Today’s tips are about subtly enhancing and often even saving, difficult photos. This technique can solve three common problems with photos:
1. A pic is too grainy, such as one underexposed in low light.
2. A pic comes out with less than perfect focus, so we sharpen it, only to find it looks sharpened because of all the speckly sharpened pixels we’ve added.
3. A pic contains way too much fine detail that is distracting, a common problem with nature shots, especially in the woods where every little leaf and trillium bud competes for the eye’s attention.
Here is a simple and effective technique that can lessen those flaws significantly, while actually enhancing the photo in the process.
Let’s start with problem #3. Here is a sample of a repaired nature scene that had way too much detail in the leaves and growth all over the place, cluttering the view and distracting from the falls. It was easily fixed in Photoshop by making a dupe, using fine unsharp mask (“fine” has settings about like this: amount=400-500, radius=0.3-0.7, threshold=zero), then using a mild amount of gaussian blur on the top layer, and fading back the opacity of the blurred layer until the main forms looked clear but the smaller distractions were sufficiently softened.
For a subject like woods or falls the slightly misty look this gives fits the setting, so it can be a nice enhancement too:
http://www.pbase.com/image/23641600
Now that in that pic the final version had noticeable blurring/haziness, but we don’t always want it that noticeable. Here are two examples where the sharpening on the bottom layer was VERY fine (amount=500, radius=0.3, threshold=zero)and the blurred top layer had just slight opacity, just enough to cancel out the bright pixel speckles that a high amount of USM with a tiny radius can create:
http://www.pbase.com/image/23440007
http://www.pbase.com/image/23579679
As you can see, the blur is barely noticeable, and the picture ends up look soft and sharp and the same time. These photos actually had unacceptably soft focus due to scanning with descreening on a linen finish print. But now they look almost as crisp as the originals.
Sometimes you want a bit more haze and a “soft focus” look, or want the lights in a picture to glow. This is easy to do by simply increasing the opacity of the top layer in the above steps. Notice the effect:
http://www.pbase.com/image/23612808
http://www.pbase.com/image/23628630
In the first, the glow suggests the sunlight is reflecting off the hayseed dust, which is always present in a hayloft but seldom picked up well by cameras. In the second, there is just enough glow to enhance the candlelight. This blurring also served the purpose of hiding all the grain that appeared on the pumpkin surface and floor due to unusual lighting conditions and underexposure of surfaces.
Last, there is a small change you can make in the process to produce an even more pronounced glow, a neon effect if used on bright colored lights--try it on your Xmas tree pics! All you need to do is set the top layer to Lighten mode instead of Normal mode. Here are examples:
http://www.pbase.com/image/23663460
http://www.pbase.com/image/21182091
The first photo had lens flare from shooting into the sun, so instead of trying to fight it, I enhanced the effect to make his hair glow even more. The second is actually from my photo art gallery and as you can see the horse had been smudged first before the effect was applied. This is the only other photo I could find for an example, but it would do pretty much the same thing on a normal white horse photo as well.
NOTE: If you don't want to make two layers, you can just apply gaussian blur after sharpening then use edit>fade to reduce opacity of the blur, or change to lighten mode, or both. I prefer making separate layers, however, since I like having the option of combining modes/effects in a stack.
I hope you find something useful here. To learn more ways to repair and enhance photos, visit my site at
http://www.innographx.com/forum
Phyllis
Sat Nov 22, 2003 7:32 am 