How to prevent/correct this?

[gabriele]

After retouching a couple of photos I ended up with these unpleasant artifacts.
Do you know how to correct/prevent this from happening?

http://static.flickr.com/3002/388071...8da1a52a_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/3208/388151...7c78c679_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/3506/388071...0902dc86_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/2526/388153...4a63d00b_o.jpg

all images are before/after resized at 200%

[suckerfree]

a bit explanation would help.....

just posting little crops from your pictures without any information about "what" you did with them isn't of any help for us.

basically if you overdo your "manipulation" - which I assume - based on your crops - you will always get unpleasant artifacts......

[gabriele]

I used Canon Digital Photo Professional for developing the RAW files, white balancing and slight exposure correction but no noise correction. Retouched was basically done in Picture Window Pro using masking and composition (very similar to PS layers with low pass, high pass, soft lighting, hard lighting, blending etc...).
For #3 and #4 I also used Topaz Details on different layers.
Noise reduction was done on the first 2 using Noise Ninja (with very low levels of correction) and with Noiseware for the other two (also very low correction as you can see). Sharpening was basically done with high pass filter on the L channel of HSL, but the artifacts were already visible at that point. All work flow in 16 bits. The originals are from JPEG straight from the camera.

[digitalcanvas73]

I think when you are sharpening the image using high pass filter the values are too high compared the size of the image.
Try lowering the value when you are retouching. Also be gentle on any sharpening you do. Over sharpening might create these kinds of problems.

ROY.

[gabriele]

I think the first two happened when I tone-mapped the photo by stacking differently exposed versions of the same shot (sort of HDR but from one RAW). That increased the level of details especially in the overexposed zones but also created the artifacts that indeed look very similar to oversharpening of details. The other two have more to do with the drastic change of hue/saturation of the blues and greens. It looks like chromatic aberration but CA was corrected during the process.

[Cuervo79]

Originally Posted by gabriele

I used Canon Digital Photo Professional for developing the RAW files, white balancing and slight exposure correction but no noise correction. Retouched was basically done in Picture Window Pro using masking and composition (very similar to PS layers with low pass, high pass, soft lighting, hard lighting, blending etc...).
For #3 and #4 I also used Topaz Details on different layers.
Noise reduction was done on the first 2 using Noise Ninja (with very low levels of correction) and with Noiseware for the other two (also very low correction as you can see). Sharpening was basically done with high pass filter on the L channel of HSL, but the artifacts were already visible at that point. All work flow in 16 bits. The originals are from JPEG straight from the camera.

Noise is there from the start even if you can't see it, some filters exaggerate this noise or turn them into artifacts.

You mention that you "developed the RAW files" but in the end you mention that "The originals are from JPEG straight from the camera" if you're working with jpegs instead of RAW you're working with files that have already been processed in camera, which sometimes may hinder you in post, for example if you have set your camera with noise reduction, it will do it automatically if you're saving your photos in JPEG, in RAW you still have the original information which you can then adjust in the "RAW converter", while in JPEG you can not get back the original.

I can not help you on the programs you mentioned, but most of the time color bleeding is irrelevant what bit depth you're working on, if you "go over the limit" you'll get color bleeding.

I'm wondering, in your first two crops, why are you sharpening them? When you try to sharpen out of focus parts of an image like those you get those artifacts.

Originally Posted by gabriele

I think the first two happened when I tone-mapped the photo by stacking differently exposed versions of the same shot (sort of HDR but from one RAW). That increased the level of details especially in the overexposed zones but also created the artifacts that indeed look very similar to oversharpening of details. The other two have more to do with the drastic change of hue/saturation of the blues and greens. It looks like chromatic aberration but CA was corrected during the process.

Is this the first time this happens to you? Or you're trying HDR for the first time? Many people go the "1 raw export to multiple exposures" route but doesn't work as well as actually doing the number of exposures separately.

[DJSoulglo]

sharpening is what's doing that, wether it's HighPass or something else.

[gabriele]

Originally Posted by Cuervo79

You mention that you "developed the RAW files" but in the end you mention that "The originals are from JPEG straight from the camera" if you're working with jpegs instead of RAW you're working with files that have already been processed in camera

sorry, I didn't make myself clear. the "originals" are simply the crops on the left side, those are from the JPEGs developed from the camera. The retouched crops (on the right) are from the RAWs. I shoot in JPEG+RAW mode then I use the RAW for retouching to keep the workflow in 16 bits.

Originally Posted by Cuervo79

Is this the first time this happens to you? Or you're trying HDR for the first time? Many people go the "1 raw export to multiple exposures" route but doesn't work as well as actually doing the number of exposures separately.

Well, actually these are my very first attempts with retouching. I know that "1 raw export to multiple exposures" isn't the same as multiple exposures, I only did that to recover some details especially in the highlights. I used low pass and blending and that might have increased noise or exaggerated the details.

Originally Posted by DJSoulglo

sharpening is what's doing that, wether it's HighPass or something else.

for #1, #2 it definitely look like oversharping. #3 is different and I think has more to do with the drastic change of hue/saturation for the sky and grass.