How can I fix the blur in this photo?

Question

Someone else took this picture & the background was focused instead of us. please help.It was my farewell picture and It really would be great if someone can help me.

Answer 1

I am sorry to deliver an unwanted answer: You cannot fix that.

Blurring images is a technique used for hiding some information, usually pieces of text, registration plates, faces, in the way it cannot be recovered.

When some detail is blurred its signal is mixed with the signal from the surroundings. The information form the blured image is something like "she sum of two numbers is ten" but you want to know the numbers; was it one and nine or three and seven? It is straightforward path from four and six to ten, but going backwards you don't have enough information.

Next time, set the camera to use center point to AF, or ask the "photographer" to do several shots and check them ASAP; just in case of something going wrong.

Answer 2

I'm so excited about my new toy (SmartDeblur 1.27) that I tried it on this. I will post my result so you can see what kind of detail could be saved. You can find other deconvolution programs in the posts linked by Michael Clark.

The sharp background seems to be really difficult for this simple program. I would imagine that Photoshop or the newer version of SmartDeblur would do a much prettier image. Or you could first make the background blurred or black and then try the tools on it.

But I think that the original has the feeling in it. Even when it emphasizes "FOOD" quite a bit.