Thanks to both of you, I accidentally found that worked just as you say.
I was walking to a local store yesterday, and saw some large iguanas near Biscayne Bay. One of them let me gradually get rather close to it. It moved to a small concrete wall, alongside of Biscayne Bay. I got lots of technically “good”, but rather boring photos of the iguana, when it finally decided I was too close, and started scampering off to my right. I was expecting that, and panned the camera (Fuji X100f) to my right and captured one image. (Note to self, use burst mode and capture several, to give me a selection of images to choose from.)
Anyway, when I got home, I found an interesting image, with blurred feet (which looked good!), and a blurred body (which looked awful). I purchased my trial version of Topaz Sharpen AI (to get rid of the watermark) and tried what you suggested, not expecting it to work. It did work though, just as you describe! Unfortunately, while the software did make the body look good, it made the “scales” on top look awful. By an hour later, I had tried again, but told Topaz Sharpen AI to use the “soft image” tool, not the “motion blur” which I found I had used the first time. This time I got an image that a rather liked!
I can post all the images here if anyone wants to take a go at it.
_DSF4502 | 2021-08-06-Iguanas.jpg.dop (15.2 KB)
Excuses: Why the Fuji? Because it’s small and unobtrusive, to walk around with. Why use ‘jpg’? Because PL4 doesn’t accept raw images from the Fuji cameras that use the X-Trans sensors. The Fuji X100f does have a “zoom” control, but all it does is crop the image - it can’t zoom. It’s a great camera for snapshots, but I find the X-Trans sensor to be a pain. I guess I need to start shooting in RAW+JPG mode, or find a replacement snapshot camera… or continue doing things as I am now, shooting in ‘jpg’ which both PL4 and Topaz Sharpen AI accept. Or, I can put my old collapsable 50mm Summicron on my Leica, and use that as my “walkabout” camera. Or, I can continue what I’m doing, and hope that eventually DxO updates their software to accept Fuji raw images…