Here we demonstrate the power of Focus Magic in it's ability to re-sharpen out-of-focus images.  If you have used Unsharp Mask (or Sharpen) in other programs, you might want to look at the Focus Magic versus Unsharp Mask page.   The exact settings used to sharpen these images are displayed when your place your mouse over the image.

Example 1 - Slightly Blurred Image

Original Image	Focus Magic

This image of an old historic building is only a little bit blurred.   Focus Magic sharpens the image up and makes the brickwork look a lot better.

Example 2 - Fairly Blurred Image

Original Image Out of Focus	Focus Magic	Original Taken Again In Focus

This image of a fridge magnet was taken firstly "out of focus" and then "in focus" with a Fuji digital camera.  The photo's were taken with the camera on a tripod, and only the focus setting was changed between the two shots.  Although Focus Magic could not restore the image completely back to what it should have been, it did take it back a long way.

With the naked eye we would not have been able to see from the original that the eye consisted of a black dot on a white background.  It looks more like some kind of a plastic bobble.  Focus Magic is able to restore the eye mostly back to what it should have been.  The ability to recover detail that is not normally visible makes Focus Magic invaluable for forensic scientists.

There is unfortunately a limit to how much Focus Magic can restore detail.  The limiting factor in restoring an image is not in the power of the focusing algorithm used by Focus Magic, but it is in the quality (or accuracy) of the input image.  Under laboratory conditions, images which are de-focused with software, saved as 48 bit images, and then re-focused can be re-focused a lot better than real world images.

Example 3 - Very Blurred Image

Original Image	Focus Magic

This image which shows part of a mans face has a blur width of about 20.  When an image gets out of focus, point sources of light (from small shiny objects) become circles.  With Focus Magic the circles become smaller concentrations of light, which is what you would expect when sharpening an image.  The iris in his eye now has well defined edges and has the circular shape we expect.