Noisy JPEG Images

[kjsargenti@hawa]

I have an image that I took with my old Olympus D600L camera that I absolutely love. Very noisy image and I'd love to be able to fix it without losing the edge detail. Anyone have any suggestions for the best approach. I've used both Dfine and Neat Image and neither give me satisfying results. I'm willing to spend some time on it, but wonder if anyone has any suggestions on how to keep the edges intact beyond using a mask or the history brush to paint the edges back in? Some nifty 'edge' trick????

TIA,
KJ Sargenti

[Duv]

You may want to try byRo 10 minute Toolkit.atn. You' find it in the Resource section of RetouchPro.

Cheers
Dave

[cardmnal]

kjsargenti@hawa, first let me say welcome to RP.

Are you just looking for a shortcut for future projects? I ask because this image really isn't that time intensive. I did a quickie job in about a minute and a half using a layer mask.


1) Duplicate layer.
2) Apply gaussian blur
3) Hold alt and click the mask button on the bottom of the tool pallet (this fills the mask with black).
4) Using white paint and a smallish air brush I painted the edges to remove the noise.

[kjsargenti@hawa]

Thanks to both of you. Downloaded byRo. And, to the question about shortcuts, yes... I have lots of old photos from the D600L that I'd love to be able use.

Mahalo, KJ

[akj]

Forgive me for asking but what is this "noise" exactly? For some reason I can't see what you guys are talking about . . . Help!

[Gary Richardson]

Have to agree with you Amanda. On the basis of the posted image, there is little noise on the image. Quite a bit of posterisation due to reducing it to 100K, but not too much noise. That's not to say that the original image is without it though, therefore the advice given is valid.

[cardmnal]

Posterization, is that what it is called. It's not what I consider photographic noise but there is some distortion along the edges of the oar and with closer inspection along the shoreline and skyline. that is what I attemprted to repair.

[Gary Richardson]

Cardmnal the areas you're talking about look to have some jpg artifacts, and your way of getting rid of them works fine.

Posterisation is what is visible across all of the image, and is caused by compressing a large file down to a much smaller one. In doing this, what is lost is the smooth transition from one colour or shade to another. Instead the transitions become stepped, giving an effect very similar to the one created by the posterising filter in PS.

The posterisation fault will not be on the original image, so will not be the "noise" that KJ Sarjenti is trying to remove. Perhaps a close up of the noise he wants removing would be helpful.

[cardmnal]

Cool, I love learning new stuff...even terminology.

Thanks.

[kjsargenti@hawa]

It seems I used the wrong terms for what is the problem... but it's the pixelization in the water and sky, (and in my grandson's face) that I object to. Using blur and a mask, I was able to get rid of the most of it, but lost the edge definition in the clouds/sky both sky & relection on water. The major edges between land/sky/canoe/grandson I was able to keep via the mask, but when bringing them back into the cloud/sky area, it re-introduced more pizelization that I wanted. Frankly, I was hoping for a magic bullet... <smile>

Thanks to all for your feedback,

Aloha, Kathy

[Duv]

I thought I gave you a magic bullet with byRo artifact reduction. Did you try it? Seemed to work really well for me with the second pop up setting of 1.

Cheers
Dave

[kjsargenti@hawa]

I did try it and it certainly improved the image by leaps and bounds, but there is still pixelization in area of the water (which I can fix by hand) and the clouds/sky definition is softened - which has been my main concern.

I think the bottom line is though all these amazing tools are... well, amazing - "sometimes" you still can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The D600L's resolution is just too low for me to be able to get a great 8X10 out if it. I'll just have to enjoy this one in a smaller size.

Thanks again to you and everybody else for their input... This forum is a wonderful and though I'm very new here, I've already learned a lot reading the posts on this forum. Thanks!

Aloha, Kathy

[Duv]

I used to own a D600L. My very first digital. Loved it too except it drove me nuts trying to focus in low light.
Just one last thing. You want to print an 8 x 10. What size is the image when you load it into Photoshop? You might get better results in either using a program like Genuine Fractals to increase image size or this:

Create an action and hit record:

Go to Image: Image Size: Change Width and Height to 105%.
Stop recording Action.
Run the action as many times as you need to get the size up to 8 x 10. Sometimes the pixelation is much less noticeable. Then run byRo's action.

Let me know if it helps.

Dave

[akj]

Yes--I see it now . . . thanks for the clarification everyone. I feel better now.

[Flora]

Hi kjsargenti@hawa,

Welcome to RP!

I had a go at your picture using the method described in this Tutorial to minimize pixelization and .jpg artifacts

[kjsargenti@hawa]

Wow! Great job. I've printed out the tutorial.. thanks so much, I think I'll be able to do a beautiful job on the full size photo. Thanks again,

Kathy

[creeduk]

Check out PS CS2 it has a noise reduction plugin when it comes and it has a remove jpeg artifact option , it allows use of channels and this is all done in one interface it looks great. I know this is not out today but I thought it was worth a mention.

[venivedi]

Originally Posted by creeduk

Check out PS CS2 it has a noise reduction plugin when it comes and it has a remove jpeg artifact option , it allows use of channels and this is all done in one interface it looks great. I know this is not out today but I thought it was worth a mention.

For a moment...it was read as 'a new PS (playstation)'

[creeduk]

lmao, no there is no new playstation with built in photoshop....just the new photoshop CS2.