The early days of picturetaking had me carefully setting up to take that spectacular photo, sending the film off to develop and patiently waiting for the prints come back from the photofinisher. Unexpectedly I experienced much disappointment when I looked through the returned pictures only to see my favorite subject as a blurred image. The cause may have been my sloppy focusing or me shaking the camera while using a slow shutter speed. No matter, the result was a missed opportunity.

When I review my large collection of photos – especially the older ones – I’m amazed how many aren’t “tack sharp”. Before the advent of autofocus cameras, we had to rely on manual focus techniques to keep the lens properly set. And before the advent of higher ISO film, we had to rely on stabilizing techniques to minimize the camera shake. In my younger days I must have been a photographer with sloppy habits and this explains why I have a bunch of blurry photos from back then.

A few weeks ago I learned of a software product that supposedly “fixed” blurred photos. After reading a couple of reviews of Topaz AI I decided to give it a try. In addition to sharpening images it can reduce image noise and can boost image resolution.

Topaz AI can be used by itself (standalone) or as a plug-in (helper) for Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. I have used it as a standalone but most often as a plug-in for Lightroom.

Here’s a quick look at how Topaz AI can make those blurry pictures go away.

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Below is a photograph taken with film in the early 1970’s using a manual focus camera. You can see that the original image on the left is not quite in focus.
 

Here I’ve started Topaz AI to process the original image. This is the Topaz AI screen. On the left half of the split screen is the original image while the right half shows the improved image. On the far right is the control panel. By default the software analyzes the image and applies the changes that it believes will improve its appearance.
This is an enlargement of the Topaz AI control panel. At the top is a thumbnail of the original image. Move the thumbnail rectangle to view different parts of the original image.                             In this case Topaz has used its Autopilot settings to find a subject’s face in the original image, apply medium noise reduction and sharpen the subject in the image. You can override these settings if you do not care the resulting changes.             You can see that the buttons to Remove Noise, Sharpen and Recover Faces have already been activated (blue) but the Enhanced Resolution has not been activated (grey). If you want to increase the resolution of the original image (Upscale), you can do so by selecting 1X, 2X, 3X, 4X or Max. You might use this if you’d like to make a poster size enlargement from your original image. I did not increase the image resolution. The dimensions of the resulting image are displayed below the enhance resolution choices.         Making changes to the settings are not permanent until the image is saved so you can make various adjustments until you achieve results that are favorable to you.
Here are portions of the original and “fixed” versions of the image.
original image – click to enlarge	image processed with Topaz AI (click to enlarge
Clearly you can see that Topaz AI has done a remarkable job in removing the cause of the bad focus in original image.   Next is a second image that suffered from focus blur caused by my rush to capture the bighorn sheep before it got away. The original was taken in May 2022 using a digital camera:   You can see that Topaz AI automatically applied the Remove Noise and Sharpen features to the original image. I did not need to use Enhance Resolution. Below are portions of the original and improved images of the bighorn sheep.
original image (click to enlarge)	image processed with Topaz AI (click to enlarge)
Without any changes to the Topaz AI settings this software has produced an amazing image. It has saved another one of my photos from the “throwaway” pile.     I’m impressed Photo AI’s ability to fix the few dozen blurred images that I’ve thrown at it over the past few weeks. But what’s just as impressive is how easy this software is to use. So far it’s lived up to the AI that is part of its name.

 
For those of you who may be interested in this software, you can get a free trial version for either Mac or Windows personal computers. Visit Topaz Labs and look for the Photo AI package.

 
 
 

Taking In A Wide View

I enjoy taking panorama photographs. When I look at one it’s as if I can scan the horizon from left to right or from right to left and experience an entirety of what’s in front of me. A panorama is wonderful way to capture landscapes and scenic subjects. 

I have a couple of cameras that are able to automatically take panoramas. My cellphone camera also has this feature. The amount of detail that is recorded in a panorama is quite amazing. Keep in mind that the enlarged panoramas displayed here have been reduced in overall size to fit on your screen – about 1600 pixels wide. Most of these original panoramas are more than 10,000 pixels wide!

Below are a few panoramas that I’ve taken over the years.

Click on any of the images to view the enlarged panorama.

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Arches National Park, Utah 2013 Sony NEX-7 camera

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Badlands National Park, South Dakota 2016 Sony ILCE-6000 camera

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Cannon Beach, Oregon 2013 Sony NEX-7 camera

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Crater Lake, Oregon 2013 Sony NEX-7 camera

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Dantes View in Death Valley National Park, California 2013 Sony NEX-7 camera

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Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona 2020 iPhone 11 Pro Max cellphone

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Gerald Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan

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Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming 2008

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Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park, Montana 2021 iPhone 11 Pro Max cellphone

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Mono Lake, California 2016 Sony ILCE-6000 camera

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Monument Valley, Utah 2019 Sony ILCE-6000 camera

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Painted Desert in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona 2016 Sony ILCE-6000 camera

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St Louis Waterfront in St Louis, Missouri 2013 Sony NEX-7 camera

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Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota 2013 Sony NEX-7 camera

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Trillium Lake and Mt. Hood, Oregon 2017 Sony ILCE-6000 camera

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Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin 2013 Sony NEX-7 camera

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Rim of Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 2017 Sony ILCE-6000 camera

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If your camera or cellphone can capture a panorama have you tried it yet? The high quality of the images will amaze you.

Written by: Arnie Lee

 
We’ve published books since 1978. However in 2012 we ceased our publishing activities to concentrate on picture-taking. Still, you may be interested in any of our previously published books about photography including these seven “Stay Focused Guides” for popular DSLR cameras.

Now we’re giving them away free to anyone who would like a copy. They are older but many of the techniques apply to most all DSLR or even the newer mirrorless cameras.

Although each title pertains to a specific model camera, most of the techniques apply to any advanced camera regardless of the make. So if you have a different model, download a PDF copy and follow along. I’m confident that you’ll pick up a few tips along the way.

And while you’re at it, why not Subscribe to our Newsletter! – to your right? We need only your name and email address.

Without further ado, here are the links for your free PDF copy of our Stay Focused Guides. Click on one of the links below to view a PDF version of a book. Then save the PDF to your desktop.

SFG for Canon XS in PDF format

SFG for Canon XSi in PDF format

SFG for Canon T2i in PDF format

SFG for Nikon D40 in PDF format

SFG for Nikon D60 in PDF format

SFG for Nikon D3000 in PDF format

SFG for Nikon D5000 in PDF format

We also have several other books that you may be interested in also available FREE:

28 Tips for Better Photographs in PDF format

National Parks – a tour in PDF format

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