Focus Magic

Welles · 12-04-2003, 03:59 PM

I received an e-mail from Alien Skin this morning which touted a plug-in by another software developer which was new to me. Focus Magic. I've downloaded the plug-in for Mac to try later today but the Windows version has a stand alone application in addition to the plug-in and I'm particularly interested in the Increase Resolution feature. Would someone be willing to give the demo a try and see if it really works to help an uprez?

http://www.focusmagic.com/exampleincreaseresolution.htm

MsOz · 12-04-2003, 04:54 PM

Welles, from what I read, and think I understand, this may well be a GA's dream come true!

Just imagine ALL those client logos they want enlarged that they give to you off the web...a designer's bane, accomplished with this Increase Resolution tool!!! If it's really effective, it will be well worth the asking price...

Please keep us informed on the results of your trials! [righton]

Welles · 12-04-2003, 05:14 PM

madster

That was my impression but I'm a Mac user and the increase resolution is only presently available in the stand alone Windows version. I've sent an e-mail inquiring about that function for Mac in the future but have not heard back. That's why I posted here. I hoped one of our Windows users would give it a try and report. There is a free download good for 5 images before the software stops working without registration.

Erik · 12-04-2003, 08:07 PM

I tried it out...five trials, then registering is needed.

I tried the different filters...even reducing jpg atrefacts works more than acceptably.

As for the upsampling feature: you can choose 2,4...times.

I tried with a (known) difficult jpg. (has artefacts not only in chroma but also in luma). First despecle. The plugin chooses automatically the right "pixelspread" and corrects. A bit hazy, but impressive for something automatic. Then Focus. I tried other settings, but the plugins' default were best. Impressive. Then upsampling (resolution), 4 times.

Well, to repeat myself: impressive. NOT perfect, but this is a very difficult jpg.

Then save and open in Photoshop to see howitwasdone. Gaussian blur on it, 500%, but low setting. You get a kind of organic pattern that reminds me of soap bubbles, but without the gloss. They do indeed use an algorythm.

Only thing: it needs some calculating time.

My final idea: try it out! You won't be disappointed.

I'm a bit very low on money right now, but this is something I want in my toolbox.

I would love to read the impressions of someone who has a digital camera...IMO, it's quite easy to double the pixels without much loss.

I like this more than GenuineFractals...

Welles · 12-05-2003, 12:49 AM

Thanks for the test and review, Eric. You gave it a workout and your reported results increase my hope that this is worthwhile. I'm secretly hoping for something which will help with JPEG artifacts. I'll give the Mac plug-in a go this evening and add my observations.

Erik · 12-05-2003, 02:01 PM

Me too, I search for jpg cure.

Best I found up to now, is...LAB.

In a first phase, jpg separates chroma info from luminance as tests have shown that human eyes generally are more sensitive to brightness variations than to colour ones. When I read sepatating colour from brighness, myb heart goes boom boom and I change to LAB.

What I could not try out was to combine the best techniques:

1/ Change to LAB and make a duplicate
2/ Copy and past the Lightness channel, then delete the rest and use this plugin for cleaning
3/ Use an edge mask created from the result and apply sharpening to this (sharpening only means increasing brightness between pixels of different luma values)
4/ Get this in the place of the duplicate's Lightness channel.

I suppose this should do a good job...

Anyone wants to try it out?

MindBender · 12-05-2003, 02:42 PM

I haven't downloaded it to try it yet, but from what I can tell from their screenshots, it's more of a timesaver than a "new and improved" as they claim. The results they're getting seem like the kind of thing that you can get with a multi-step restoration process. Hence the "time-saver" status, something that you could do yourself, but it would probably take longer. I'm not sure I would pay $45 for it though. There are lots of things that I'd say fall into that category though. Stuff I'd like to have, but probably wouldn't shell out for. heh.. we'll see.

Interesting find though, thanks for the heads up.

tranquil222 · 12-05-2003, 05:10 PM

Yeah, I got the soap bubbles thing too, when bringing it into PS and sharpening an insane amount...

This product does a great job, better than PS in the areas it says it does(upres-ing, de-blurring[aka unsharp masking]) But it is not perfect...but a great jpeg coping tool.....

Welles · 12-05-2003, 05:22 PM

The uprez isn't available in the Mac version, only the Windows stand alone, I understand. This is the first piece of software which had me thinking about getting Virtual PC to be able to run the Windows version. [shhh]

Welles · 12-06-2003, 03:30 PM

OK, I gave Focus Magic a whirl. Well, as much of a whirl as 5 images allow, which is the trial period. My most interesting experiment was to take a reasonably out of focus image and save it as a JPEG at a compression level of 2 so it was observably full of artifacts at 100%. I then ran FM one time to try and eliminate the artifacting which is accomplished by running the filter without any 'blur' correction (sharpening). I was amazed at how well the artifacts were eliminated...not perfect but better than any technique I've ever tried or read about. Then running the filter a second time to restore focus (sharpening) yielded a result that was amazingly good. I also discovered that running the filter for blur correction at a lower percentage twice was better than running it once. Then my five freebies were up!

I'm going to buy this one.