Touch of magic sharpens out-of-focus images

By FRANCIS TILL

If you have a digital camera or a scanner, you will have learned to live with that slightly matte-looking finish that happens when you use image-enhancing software to "sharpen" a slightly out-of-focus picture.

It's annoying, but better than the alternative, especially when the shot cannot be recreated.

There should be a better way, right?

Auckland-based Acclaim Software to the rescue.

Acclaim has had an "image restoration" product called Focus Magic on the market for the past three years and has just released what some users have called a vastly improved version two.

I can't speak for version one, but Focus Magic 2.0 works an absolute treat, regardless of how the image fell out of focus - and there are a surprisingly large number of ways for this to happen, including scanner defects.

It even improves the quality of pictures that were not out of focus, which is terrific if you are going to enlarge or print an image.

Traditionally, tools used to enhance blurred images do so by a very complex process that ultimately does little more than improve the contrast at the edges of pixels (the square dots that make up digital images).

Almost all image manipulation software comes with a one-click button labelled "sharpen" that lets users do this.

Some software also comes with an "unsharp mask" tool that unpacks the sharpening process so more advanced users can get at the controls, but the results are spotty either way.

Focus Magic, on the other hand, digs into the maths that actually make up a digital image to work its, well, magic.

Managing director Eric Schwerzel, who developed the software over several years with co-developer Jamie Smith, says that inside every digital photograph is a formula that describes how a blurred picture got out of focus.

"Photographs go out of focus according to an exact formula," Schwerzel says.

Applying that formula in reverse to the code of an image allows Focus Magic to remove the blur, rather than simply correct for it in display.

How this works is fascinating, and the Focus Magic website goes into detail about the process, but what's most important ultimately is that it works and that it is extremely simple to use.

Focus Magic is available only as a download and Schwerzel says the company has no plans to put out a boxed version, but it's a relatively small program and even over a dial-up connection the download process takes a few minutes from go to whoa.

There's also a bonus: when it installs on your computer it also seeks out any of half a dozen higher-end image manipulation programs like Photoshop and automatically installs itself as a plug-in.

When you open a picture in the program, either on its own or as a plug-in, the software automatically calculates the "amount" of blur as a number between 0 and 20 and tells users how much correction will be necessary.

The software puts a little moveable box over the image and allows you to preview the effect of adjusting for blur in up to 20 progressive degrees.

When you are satisfied with what will happen, press a button and the program goes to work.

Because it is changing the code of the photograph, the process uses a lot of computer resources and can be very slow, but the results are usually more than worth the wait.

Built to improve focus, the program also handles a number of other tasks brilliantly, such as "despeckling" and resizing without distortion.

Focus Magic 2.0

* US$45 (pricing in US dollars only).

* Focus Magic (download 3.2MB).

* Pros: Leaves all other "sharpen" tools in the dust and even recovers lost detail in pictures that are in focus. Very clean interface, dead simple to use.

* Cons: A bit pricey for ordinary users and works only on JPEG pictures in standalone state. Slow and processor intensive, the program doesn't really hit its stride except as a plug-in for Photoshop or other high-end image manipulation tools, where it works with images in many formats.

* Rating: 8/10.