Noise Problem

[Digiboy]

Hello all,
I have been playing around with this photo of my Grandmother. The attached fil is exactly how the photo looks I have not enhanced it in any way Everything I try produces a very noisy photo, I have tried aggresively removing all the noise from all channels and just the blue channel, noise ninja didn't help much OnOne intellihance failed me (or rather I am not using the right settings in either plugin) could someone please explain the best way to go about fixing this kind of problem? (I have a lot of similar photos in an old tin found in the loft that have the same problem) I know the experts on this site can point me in the right direction you have never failed me yet!
Thanks


P.S for added fun does anyone know how to enlarge an image of this type to print to A3 mainly what resolution would I need to scan the photo in at?

[Turbo3G]

I'm not a pro or anything but here's my stab at it!

Workflow:

Adjust Levels to get tones right
Remove spots and damage with patch tool
Desaturate the picture
Select background, make new layer and lens blur it
run imagenomics noiseware pro @ stronger luma settings on background layer


-Chris!
http://bellamusestudios.smugmug.com

[crazyfly1]

Digiboy,

See this calc;

http://www.scantips.com/calc.html

[ashphotoart]

Spot Healing, Patch and Turning this photo in Photoshop CS3 via b/w command will produce a very high end result.

Ash

[zekeode]

Levels
Shadow/Highlight
Sharpening
Cloning/healing
Noise removal (harder on background)

[Digiboy]

Good grief so many different options to try that I never even th=ought of Thank you all so much I will spend the weekend playing with all the photos. (my favorite passtime) I knew I would get all the help I needed here.
thank you all so much

[Digiboy]

Originally Posted by crazyfly1

Digiboy,

See this calc;

http://www.scantips.com/calc.html

This is now one of my favorite links thanks

[George Ingram]

This method will eliminate the noise: duplicate the layer run gaussian blur about 10 pixels
change blend mode to color DONE!

[Digiboy]

Originally Posted by George Ingram

This method will eliminate the noise: duplicate the layer run gaussian blur about 10 pixels
change blend mode to color DONE!

Thank you With all the different methods here I am going to have a lot of fun this weekend

[sergio2263]

Hi

I've had a go, tough one mucked about with levels, shadow/highlights and blend mode to multiply. haven't had time to restore, i have the original size if you want. i don't think it's so much noise, the pixels are blown out in some areas, hence the extreme lightness.

regards


helen

[Digiboy]

Very nice thank you.
The main problem with this photo is the fact that it was a copy of an old photo that no longer exists., The shop it was copied at produced the appalling version I labeled "original" so it is all I have to work with. I have played around with it this weekend but it is still no better. Your try however looks very nice, if you send it to me I would be inclined to go with your version and I would not learn so, I will continue playing with it until I get results at least as good as the ones I have seen here. I am definately learning a lot about what not to do to a photo.
Thank you all so much

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by Digiboy

Very nice thank you.
The main problem with this photo is the fact that it was a copy of an old photo that no longer exists., The shop it was copied at produced the appalling version I labeled "original" so it is all I have to work with. I have played around with it this weekend but it is still no better. Your try however looks very nice, if you send it to me I would be inclined to go with your version and I would not learn so, I will continue playing with it until I get results at least as good as the ones I have seen here. I am definately learning a lot about what not to do to a photo.
Thank you all so much

Digiboy,

I am not sure whether you are referring to my version, as mentioned you are welcome to have the larger size. I couldn't post the image over 100kb size. Please pm me with your email address.

thanks

regards

helen

[MatthewMarshall]

whats wrong with a little noise. Older images are ok to have noise, looking at the examples so far, all are way over edited. Yes its ok to get rid of small smudges and dirt marks, but remember photos have grain. People try to over correct an image, because they want it to look flawless. Its ok to have a little grain. when you get rid of grain the image losses all its charm.

[Digiboy]

Originally Posted by MatthewMarshall

whats wrong with a little noise. Older images are ok to have noise, looking at the examples so far, all are way over edited. Yes its ok to get rid of small smudges and dirt marks, but remember photos have grain. People try to over correct an image, because they want it to look flawless. Its ok to have a little grain. when you get rid of grain the image losses all its charm.

Hmm I never thought of it like that, I will deffinatley consider that when I am dealing with all the photos in the box. Thanks

[zekeode]

Originally Posted by MatthewMarshall

looking at the examples so far, all are way over edited.

I'd like to know what is over edited at my example. So i can improve my skills....

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by MatthewMarshall

whats wrong with a little noise. Older images are ok to have noise, looking at the examples so far, all are way over edited. Yes its ok to get rid of small smudges and dirt marks, but remember photos have grain. People try to over correct an image, because they want it to look flawless. Its ok to have a little grain. when you get rid of grain the image losses all its charm.

Everyone has a right to an opinion, but there seems to be a little confusion here, on my part I didn't think there was a grain problem with this image, what i can see is a blown out pixel problem where the photo is way to highlighted in some areas and that's where i've tried to fixed it. if you look closely to the original the photo doesn't seems to have grainy problem.

anyway everyone to their own, no hard feelings


cheers

helen

[Kraellin]

i had a go at this also. interesting picture. i started this with a high contrast curves layer and lowered the highs just a touch to reduce the brightness on her face a bit.

the rest was mostly my standard fare, clone, airbrush and push/smudge

[Digiboy]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

i had a go at this also. interesting picture. i started this with a high contrast curves layer and lowered the highs just a touch to reduce the brightness on her face a bit.

the rest was mostly my standard fare, clone, airbrush and push/smudge

Thanks Craig, very nice work. This is why I class this site as my favorite retouching site, if you have a problem you just have to ask and everyone does their best to help you.
My thanks to everyone.


Lee

[Kraellin]

you're welcome, lee

and yes, we do try to contribute (and show off) to each other

[chillin]

I introduced a different noise level on separate channels & then worked with
denoising software. At the end I applied some level adjustments.

[Digiboy]

Originally Posted by chillin

I introduced a different noise level on separate channels & then worked with
denoising software. At the end I applied some level adjustments.

That is a very good result. I would never have thought of adding noise only to remove it. I have an awful lot to learn!!
What noise removal software do you use? I have tried Noise Ninja and Tiffens software and get ok results (could get better results if I knew what I was doing with them, as I said a lot to learn etc) but I am always up to trying new plugins. Having said that the noise filter in CS3 isn't bad IMHO, although that could be because its easy to use.
Thanks again to everybody for all their help, it really is appreciated

Lee

[pieohpah]

I had a go at it!

I'm used to PhotoShop but this time I had to do with Gimp and Neat Image.
All in all:
* Levels, used threshold to see where the darkest and lightest parts where to set the black/white points in levels. Adjusted the gray point as well.
* Curves in an ever so slight s-curve.
* Neat Image to clean it up
* Very lousy job from me on the clone stamp to get rid of the remaining specs. I could have spent a lot more time here.
* And a little unsharp mask to finish it off.

/Peter

[Kraellin]

welcome to RP, Pieohpah and thanks for submitting

[Digiboy]

Originally Posted by pieohpah

I had a go at it!

I'm used to PhotoShop but this time I had to do with Gimp and Neat Image.
All in all:
* Levels, used threshold to see where the darkest and lightest parts where to set the black/white points in levels. Adjusted the gray point as well.
* Curves in an ever so slight s-curve.
* Neat Image to clean it up
* Very lousy job from me on the clone stamp to get rid of the remaining specs. I could have spent a lot more time here.
* And a little unsharp mask to finish it off.

/Peter

Sorry I have only just got round to responding to your post, I had a bit of an accident with my car and I have been somewhat preoccupied with trying to get it sorted out .
I myself am having a look at Gimp software just put Ubuntu on an old laptop and I am now trying to learn where everything has moved to. I have to say though I like Ubuntu and Gimp looks really interesting to me. (although it will some getting used to I think)
Thank you for your take on the photo I will look at Neat image next.
So much to do and so little time to play

Thanks again to everyone
Lee