How to focus eyes

[Hendy374084080dng]

How can I get eyes of a portrait focused in photoshop?

[D Fosse · Accepted solution]

You focus on the eyes when you take the photo.

[davescm]

Best, most succinct, and accurate answer I've read all week 🙂

Dave

[Hendy374084080dng]

yes, but any way to do this in photoshop if was not done?

[davescm]

There are various plug ins that claim to sharpen blurred images, some of which use AI to invent sharpened detail. In my view, none look as realistic as a correctly focused image.

Dave

[Hendy374084080dng]

I'm not looking to sharpen, just to focus eyes.

[D Fosse]

Yeah, well, it was time for the unpleasant truth 😉

I do understand what the OP was asking. But the fact is - while you can fix many things, there is one thing you cannot fix: out of focus. I work as a photographer, and when I'm behind the camera, what takes up 90% of my brain capacity is what do I put in sharp focus here. Because that's the one thing you need to get right.

[Trevor.Dennis]

This is a before and after using Topaz Photo Ai.  It's _very_ impressive, but maybe a bit pricey (US$199).  This used its Recover Faces preset using the default settings, but it does heaps more, and does it really very well.  

[Trevor.Dennis]

This is what it looks like when pushed a bit further.  Enhanced Face on the right the same as the images above.  Sharpen set to Strong on the left.  We are starting to see artefacts now, but compared to the original, that's a stand out job.  You need to click to expand to see it properly.

[D Fosse]

Yeah, but how will it look with a real world gritty photo? This is too plastic AI to really tell you anything.

[Lumigraphics]

I've experimented with ways to sharpen an out-of-focus image and its pretty much a losing effort. Learn how to get focus correct in-camera, this is one of the things that you MUST nail (unlike a lot of other technical details that can reasonably be altered later.)