Tools for removing blur from digital photos

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	BEST SOFTWARE[/size][/font] Tools for removing blur from digital photos[/size]
	By Ian “Gizmo” Richards Just because a digital photo is poorly focused or blurred by motion doesn’t mean it’s a total loss. Low-cost and free software can rescue blurry photos, once destined for the recycle bin.[/size]

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The full text of this column is posted at WindowsSecrets.com/2010/03/25/06 (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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This is a great article! One tip I have:

If you’re trying to get Unshake to work but finding it won’t launch properly, you may have to edit the launch.bat file. This batch file is hard-coded for the path of javaw.exe; it tries several different “well-known” spots, but none were correct on my Win7 x64 laptop.

First, find javaw.exe. Windows’ built-in search is great for this. You may find multiple copies; I recommend looking for the one that is part of the JRE (Java Runtime Environment).

Second, edit launch.bat with any text editor or Notepad. You will see a number of “if exist” lines like this:

Code:

if exist "c:jdk1.2.2jrebinjavaw.exe" path "c:jdk1.2.2jrebinjavaw.exe"
if exist "c:Program FilesJavaSoftjre1.2binjavaw.exe" path "c:Program FilesJavaSoftjre1.2bin"
if exist "c:Program FilesJavaSoftjre1.3binjavaw.exe" path "c:Program FilesJavaSoftjre1.3bin"

Simply add a line that points to your location. I also recommend adding a semicolon and then %PATH% to the end so that it doesn’t wipe out your existing path. On my machine, I added this:

Code:

if exist "c:program files (x86)javajre6binjavaw.exe" path "c:program files (x86)javajre6bin";%PATH%

Save and exit, and then double-click launch.bat. It should now fire right up!

–chris

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A couple more thoughts:

[*]Technically you don’t need the “if exist” part; you could just start from the word path (since you know it’s there).
[*]For that matter, you could just add the directory to your permanent path and remove all of the “if exist” statements if you’re comfortable with that. I suppose there’s a very small possibility that this could break another Java-based program that comes with its own javaw.exe, but such programs should find their own javaw.exe before the one in the path anyway, so it’s pretty unlikely.

–chris

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This would have been a much better article if Gizmo had tested his own blurred photo with both programs. Who trusts the maker’s own test?

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How do these tools compare with Picasa’s sharpening tool?

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DeConvolution, Wikipedia, also lists Deblur My Image:
http://www.adptools.com/deblurmyimage/eng/index.html

I have no experience using it, however.

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DeConvolution, Wikipedia, also lists Deblur My Image:
http://www.adptools.com/deblurmyimage/eng/index.html

It appears that Photo!Editor includes both a noise eliminator and the deblur function http://pho.to/editor/ And it’s free. Haven’t tried it yet.. but the samples look really good.

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Found Unshake confusing to use. Probably some obscure (to me) reason but did find Photo! Editor which is free and easy to follow.
Perhaps you could evaluate this and give us your thoughts sometime.

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