Can I Make Blur Photos clearer using Affinity Photo ? If Yes, How ?

[augustya]

I have some photos which were taken with a DSLR camera but pathetically since there was a goof up with the settings of the camera they have come out blur about 60-70% blur is there any way in Affinity Photo I can make it more clearer and sharper ?

[GarryP]

Do you mean that 60-70% of the image is blurry or that the entire image has been blurred by 60-70% (whatever that might mean)?
It would help people to advise if you could attach an example image so we can see the extent of the ‘blur’.
Otherwise we are just guessing at what you are looking at.

[stokerg]

Hi @augustya,

Further to what @GarryPhas said, there is a tutorial here which has some good advice you can try but it really does depend on the amount of blur you are trying to 'fix'.  However, if you can provide an example image, you may get some better replies  

[augustya]

29 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Do you mean that 60-70% of the image is blurry or that the entire image has been blurred by 60-70% (whatever that might mean)?
It would help people to advise if you could attach an example image so we can see the extent of the ‘blur’.
Otherwise we are just guessing at what you are looking at.

Yes the entire image is blurry by 60-70%

[augustya]

43 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Do you mean that 60-70% of the image is blurry or that the entire image has been blurred by 60-70% (whatever that might mean)?
It would help people to advise if you could attach an example image so we can see the extent of the ‘blur’.
Otherwise we are just guessing at what you are looking at.

 

29 minutes ago, stokerg said:

Hi @augustya,

Further to what @GarryPhas said, there is a tutorial here which has some good advice you can try but it really does depend on the amount of blur you are trying to 'fix'.  However, if you can provide an example image, you may get some better replies  

Here you go guys...

[augustya]

34 minutes ago, stokerg said:

Hi @augustya,

Further to what @GarryPhas said, there is a tutorial here which has some good advice you can try but it really does depend on the amount of blur you are trying to 'fix'.  However, if you can provide an example image, you may get some better replies  

What a Coincidence, even before you posted this link here, I already just did all the steps in this Video and Just duplicated the steps in this Video however it is not giving the Final Output as I would have liked still a lot of blurriness on the Photo and when I zoom in even a little bit, it shows Blocks of Pixels very easily.

I know fact of the matter is, the original image is very blurry to begin with. But that is what I am endeavoring to repair 

[augustya]

@stokerg

 

This is the Final Output that I got after Following that Olivio's Video on reducing the Burriness in a Photo.

I literally followed all the same steps as Olivio describes.

 

 

[Joachim_L]

Too much sharpened for my taste. I hope the original images have a better quality? Attached my version, done with the free NIK plugin, Clarity adjustment and some of the G'MIC plugins.

[augustya]

7 minutes ago, Joachim_L said:

Too much sharpened for my taste. I hope the original images have a better quality? Attached my version, done with the free NIK plugin, Clarity adjustment and some of the G'MIC plugins.

 

These NIK Plugin, G'MIC Plugins what are these ? where do you get it ?

[Joachim_L]

Both are collections of various plugins to repair, enhance or modify images.

G'MIC for Windows only: https://github.com/0xC0000054/gmic-8bf/releases

Search for Google Nik Collection to get the free version.

[augustya]

1 minute ago, Joachim_L said:

Both are collections of various plugins to repair, enhance or modify images.

G'MIC for Windows only: https://github.com/0xC0000054/gmic-8bf/releases

Search for Google Nik Collection to get the free version.

And after you install it, do they appear as a Tool in Affinity Photo application Layout ?

[iconoclast]

Hi augustya!

 You can get G'MIC here for free. Take the *.8bf-version for Photoshop and Affinity Photo... - not the ones for GIMP or Krita. There is also a standalone version and a web-service of G'MIC. Sharpening filters are in the "Details" category.

NIK Plugin is generally not free. But there is somewhere on the net a download of an older free version. Unfortunately I don't remember where.

Plugins appear in Photo at the bottom of the "Filters" menu. Be aware that many plugins don't work with 32-bit-images.

Generally I have to say that to sharpen blurred photos doesn't lead to satisying results verry often. It often causes noisy images. And a loss of details. You need at least a filter that sharpens edges more than the inner areas of image objects. The basic one is "Unsharp masking". A verry good one.

[augustya]

22 minutes ago, Joachim_L said:

Too much sharpened for my taste. I hope the original images have a better quality? Attached my version, done with the free NIK plugin, Clarity adjustment and some of the G'MIC plugins.

But Frankly, not that your version is bad and mine is good, but even your version is not that Ground Breaking Fantastic ! It is not wow ! It is marginally better than what I have.

[augustya]

1 minute ago, iconoclast said:

Hi augustya!

 You can get G'MIC here for free. Take the *.8bf-version for Photoshop and Affinity Photo... - not the ones for GIMP or Krita. There is also a standalone version and a web-service of G'MIC. Sharpening filters are in the "Details" category.

NIK Plugin is generally not free. But there is somewhere on the net a download of an older free version. Unfortunately I don't remember where.

Plugins appear in Photo at the bottom of the "Filters" menu. Be aware that many plugins don't work with 32-bit-images.

Generally I have to say that to sharpen blurred photos doesn't lead to satisying results verry often. It often causes noisy images. And a loss of details. You need at least a filter that sharpens edges more than the inner areas of image objects. The basic one is "Unsharp masking". A verry good one.

So are you saying in this Olivio's Tutorial Video rather than what he suggested i should use the Unsharp Masking Adjustment Layer ?

[augustya]

6 minutes ago, iconoclast said:

Hi augustya!

 You need at least a filter that sharpens edges more than the inner areas of image objects. The basic one is "Unsharp masking". A verry good one.

Here is the .afphoto if you can show me what you mean by effectively using unmask layer and when and how you use it ? it would be great.

 

Terrace-1.afphoto

[iconoclast]

1 minute ago, augustya said:

So are you saying in this Olivio's Tutorial Video rather than what he suggested i should use the Unsharp Masking Adjustment Layer ?

I don't know the video you are talking about. You can also use other filters. For example "High Pass" is also verry good, but a little more complicated and abstract. In G'MIC there are some verry good sharpening filters. I don't know the NIK Collection, but I'm sure that there are some excellent filters for it too. Just test them out a little. But the most basic filter for things like this is "Unsharp masking". There are also verry simple filters that sharpen every single pixel. But that is not what you need in the most cases, because it causes noise.

[augustya]

1 minute ago, iconoclast said:

I don't know the video you are talking about. You can also use other filters. For example "High Pass" is also verry good, but a little more complicated and abstract. In G'MIC there are some verry good sharpening filters. I don't know the NIK Collection, but I'm sure that there are some excellent filters for it too. Just test them out a little. But the most basic filter for things like this is "Unsharp masking". There are also verry simple filters that sharpen every single pixel. But that is not what you need in the most cases, because it causes noise.

So to use Unsharp Masking I just open my image in AF and select and apply Unsharp Masking thats it right ? no others steps.

[iconoclast]

2 minutes ago, augustya said:

Here is the .afphoto if you can show me what you mean by effectively using unmask layer and when and how you use it ? it would be great.

 

Terrace-1.afphoto 5.09 MB · 1 download

Is this the original photo? I'm afraid you will not get good results from it, because it is not only blurred, it also is full of artefacts. Looks like a strongly compressed JPEG.

[augustya]

Just now, iconoclast said:

Is this the original photo? I'm afraid you will not get good results from it, because it is not only blurred, it also is full of artefacts. Looks like a strongly compressed JPEG.

Yes it is...

[augustya]

16 minutes ago, iconoclast said:

You need at least a filter that sharpens edges more than the inner areas of image objects. The basic one is "Unsharp masking". A verry good one.

@iconoclast

As usual you are always so much bang on target. Yes Unmasking Sharp is improving the image quality quite a bit, without bringing too much noise in it. But I am wondering is there anything else that I can add to that project to further increase the clarity.

Give me more @iconoclast you are going great !! lol !! 

I wish to nominate you for Affinity Photo Academy Awards !!

[iconoclast]

1 minute ago, augustya said:

Yes it is...

So I'm not verry optimistic that it will be worth investing much work into it. Normally, if you have a photo that c0ntains artefacts, you would blur it to get rid of them. But your photo already is blurred and lacking in details.

[Alfred]

16 minutes ago, augustya said:

@iconoclast

As usual you are always so much bang on target. Yes Unmasking Sharp is improving the image quality quite a bit, without bringing too much noise in it. But I am wondering is there anything else that I can add to that project to further increase the clarity.

Take a look at the High Pass filter that @iconoclast also mentioned: duplicate the image, apply the High Pass filter and set the layer’s blend mode to ‘Overlay’ or ‘Soft Light’. Keep the High Pass ‘Radius’ value low so that the sharpened edges don’t get a halo around them.

[augustya]

13 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Take a look at the High Pass filter that @iconoclast also mentioned: duplicate the image, apply the High Pass filter and set the layer’s blend mode to ‘Overlay’ or ‘Soft Light’. Keep the High Pass ‘Radius’ value low so that the sharpened edges don’t get a halo around them.

So I have already applied unmask layer and when I apply the high pass filter it can be placed just on top of the Unmask Layer also there is no problem, right?

[Ron P.]

Not being rude here, just honest with a critic... This image would present so much of a challenge to a professional re-toucher, they might reject it.

That said, there are techniques to get the best an image can provide, but they are complex, and take a lot of time, like hours. For example, when an image has a lot of noise, isolate the color channel(s) where the noise is. Then work on that channel removing it, using different blur filters, like Bilateral, Median, or Gaussian. Some noise is color, while most others are Luminance.

There's Frequency Separation, used a lot by portrait photographers. I haven't tried this on your example yet. Also detecting edges, and then sharpening only the edges in the image. What I see in your image that poses the greatest problem, is the contrast in the skin area. The person has dark, perhaps black hair, and a lot of hair on their arms. There's some darkness to the right side of the person's face, is this facial hair?

Were you hired by this person to shoot portraits? If so and you had these unfortunate results, it may be easier to swallow a tough pill, and see if you can re-shoot it. I shot a graduation, most all the images sucked, blurry, out of focus. The autofocus malfunctioned. Had to get a replacement camera. But there was no reshooting. Lost money, on that one, because I wouldn't take any payment.

[Ron P.]

19 minutes ago, augustya said:

be placed just on top of the Unmask Layer also there is no problem, right?

What you run into is the image being crunchy looking, too much sharpening. Skin will reflect this. Can be done, but too easy to go overboard. Generally it's one or the other.

EDITED...

Just picked apart all the adjustments you made. Do this...LOOSE THE CLARITY FILTER!!! Clarity Filters and skin do not go together well at all. That's were all that darkness on the arms and side of his face are coming from. I will only apply that filter to images that do not have people in them. Once the clarity filter is removed, then apply some sharpening, either Unsharp Mask or High Pass. Try each, playing with them. You may need to paint on the mask to help it along.