Out-of-focus repair: tell creative blur from a genuinely missed plane
Wide-aperture portraits often blur backgrounds on purpose; flattening everything to tack-sharp destroys depth cues and can make skin and bokeh balls look synthetic. `out-of-focus-fix` fits frames where the intended subject plane is uniformly soft—group shots with only the wrong row sharp, ID photos focused on glass instead of the face, or mild front/back focus misses. Models that misread bokeh as noise may paint watercolor backgrounds; models that over-sharpen eyes can draw white halos on lashes and pupils. Judge on catchlights staying round, eyebrow continuity, and believable fabric folds, not thumbnail “pop.” If native resolution is low, deblur-then-print still shows stair-steps—re-shoot or RAW micro-focus pulls remain safer for print deliverables. For commercial portraits, align with the client on whether shallow depth-of-field is part of the look before you “fix” it away.
Defocus workflow
- Inside `out-of-focus-fix`, mask the region that should have been sharp and confirm background blur is intentional art direction.
- Inspect iris texture, lip boundaries, and helix detail for breaks or plastic highlights.
- For print, verify DPI against final trim size—screen punch rarely equals paper sharpness.