Dark and noisy wedding photo

[timmy1729]

I gathered a bunch of my wedding photos together to learn and practice with and here is the first one. It was in bad shape. It was dark, had a difficult color cast to it, and was noisier than a newborn baby.

I did about everything to this one. Levels, channel mixer, color balance, contrast mask using the Red channel, and one pass with NoiseNinja with high settings.

Here is the first original:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

and here is my after:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

To get the full resolution image, click on the 'Download' button above the picture.

So, what do you think? The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?
Any tips for pics like this? I've got a few that are like this that would look really nice fixed up.

[amica999]

Timmy, had a go at your image, but it is in a - let's say - not so good shape, opening the shadows especially around the eyes reveals only more noise. I removed most of the cast, applied some curves, did a little HIRALOAM (high radius, low amount) sharpening, finally ran some Neat Image to remove the noise...may be a little too much as it got rather soft - still it added some sort of glow, which I sort of like...

[timmy1729]

Originally Posted by amica999

Timmy, had a go at your image, but it is in a - let's say - not so good shape, opening the shadows especially around the eyes reveals only more noise. I removed most of the cast, applied some curves, did a little HIRALOAM (high radius, low amount) sharpening, finally ran some Neat Image to remove the noise...may be a little too much as it got rather soft - still it added some sort of glow, which I sort of like...

Amica,
That's wonderful! I've pretty much accepted the fact that this will never look like a well-shot photo. On this photo at least, I like the almost-oil-painting look to it. If the colors can be made to look somewhat normal, I am not so worried about minute detail being lost. I love what you did! I really need to learn to use curves since it appears they can work wonders. So far I have liked what Noise Ninja did to it, but I will have to try out Neat Image too since I like what it did for you too.

Do you have any critique of my retouched version?

[amica999]

Timmy, thank you for your kind words.
Regarding your retouch: the noise reduction looks pretty much like what I came up with, but on the pic there is still some sort of haze and - at least on my screen - there is still a strong yellow cast.

I don't know which software you use, but try this: after you adjusted your curves for contrast dupe the layer run filter-> blur->average blendmode color and invert this layer - now adjust the opacity till liking- this will most likely remove the cast. Merge down or make a composite then make a new curve adjustment for color (I for example focussed on the skin tones where cyan should be 1/3 - 1/5 of magenta value and yellow a few percent higher than yellow). Hope this helps a little

[Aleksman71]

You can try with moire removal

[0lBaldy]

I just did a levels adjustment, reduced the yellow and red a bit then noise removal on your original

Timmy, On your retouched version I tried the auto levels and got rid of the slight tint then used Polaroid Scratch & Dust with the "light" Box checked

[timmy1729]

Originally Posted by amica999

Timmy, thank you for your kind words.
Regarding your retouch: the noise reduction looks pretty much like what I came up with, but on the pic there is still some sort of haze and - at least on my screen - there is still a strong yellow cast.

I don't know which software you use, but try this: after you adjusted your curves for contrast dupe the layer run filter-> blur->average blendmode color and invert this layer - now adjust the opacity till liking- this will most likely remove the cast. Merge down or make a composite then make a new curve adjustment for color (I for example focussed on the skin tones where cyan should be 1/3 - 1/5 of magenta value and yellow a few percent higher than yellow). Hope this helps a little

Yeah, I tried quite a few adjustment layers to see if I could get rid of that yellow haze, but nothing worked. I will try your suggestion this afternoon. Thanks for the suggestions!

[timmy1729]

Originally Posted by Aleksman71

You can try with moire removal

I'll check it out when I get home this afternoon! Thanks!

[timmy1729]

Originally Posted by 0lBaldy

I just did a levels adjustment, reduced the yellow and red a bit then noise removal on your original

Timmy, On your retouched version I tried the auto levels and got rid of the slight tint then used Polaroid Scratch & Dust with the "light" Box checked

Thanks for the reworkings! I'm curious. What are the 50% gray and threshold layers doing? Also what does that color sample layer do?

[0lBaldy]

Originally Posted by timmy1729

Thanks for the reworkings! I'm curious. What are the 50% gray and threshold layers doing?

When doing a levels adjustment there are three points that should be set... (Black, Gray, White)

I enlarge the picture to the point where the important parts are showing that I want to be leveled and close to being color corrected... then create a new layer and fill it with 50% Gray change the mode to Difference.

The 50% Gray layer in Difference mode.. is used along with threshold to arrive at the Gray Point to set in levels

Open a Threshold adjustment layer and slide the slider to the left till there is only a small black area large enough to accept the point marker left... then whilst holding the Shift key I click the center of that small black spot.. That just set the Gray Point in the important part of the picture.. Click "OK" in the threshold box... I am now finished with the 50% gray layer..
Click the Eyeball on the 50% gray layer to deactivate it

Double Click the Thumbnail on the Threshold Layer again to activate it and bring up the sliders once again.
Slide the slider all the way to the left and adjust till there is a black spot just large enough to accept the point marker... then whilst holding the Shift key I click the center of that small black spot.. That just set the Black Point..

Slide the slider all the way to the right and adjust till there is a white spot just large enough to accept the point marker... then whilst holding the Shift key click the center of that small white spot.. That just set the White Point..

Click OK.. now finished with the Threshold Layer so click the Eyeball to deactivate it

Open a Levels Adjustment Layer.. Using the center Eyedropper (Set Gray Point) Click on the first point sample (gray)
Using the right Eyedropper (Set White Point) click on the third point sample (White)
Using the Left Eyedropper (Set Black Point) Click on the second point sample (Black)

adjust the center marker under the histogram if necessary... Click OK when finished

Press Shft+Ctrl+Alt+N+E to copy everything onto a new layer
Press Ctrl+J to create a working copy then continue on with this leveled copy

Originally Posted by timmy1729

what does that color sample layer do?

The color sample layer I used is to remove the overall greenish yellow tint... It is just a copy of the inverted tint color you are trying to remove..
select an area that should be neutral... take a color sample (the tint).. create a new layer... fill that layer with the foreground color (color sample)... Invert the color... change layer mode to Color... reduce opacity to 50%... the tint should be gone. (maybe!!)

Hope this helps!

[crazyfly1]

Here is mine. Main thing was I started in 16 bit mode and used apply image set to lumanocity with the red channel.
Btw if you use the red channel you have a decent bw.
Only thing I can suggest is use another photo and take the mans eyes from that and replace them.

[unimatrix001]

I used the red channel removed some of the noise, Hand colored using gradients and replaced the background. Hope u like

[timmy1729]

Originally Posted by crazyfly1

Here is mine. Main thing was I started in 16 bit mode and used apply image set to lumanocity with the red channel.
Btw if you use the red channel you have a decent bw.
Only thing I can suggest is use another photo and take the mans eyes from that and replace them.

Thanks for playing with this one! I like how that turned out. I forgot that I should try it in 16-bit. Thanks for the tips! I'll see how I can put them to use.

[lurch]

Here's what I did - thanks much for posting this. It was fun to play with.

Took it into Lab and used the lightness component of a curve to set - roughly - the black, white, and gray points (love OlBaldy's method for pegging the 50% gray point. Thanks, OB!). That move took care of the overall hazy look. Then used the a and b components to neutralize your tux and shirt. The other colors were still pretty funky at this stage. Back in rgb, I ran Topaz denoise at .8 strength. Any semi-mild de-noise step should work here. Image now less noisy, but still funky-colored.

From this point on, I emulated Flora, using masked curves, selective color, and hue/sat adjustment layers to tweak the skin tones and background color. Workflow is in second attachment. Finished off with Topaz sharpen at default settings and addition of a little noise.

[crazyfly1]

Very nice Lurch. I bet that sleeve was tough. You got the yellow out without making it grey and you can see the skin tone underneath.
Will you come do my laundry?

[lurch]

Thanks, crazy. Actually, the sleeve was pretty easy in Lab - just a matter of picking the right adjustment points. The faces were another matter. Those took a bit of fiddling.

Will you come do my laundry?

Ha! I have enough trouble remembering to do my own!

[r_dg]

here is my try, i used selective color adjustment, desaturation, reduce noise filter etc.