Preserved Topic: Help fixing up a bad photo (Page 1 of 1)

Well, I sure don't post in this section much... in fact, this just might be the very first time ever.

I am working on a site for a good friend. He has a picture from a recent concert that he would *really* like to have on his site but it's all washed out.
http://www.stephenulangca.com/work/concert.jpg

I've tried a few things to make it somewhat presentable but I've not had much luck. Any tips on what else I could try would be very much appreciated.

What techniques have you tried already? Have you tried mucking around with Levels and Curves....or any other combination of image adjustment techniques? Perhaps maybe playing around with screen modes.....

-=Luxo Jr.=-

Doin' wierdassed animations since 1986

maybe u can try to use the sharp filter or clone stamp,hue/satuation
..ee,u must have enough patient


i love beatles

eekkk!

ok I took a quick shot at it, but it still looks pretty bad, unless you reduce it a whole bunch! The biggest problem I could see was the blue channel is really bad, low contrast and very grainy. I got rid of it and replaced it with the green channel and then adjusted the color via IMAGE>ADJUST>COLOR BALANCE. Some blurs, despeckles, contrast, on individual channels and as a whole - curves setting the black high (I would rather have too much contrast/darkness rather than grain!) THEN a quick auto levels which I faded about 50% (auto levels/contrast usually is bad IMO, but I like to get PS's 'opinion')

And still it is grainy/yucky. So I failed, but maybe someone will see a better way

here are my 2 versions:

51k & 200k

good luck

Bugs, can you tell us how much can we reduce the file?

Or your friend wants to put it in his web site at the current size?

Wooo hooo. You go, lotiss!

Nice one!

I tried to keep it similar to the original.

after adjusting levels, channels, curves and all that, Y create a new snapshot, add some scratches, noise and then I painted the original in darken mode from the new snapshot..

here (onehundredandsomethying)

The face is still too blurry, I don't know how to paint, but I think that somebody like DL-44 or DarkGarden will make an exellent job sharpening the face.

Edit: a leveled one. Maybe I should apply the level stuff before the history stuff
[This message has been edited by Wakkos (edited 01-09-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Wakkos (edited 01-09-2002).]

Here's a site that may help with some touch up.
UB
http://www.hejoly.demon.nl/creatief/fotobewerk.html

The next step would be to go through it with an air brush and even out all the colors.

It will give it a little more of a look like it has been modified, however, if you do it right it will still look much better than it does now.

I would do it for you if I had my wacom with me, but my mouse skills are lacking. Good luck.

-mage-

Let's see what we can do. The grain seems to be a necessary evil, but a bit of reduction is possible.

Reduced 500 px wide
Full Size

I spent most of the time (not long, sadly) working on three separate layers. Two greyscale, and one colour.

Did a blur on the colour layer to get rid of the artifacting, and then turned it off. Bottom greyscale layer got a levels treatment, and a bit of curves, some hand touching, but not much else. Greyscale above that had the contrast adjusted, then a slight blur, more brightness and contrast, then levels, and finally curves.

Quick mask for the top Greyscale layer, then I painted away the areas that needed to stay crisp (his face, the guitar edges and neck, parts of his hands) You can really cheat on this step if you have time, by keeping the crisp areas wherever he has lines on his face, but leaving the blurred portion intact across any flat or smooth skin. Hand touching in this way would go far.

Back to the bottom layer, and a bit of smudging to reduce any noticeable artifacts...and that's that. *Turn the colour layer back on, and adjust the blending mode to Color. I also fooled around with a second colour layer set to "overlay" right above that. Both versions had their merits.

It's still not great..but the grain is reduced noticeably, and it's still recognizable, hopefully

Lotiss, want to take a stab at this one to take it more toward what you had? I think a blend of methods might work out well here.

Peter

< *edit: Seems I forgot to turn the colour layer back on...at least in description....argh >

[This message has been edited by DarkGarden (edited 01-09-2002).]

My go at it... bit of a different approach. Reduced. Have it big... if you need it.

http://www/nojive.f2s.com//concert4.jpg

Whoaa... something strange going on here... maybe somebody can explain it to me. As the image is downloading...it's coming thru at the size intended... but then all of a sudden it does some sort of 'reduction/ resize' thing... and I'm seeing jaggies around the guitar that shouldn't be there.

I've just upgraded to IE6. That have something to do with it? Very strange. Never seen this before.

thnx nj

[This message has been edited by NoJive (edited 01-09-2002).]

NJ:
That's a function of IE6 actually.

If you want, you can change it so that it doesn't resize automatically (or just let it resize, hover over the pic, and a "full size" button will appear)

It's under Tools>>Internet Options>>Advanced (tab)>>Multimedia...just uncheck the "Enable image resizing" box.

Voila.

DG, that's a great job you got there! the tip is very good!

NoJive, I'll make it not so dark.... maybe the levels slide went up?

2 different methods, 2 different results.
I didn't think they've been tried here yet.
Results: poor
But check for yourself

http://www.gizba.com/x/neptunemoon/images/concert1.jpg
http://www.gizba.com/x/neptunemoon/images/concert2.jpg

edit: oh, albeit the poor results, in case you're interested, i used curves, moiré pattern removal and clarify (only the first in photoshop). In the second i resorted to a more subtle aproach of the method above.... but since the equalizer couldn't help me on this one(try to equalize the picture to see what I'm talking about), jaggy it remained.
Well, it was the best I could do without actual blurring or resizing (although resize will dramatically improve it).

[This message has been edited by Arthemis (edited 01-10-2002).]

Awesome! Thanks so much for the help. I'll be able to try out some of these techniques more tonight. I know there's only so much that can be done with such a grainy source image.

Dam...... I was getting close... and um ..the orange lights came on.

Full Size 61k

late to respond too!

I thought I would give this a go and this is the best I could come up with www.indusgraphics.com/concert.htm

I did some adjusting with the Curves and used a little of the Hue/Saturation. I tried to make the image a little brighter but that washout came back so I had to keep it on the dark side...good luck

DarkG: Thanks. That be the culprit. <bg>

Late, as always, I had to give it a go, too.
A blured copy, another copy in multiply mode, a grey layer to lighten it up, and a little airbrushing..



And the 500 px. version

<edit> Stupid fingers</edit>



[This message has been edited by docilebob (edited 01-10-2002).]

DG: messed around a little more with it tonight using your methods and I was not really satisfied with what I got, I think you took it as far as it can go there, so sorry Bugs, I am done! I ended up with either too dark, too blury, or too grainy - does it have to be a "photograph"? If you wanted to run a filter (like dry brush) over it, the results are more pleasing than anything I have come up with. I like DB's version too, but it is a little too dark and desaturated for my taste, but then again I am a technicolor type of person! (or as one of my old prof's used to say, the "rainbow brite puke" color range)

... hey one thing that could be done would be to blur the background and try to keep the foreground in focus, since it is the background that is really the worst as far as grain goes. I don't know the "rules" as far as depth of field goes in photography and how to fake it in PS, perhaps Steve can chime in on that one and give it a shot using DB or DG's pic?