Can This Photo Be Saved?

[Imagebuffet]

I was at Collin College this afternoon, when I was approached by a group that had a display in the main lobby. They asked me to take their photo, so I did. I am extremely disappointed by how blurry the photo is. I don't know why this happens. I had the ISO up to 800, aperture was 7.1, no one was moving, I used a flash and I was very careful to hold the camera steady as I took the photo. Obviously, I moved, a lot! Well, what can I do about it, now?

[FireHeart Photography]

it looks like you used a flash is the right? there is flare over one of the guys heads... also what was your shutter speed? To me it look like your focus point was on the frame of the window. Not on one of the guys heads. Ideally you would want to put your focus on the guy in the dark blue as he is just behind the other guys - your 7.1 should be plenty to keep the other guys in focus...did you crop it? Also what lens are you using... did it get other photos at the same time that were in focus? it can probably be fixed to look better in PS but you don't have permissions for editing so I am not going to grab it... and as an FYI I have seen much worse...

[ldelacruz]

It looks like motion blur to me. Probably a shutter speed less than 1/80th. I am not sure if you can save it?

[ovimo]

Your exposure time was 1/8th of a second... Cannot tell for sure where the focal point was. My guess is that you moved and they moved more too. 1/8th is generally appropriate for stones... ;o) and not handheld.

When you take pictures of people, make sure your shutter speed (exposure time) is reasonably fast, even if they try to stay still. I shoot for at least 1/50 or faster.

[dpena]

is that cop in the back ground taken a bite if a donut ?

[Imagebuffet]

Shutter: 1/8 sec
Aperture: 7.1
ISO: 800
f: 38 mm
Image Stabilization: On
Flash: Fired

I hand-held the camera for this image, then processed and cropped the RAW file in Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.

Yes, I took many other photos before and after this one, but the lighting was highly variable. Many images turned out better; some were worse.

That is a police officer in the background, but we did not have any donuts. Instead, several local restaurants were serving appetizers, mostly salsa and chips (but also some other finger food). We had a band and a dance class playing and dancing salsa music and dance and the dancers were giving lessons.

[FireHeart Photography]

OKAAAAYYY - anything living can not be photographed at 1/8 without a tripod period - in fact things that are not moving don't work well at 1/8 because you are alive...

so I think you can do some work on it - can I grab it and see what I can do? It is still going to be soft no matter what but I might be able to make it a bit better...

OVIMO - how did you get that data off the photo - I am really interested in that, new to this forum and see many of you getting that data - how did you do it?

[cooltouch]

The problem I see is you had your ISO set too high and your shutter speed too low. Ambient light competed with the strobe and double images (especially in the sign and cups on the table) from camera shake were the result.

However, I think you're being overly critical. If you crop the photo such that it's mostly just the guys, and leave out the table, you will have removed most of the obvious blur. Some unsharp masking I'm thinking can save it.

[dpena]

nice ,,,,,,,,,,,

[tomhooper]

Exif data on my computer shows ISO of 400 not 800. Of course that makes shooting at 1/8 sec even harder. Get a monopod. It'll help a lot when shooting in lower light situations if you don't have a good flash.

[ovimo]

Originally Posted by FireHeart Photography

OKAAAAYYY - anything living can not be photographed at 1/8 without a tripod period - in fact things that are not moving don't work well at 1/8 because you are alive...

so I think you can do some work on it - can I grab it and see what I can do? It is still going to be soft no matter what but I might be able to make it a bit better...

OVIMO - how did you get that data off the photo - I am really interested in that, new to this forum and see many of you getting that data - how did you do it?

I was half joking with the stone thing, but the deal is that the image stabilization helps with your own movements, vibrations and small quirks, but not with the subject's. Alive subjects can be photographed at pretty much ANY shutter speed, obviously without expecting sharp images. The point is not the tripod or monopod, but the model's own small movements, caught by any camera on any support at shutter speeds slower than 1/20 sec.

Just as an example, I would not even attempt to take a picture of a say 6 years old at any shutter speed below 1/150sec, but I might try 1/30-50 for adults. Wildlife absolutely nothing below 1/500sec (having said that, turtles and snails and house animals may be tried at slower shutter speeds). All this assuming I want a sharp image, not a motion-blurry artistic one.

I got the data off the posted image through a free software called Opanda EXIF viewer. You can download it and try it, it is very useful.

Personally I doubt any amount of USM will salvage the picture for anything but web usage, and even for that for small size only. I failed with too many of mine...

[FireHeart Photography]

I pretty good with PS and think I can at least make it where it could be posted at a 4X6 frame and look pretty darn good... thanks for the data on Opanda EXIF - will look that up now...

[CaptainTom]

Try a program called focus magic. You get ten free attempts before they want to take your money.
It works pretty well once you figure out how to operate the program.
It will correct for out of focus, subject movement, and camera shake.

[ovimo]

Francie, if you can make it sharp for a 4x6 then you are a wizard, not just pretty good, and my hat comes off to you, no joke. And I wanna learn how to do it.

[dliveleyphotography]

My feeble attempt, I always toss OOF pics so it was my first attempt at trying to correct that much blur. I used a mixture of USM, high pass, slight blurring to knock down the harsh lines and then cropped alittle and removed the cop from the background. Its no where close to being completely perfect and has a very slight cartoonish look but it was the best I could come up with: