale (zoom), which is inconvenient.
With the app, you can sharpen your images if you have the patience and money.
Blurity
The Blurity application , unlike its competitors, has several features: a very detailed manual and self-sufficiency. By self-sufficiency, I mean the ability of a program to take on the hard work of customization if you so desire. If you know what you are doing, you can access the advanced settings, but this is not necessary at all.
After completing the training, you can start processing. To do this, place a red square on an area with strong blur and press the Process button. In most cases, that's all. If you are not satisfied with the results, you can move the square to a different area and try again. The app does its job well, it has managed to turn some blurry photos into decent ones.
As you can see, the downside is the watermarks, which are superimposed on all the photos that you process using the free version of the application. If you really like the program and want to get rid of the watermarks, the license will cost you $ 39.
- Pros : Ease of use, good processing results, worse with text.
- Cons: Watermarks are applied to all processed photos. The license costs $ 39.
conclusions
Believe it or not, I spent half a day researching this topic. After trying to sharpen a lot of blurry photos and videos, I realized one thing - it's better to shoot good footage right away. But if for some reason "plan A" did not work, then the above applications can squeeze something out of your material, but it really depends on what you are trying to achieve.