Help w/ Retouching Photo

[christine66]

Could someone please check out this picture that was taken by a novice?

http://tinyurl.com/32qu8

It was obviously taken with poor lighting. It is from an amateur with (I'm assuming) your basic 2.1 megapizel digital camera. The picture-taker just wants me to clean it up and remove the background to put this image on her website (I blackened out the middle design to protect her privacy).

In using Photoshop 7, I'm just going in and adjusting the levels, which washes out the right side of the pillow and gives it a yellowish overcast on the midtones. It doesn't have to be perfect. I just know my job could be easier (cleaning this image up) if she took the picture with better lighting.

Any suggestions on what I can tell her as far as taking the picture? (Such as time of day that allows the best natural light in a well-lit room, etc...?) Remember, this is a novice consumer, and I am not going to tell her to "get professional" with proper lighting equipment, etc. There's got to be some simple picture-taking techniques that she can do when she's taking them.

Any suggestions?

Christine

[kiska]

Try this action. It's adjustable. Katrin Eisman's flash fill. How do I attach it???

kiska

[Chip Hildreth]

I assume you will be getting more of these or that the picture taker can re-shoot.

Have them set-up roughly the same way, same kind of light from the window and place a white reflector, maybe a poster size piece of foam core to the subject's left to fill in the shadows (they can vary the distance between subject and reflector to adjust the amount of fill). The window light is pretty harsh and killing some of the texture on the right. If they could move the whole set, reflector, pillow and camera, further away from the window it would take out some of the ranginess and the camera's auto-exposure should behave a little better.

This is, by the way, a solid technique for shooting lots of subjects... diffuse window lighting (single light source) and a reflector to back fill the shadows. What you don't want in this situation is on camera flash, it will flatten the subject out.

[christine66]

Thanks, Chip! I am going to try that myself!

Kiska, I'm eager to see what that attachment is you are talking about (?).... I have never heard of Katrin Eisman, but while perusing the site, I understand she is a guru in this area and has a book out. I think I will have to visit my local bookstore. But is her technique anywhere posted here?

Christine

[kiska]

It could be. I tried to attach the action. Manage attachs. would not read the extension.atn. I don't know how to make it a .zip and I don't remember where I got it. help??

kiska

I FOUND IT. Go to www.atncentral.com/download.htm. It's under the heading 'Editing and Highlight Tools'. It's free

[christine66]

Wow, Kiska! Thanks so much for taking the time to get that over to me! I can't wait to play around with it! (I just love "actions"!)

Christine

[Gary Richardson]

Christine, you don't really say too much when you say you want to clean up the image, what are you trying to achieve with this, and what type of help are you looking for. When you adjusted with levels, were you trying to enhance contrast, even out tone and reduce contrast, expand dynamic range, what ?

[christine66]

Gary, to answer your question, I am just trying to lighten it up and color correct it the best I can to make it more visually appealing. I am not the original picture taker, and the picture is being emailed to me to delete the background and to just brighten up the image (just basic cleanup work... this picture is going to be for web viewing... not print, and doesn't have to be perfect... just better than what it is!)

The original came over to me very dark and had much yellowing and cast shadows, and also appears to be quite grainy. Since I am going to be getting more of these types of pictures to work on, I want to tell the (amateur) picture-taker the best way to take these pictures from the get-go to make my life easier in cleaning them up.

My question really, would be geared toward the photography end of it. (Like how Chip answered. Anything to add?) What is the best suggestion I can give to her that would result in a "better" picture without such harsh shadowing and off-balance tonal ranges. (I'm guessing she took these pictures too late in the day?)

I tried the technique mentioned above (the action), but it made the subject too washed out.

Thanks,

Christine

[Flora]

Hi Christine,

I can't help you with tips on taking a good picture, but I had a go at your picture with Photoshop .... Is this more or less what you had in mind?

Given the nature of the subject ... I decided for a soft look ....

Please, let me know if you are interested on how I got there...

[kiska]

I played with the lighting only. Sorry the fill flash didn't work.

Flora, I think it's sad but very wise of you to be less open with your techniques.

kiska

[christine66]

Flora & Kiska! Wow! What a difference! Flora... do tell! (BTW, I also have been putting the soft drop shadow to the image, but the subject's color was way off... This is MY end result (notice the yellowing to the right): (sorry, not sure how to post a picture here so I have to give you a link): Constructive criticism welcomed!

http://tinyurl.com/2m7jj

Christine

[Flora]

Hi Christine,

..I think you did a very goo job on selecting and balancing lights/shadows in your picture!!

What I did is:

Balancing lights/shadows

• Duplicated the Background.

• Desaturated the duplicate. (Ctrl+Shift+U)

• Inverted it (Ctrl+I)

• Set the blending to Soft Light and adjusted the Opacity.

Removing the yellowish tinge

• Created a new empty layer, set the blending to Color.

• Used a soft Brush (Opacity 30-60%), keeping the Alt key pressed, sampled 'good' colour ... released the Alt key and carefully painted over the tinge.

Merge Visible*:
* Create a new empty Layer on top of all the others.
* Open your Layers Palette's Menu and, keeping the Alt key pressed, click on 'Merge Visible'.

A new Layer containing all your corrections will be created on top of all the other Layers containing each single step you took before. ....

This procedure enables you to carry on with your restoration from your advanced point... without losing any of the previous steps/Layers... thus giving you the possibility to retrace your steps and making changes wherever necessary.... even after you've 'finished' the job....

For the softer look

• Increased Saturation.

• Duplicated the merged saturated layer, Blending Soft Light.

• Strongly blurred the duplicate and adjusted Opacity.

Kiska

Very well balanced!!!

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Christine, sorry about the earlier post, just was'nt quite sure what you wanted. Can't really help with the photographic advice, I'm just a common or garden snapper myself. Only thing I can suggest is that your friend checks her white point if she's using a digital camera, if she's using tungsten lamps (ordinary light bulbs) for her light source, then the white point of the camera needs to be set for that. She could also try swapping out the bulb for a brighter one when she wants to take photos. I've also attatched a retouch of your image, is this the sort of thing you wanted.

[christine66]

Yes... exactly, Gary! Nice job! Thanks everyone, for all your helpful suggestions and input!

Christine