During the summer, our shop specializes in white water rafting photo's. We have recently, by either camera malfunction or photographer malfunction, had a rash of dark images. We have customers that go on these river trips and come in later to buy the photo's of themselves. In this part of the business we like to say we sell faces and this is making it difficult.


Any help to make these look good would be greatly appreciated. I have tried many things but there seems to be a lack of color information within those shadows....that or I am missing something.

Any help would be greatly appreciated so I am saying thanks in advance.

Alan

New levels adjustment layer.
Increased the lower slider a bit and decreased the upper slider a bit.
Added a dark mask and painted out all but the people.
Sharpened a little.
As I am a NOOB, thanks for the practice.

Try again (Believe it was the size)

I did a curves adjustment, then a shadow/highlight adjustment. I also took down the saturation of the yellows in the skin and sharpened a little bit. That girl in the middle looks like she is in pain! Looks like fun to me! Good luck!

-Kate

Photoshop Shadows adjustment. You could probably setup an action to batch process them if the necessary adjustment was similar photo to photo

Settings for shadows: 63-59-83
Color correction +3
Midtone contrast -7

Dodge tool.....selective color, color balance, contrast

Duplicate image.

Make copy layer active. Desaturate. Invert. Set layer blend mode to Soft Light. Reduce layer opacity to taste.

Finally applied layer mask and masked out all but the figures in the boat.

I first copied the background layer, set to luminosity. I applied the green channel to the picture in normal mode. Then I applied the red channel to the green channel at 75% in lighten mode. Then I used a curve on the green channel only to pick up the mid-shadow range some. (All of the above on the copy layer).

Then converted to LAB. Did a minor shadow/highlight adjustment on the L channel (about 20% in the highlights, and 8% in the shadows, with radius and level at about 30 each). Then did a curve adjustment layer to steepen the slope of the A and B curves, to get better skin tone. Then had to lock down the oars, the skin, so I could bring the blue jackets and the red raft back to a reasonable saturation.

Applied USM to the L channel at 50, 18, 15. Converted back to sRGB and saved.

Duffy

Hi there

I used screen and a levels adjustment using the mask to brighten things up some. Then a little boost in saturation and reduced color noise with a color layer and a little gaussian blur.

Butch

Hi All,

Gosh these were all great I only jumped in because the picture looked so fun!

I selected dark areas using Cntl + Alt + ~ and set the blend to screen
Used Cntl + J to duplicate that layer
Then went Layers > Flatten Image
Then went Image > Mode > Lab and in my Layers palatte clicked Channels
Selected Lightness
Then went to Filters > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask to sharpen a little, clicked OK
Went to Image > Mode > RGB to return to my colored picture.......

Pretty basic but a fun one.

After I re-read your post I decided to give their faces a little more color....

Thanks everyone for pitching in. It never ceases to amaze me how many different ways there are to the same end in Photoshop. It is clear that everyone of you have made a drastic improvement on the original product.

I am curious, I never dabbled much in LAB color and am not sure of the advantages. Perhaps someone could explain the benefits of going that route.

Alan

On LAB color, I recommend Dan Margulis book The Canyon Conundrum.

There are several things you can do in LAB that you can't do elsewhere. Steepening the A and B curves drives colors apart. You can also separate colors selectively by manipulating the curves. Conversely, lowering the slope of the A and B channel has the effect of driving colors together.

Next, the L channel contains only the contrast, so you can manipulate it without changing color. It is the best place to do shadow/highlights adjustments or general sharpening. It really makes a difference for these in highlights and deep shadows.

And for selective color changing, nothing works as well as LAB.

Next time you are in a good bookstore, you should see if they have the Margulis book and glance through the first couple of chapters. I had Elements until I did that. When I saw what LAB could do, I had to get the full Photoshop.

Duffy

Thank you Duffy. I will indeed pick up the Margulis book soon.

For some reviews from here on the Margulis book, check:

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11303

and if you want some very interesting explanations, summaries and discussion, check:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=18203

I found both of these yesterday while farting around. (Ever wonder why they call it surfing the web instead of farting around the web?)

Duffy

Too dark photos - when processing them, we should keep in mind the important
rules:
- to avoid color fringing, color shift and color spots
- to preserve details in Highlights

Using Gimp I made following steps:
1.
I decomposed the photo into CMYK with channels as layers
Filters -> Colors -> Decompose
2.
I activate channelK-layer (black channel) and using Curves I preserved
Highlights making "anchor-point"A and then I lightened lower Midtones
by moving the curve up - see Attachment.
Depending on photo we can, after this quickly and simple correction,
also run USM on this layer (whole or edges only). Up to taste.
3.
When satisfied with results on channelK-layer we can now compose
those CMYK-layers into one RGB-image back
Filters -> Colors -> Compose

that's all. :happy:

Dan Margulis in his priceless book about color corrections gives lot of great
tips and observations concerning digital images processing general.
I use Gimp and I am able to implement most of Margulis' great tips/methods.

Alan, you can try it - Gimp is a great Open Source project and is free for
personal AND commercial use.

- duplicate original
- shadows/highlights to bring out the darker areas
- converted a duplicate to LAB and used curves adj in lightness channel to improve the definition of the water
- copied and pasted back over-top of the RGB version
- selctive color adjustment for skin tones
- sharpen.

i'm a little surprised here at the lengths to which some folks are going on this correction. this is just a matter of light. that's it really. a simple contrast/brightness adjustment layer can easily handle all that's wrong here. and this could even be set up on an action/script with batch processing for doing many images.

and as for the picture taking, i'd guess offhand that the cameraman needs a little correction with camera settings and adjustments. this is a simple matter of being slightly underexposed.

there is a tendency sometimes in doing the work we're doing, to get a bit of a case of 'complicosis', that tendency towards making things more complicated than they need to be. the old 'KISS' (keep it simple, stupid) mandate is one we shld be aware of. what's the final product and how do we get there as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality is something we shld ask ourselves constantly. this particular image is targetted for a quick turn-around business. they take the pictures of tourists, who at the end of their journey are going to be presented with an image to purchase. so speed is essential here. so if the cameraman is having a bad day or needs to be re-trained or the camera is acting up, you want a quick fix.

so, whereas i see a lot of good results, i think this is more of an exercise in 'getting up to speed' than in 'getting up to quality'.

craig

Couldn't have said it better, Craig

Barbara, thanks for your explanation. I have downloaded GIMP but just have not learned to use the program yet. Your post is just the inspiration I need.



Craig, In the case of these photos, I am looking for more than just lightening them up. Most of the images our photographers are shooting, are much better and require a minimum of correction. Usually a little levels and H/S is all they need. These cases are the exception. As soon as we lighten them up the lack of color information adversely effects the quality to the point where in good conscience I cannot turnout the image to the customer. These people all pay in advance expecting that when they get home they will recieve a nice reminder of their vacation that they can enjoy for years to come.

We do not sell our photos cheap, $24 for one 5x7 is our starting point (most of our custmers buy in series of 5 action shots) and we are not the only show in town. Also remember that almost every boat will generate multiple orders (this particular photo has come up on at least 4 different orders). Multiply these numbers with number of rafts that went down the river that day, probably around 125, and you will begin to understand why I am looking for a bit more more than a levels adjustment. The photographer has been dealt with but that does not solve the problems with these images.

Our customers come in after their trips and view these images on computers and pick the ones they want. They are viewing low res images and expect that the actual printed version will look better (unfortunately our sales people will agree with them) and 99% of the time they do. We are not in a huge hurry to get these done as we normally ship the images and most work CAN be done quickly, so if we need to go the extra mile for our customers on occasion, we will. Many of our customers come back year after year. If we don't take the time to get it right they will be buying from the other guy. Then there is the old addage that says, "If you keep the customer happy he may tell somebody, If he is unhappy he will tell everybody."

Used Karen Eismann's Fill Flash action on this action photo.
Cinderella

Hey Cardmnal...... take a look at this...... the only thing I did was:

1. Ctrl + J to duplicate the layer

2. Set that layer to Screen with opacity of maybe 20% (play around with this but don't make it too light

3. Then I flattened it

4. Then I ran an action based on Katrin Eismann's Fill Flash written by Dave Jaseck by permission from Katrin and posted here as a free download:

http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm

I didn't change to Lab nor did I do any sharpening..... maybe this could work for you.

Oops..... sorry Cinderella........ I saw your post after I had already hit the "post" button....... my mistake......

I ave it a try...

cardmnal,

ok, gotcha.

this is still a matter of light, for the most part. the trick, after looking at this closer, is that brightening does tend to wash out some of the highs. histogram adjustment works, but tends to mess up the colors a bit. so, what i did was add a contrast/brightness adjustment layer to the levels that looked right on the people (not the water). then, i set this to half. that ended me up with 40 bright and 20 contrast. remember, adding contrast tends to raise saturation, particularly in the reds.

leaving the adjustment layer up at those settings, i then clicked on the image layer and did a historgram adjustment to even things out across the boards a bit. this kept the white water from being too bright but brought up the midtones on the faces, effectively restoring the colors there.

then, just to add a bit more definition, i duped the image layer and ran a clarify at a medium setting.

after all that i went back and adjusted the brightness/contrast layer back down to almost half of what it was, now making it 24/12, i think.

basically, the original histogram was showing a very unbalanced picture, with a LOT of stuff in the lows and another bulge, though not as severe, in the mid-range. the trick is to even all this out without losing color or clarity. curves alone wont do it, nor will levels or, as i originally thought, brightness/contrast. so, i stand corrected :)

craig

Hey Craig...... that's awesome ....... and a great way to do it ....... I realize that on mine, in order to brighten their faces, I managed to make them look like they were rafting down white cotton candy .......

You managed to avoid that and you could see the people's faces with some healthy color..... which I would imagine they'd have being outside and on the water.

Great job!

oxoxo
Beth

thanks beth :)

i'm afraid that sometimes i 'engage mouth and insert foot', so i had to take another look when cardmnal wasnt pleased ;)

i'm also finding that 'histogram adjustment' is a very powerful, useful and under-used tool.

craig

I agree, good way to get the job done.

Not that I wasn't pleased, I just felt that maybe the situation wasn't fully understood and that maybe I should explain why this seemingly easy task was becoming frustrating.

As always, I appreciate everyone's input and find a tremendous amount of value in these threads :nod:, Thanks again.

Alan

Hi,

Craig has already done a great job on this one, but I had already worked on it... and since it's a very quick Photoshop fix, I'll post it anyway.. :happy:

Selected the people on the raft (not very precisely because I was going to blur the mask anyway).

Created a Levels Adjustment Layer set to Screen to lift the shadows and adjust/increase the colours in my selection.

Inverted the selection and used Selective Colors to add a bit of colour to the water as well..

My workflow in Attachment 2.

Flora,

Beautiful job....... I'd also want to add "as usual" but it seems to take the special-ness out of your work which is beautiful!

oxoox
Beth

Thank you so much for your kindness, Beth!! :pleased:

Craig has already done a great job on this one, thank you, my wandering pixel gypsy :) and as beth said 'as usual' :) you realize that you're becoming a cliche' in how well you do things and you're going to have to start practicing what the anicent chinese craftsmen did, purposely put a flaw in your work so as to not anger the gods with 'perfect work' ;)

craig

You are welcome, Craig .... and thanks to you too!!! :pleased:
you're going to have to start practicing what the anicent chinese craftsmen did, purposely put a flaw in your work so as to not anger the gods with 'perfect work'.... I should be very safe from the anger of the Gods then ... even more so because this (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showpost.php?p=127319&postcount=8) wasn't even done on purpose ... proving I'm but a mere 'mortal' who doesn't threaten the Gods' perfection at all!!! :wink:

flora, :)

craig