Printable View
I came across a little utility software called SmartDeblur recently and it is amazing. Before purchasing it, I wanted to find out if my Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013 has some kind of slick/automated image deblurring function/command or capability. Anyone know?
The FX Tool (formerly the Live Effects Tool) has a sharpen filter, Unsharp Mask.
I would try this out first, and see if it does the trick.
There is also a Blur/Sharpen slider in the Photo Tool > Enhance Infobar that can sharpen an image.
Hi fuss, Xara has nothing quite like Smartdeblur. I tried a couple of combinations of different built in filters and effects including sharpen, Unsharp Mask, etc and haven't been able to get as good results as SD shows on their website.
I wish that Xara would look at something like this!
I agree, Angelize! I think it would be brilliant if Xara had that built into their program, like they do with the magic eraser. I love Xara already and it would make it even more awesome as my go-to tool.
I'm not as Xpert as many of the TG memebers, and I couldn't get anything like the results that SmartDeblur seems to show.
I looked at that website and the before and after is very impressive.
That said, how do you plan to use a filter like this? Unless you have a job working for the police enhancing poor quality images to bring out detail, I don't see the need for this degree of sharpening.
And even in the example on the Smart Deblur website, would the after result be good enough for anything, except as I mentioned.
Most smart phones, not to mention digital cameras take very clean and sharp photos.
Unless I am missing something here, and it would not be the first time, I don't see the need for this degree of sharpening. Unless you like parlor tricks and like to amuse people with how you can take aunt Mildred's blurred snapshot and turn it into a less blurred snapshot.
@Gary: Agreed
I could see a use for it. I often have clients supply me with photos that aren't very good .
I guess the need is for the beholder to decide. Like me, for example, I'm just little ol' business owner (nothing to do with design or photography) on a shoestring budget. One day I plan to hire a professional photographer to take some professional business photos. In the meantime, I have taken some great headshots/poses just using my webcam. However, my webcam is not a professional camera and there is a good deal of blurriness. There are two headshots I took of myself that I really love and use in my marketing, and I put these both through Smart Deblur and the results were absolutely amazing. 99% improvement. For $39, I'm totally going to buy the program as it's well worth the results, even just for this small, seemingly inconsequential purpose (though, it's not inconsequential to me). I think if asked, users would come up with all kinds of scenarios that Xara can't imagine would be useful (but is to users), and that would make it well worth Xara's while to include something like this. (Maybe partner with SmartDeblur, see if they can include it as a plugin, or buy the company even? Just a suggestion).
I think it's important to remember, not everyone using Xara is using it because they are professional photographers or graphic designers. ;)
I use Xara to make my own graphics and clean up my own photos.
If any photo is blurred to such a degree where Xara's tools cannot restore clarity to an acceptable level for web or print, then (my view is that) they are simply unusable and ought to be rejected.Quote:
Originally Posted by angelize
I know some clients watch too much CSI and think we can 'Enhance-enhance' - but it's pure fiction ;))
Who said I was talking about clients? I'm not a photographer or graphic designer. I use Xara for my own purposes. Or are non-professionals not allowed to use Xara or have their own needs and purposes for using it?
Sorry, fuss - you posted while I was posting.
I was responding to Frances :)
I'm not convinced by this image enhancement software either. As an experiment I took an image of a meercat off the web, added a blur in Xara, saved it, ran it through DeBlur and the image was not greatly better than if I applied a 100% sharpen to the original blurred image within Xara.
Good one Egg, case closed !
It would seem the type of blurring this software compensates for is motion blur, not a gaussian style general blur, so I don't think it's surprising this test wouldn't improve things much. I'm not at my production computer, so I can't test it myself to see if things are different with different style blurs. :)
Obviously, this is a tricky thing to pull off: Adobe demoed something similar in 2011 that has yet to find it's way into Photoshop. I agree the 'CSI' style fixing shown on the site is not particularly useful for most of us. But if I had something that could fix slight blurriness caused by hand shake when taking photos with slower shutter speeds in less than ideal light, without the artifacts associated with unsharp mask, well that would be beyond awesome.
@ fuss - All I am saying is you are looking to a product, albeit what appears an excellent product, to compensate for really bad photography. And that to me is compounding a problem, not solving it.
One of the great things about Xara products is they are good sets of tools for users of all levels. And most Xara product users are not professional designers. I would guess the majority are non-professional users. And there is something for everybody.
If you need good photography, and are not a photographer, then there is an abundance of inexpensive stock photography and graphics you can use.
This is just silly. What does stock photography have to do with improving my DIY headshot? I like the tool. For my purposes, it's useful, it has more controls, and I'm very pleased with the results. It's really only the user's opinion that matters.
At any rate, I can see that Xara does not have a feature that can achieve the same results as SmartDeblur so my original question is answered.
I've no axe to grind re this software and perhaps a deliberate blurred photo doesn't do the software justice. So let's try a real world experiment. I attach a really crap photo a friends grandaughter posted on FaceBook. Show me an improvement matching their screenshots.
Point well made sledger with the vid. Those famous words you hear in all TV dramas, Enhance, zoom :D If only it was true in the real world to the degree they depict in these shows.
Stygg
And my favourite, pan 60 degrees ;)