Is this possible?

[Parijs]

I have a photo taken on a mobile phone that I want to clean up. But I doubt what I want to do is possible since i cant find any info anywhere on it.

You know on movies where they have a photo of someone but its blocky and they use a program to enhance it so u can see the persons face more clearly? Well thats what I need to do. This photo isn't bad quality but I can not make out one of the 2 faces in the photo I want to fix. Anyone have any suggestions?

[tamlin]

Unfortunately - as in a lot of cases - what seems possible in the movies is impossible (or at least extremely difficult) in real life. A digital photograph is basically just a set of binary data like any other computer file, and to increase detail in a digital photo effectively means adding data that isn't already there. There are various noise-reduction and sharpening methods you can use in Photoshop that may help, but nothing I know of that can give you the fantastic results that they achieve in the movies and on TV.

If you can post a copy of your image, maybe someone here could have a go at enhancing it for you.

[Parijs]

Oh wow, well u have given me more info then I could find and its much appreciated. I have also included a link to my uploaded pic. The face I want to be able to see is the one on the left side of the photo. Some of my friends cant make out who he is even though we all know him.....I know its him but I wanted the pic cleaned up enough for people to see him. Its kinda dark and a bit pixeled as you will see.

Again, any help would be greatly appreciated if anyone is good at this sort of thing. Thanks for reading.
ImageShack - Hosting :: photo0036do8.jpg

[tamlin]

I'll give it a go and get back to you.

[tamlin]

OK - this is about the best I could do. Not quite up to the standard you'd see in CSI or your average spy movie, but this is the real world...

I adjusted the exposure with the Shadow/Highlight adjustment (which you can apply as a Smart Filter if you have CS3) to reveal the detail (and lots of noise!). Photoshop does have noise-removal tools built in, but I have to confess that I used a couple of third-party plug-ins to finish the job off. I first used Noiseware Professional (Imagenomic - Imagination at Shutter Speed) to remove as much of the noise as I could. This unfortunately had the side-effect of softening the image a little, so I then sharpened it up with FocalBlade (http://www.thepluginsite.com/product...lade/index.htm) which is always my weapon of choice when it comes to image-sharpening.

I hope this goes some way towards what you were wanting.

[Kenneth]

Your work looks really good Tamlin! I tried this myself in Alien skin “Blow up”
It ads random pixels and smoothen areas, but I was not so happy with the result. Just wish I had those plug-in filters they use in CSI!
And thanks for your tip on the noiceware- reduction!

[tamlin]

Kenneth: if you're interested in noise reduction filters, another really good one is Noise Ninja: Noise Ninja: The gold standard for image noise reduction
It has a somewhat more complicated interface and it wasn't quite the right tool to use in this case, but I've tried it on other images and the results have to be seen to be believed!

[Parijs]

Oh wow.....thats awesome. It looks much much better now. Thank u so much for taking the time to do that for me. It is very much appreciated. And ur info is most helpful. Thx again