Problems with Moire

[Askmir]

A picture I took yesterday with my Nikon D3 and 50mm has moiré, how do i get rid of it.

Any guidelines for avoiding it in future will be appreciated, from whatever I've read if moiré removal needs softening of the image that route I'd rather avoid.

[Tony W]

Re: Why is this happening?

Difficult to say about removal for this image as it would probably be easier if the original colour image could be seen then there is a chance that the moire could be removed without softening the image.

The background material is obviously the issue and it looks like it might be a shiny silk cloth or similar and you may be able to see it by eye if you look carefully at the scene? It should be noticeable on the camera LCD when zoomed in and in a case like a still life you should have the time to take a closer look.

A small change in camera viewpoint/angle or a change of aperture can sometime alleviate the problem

[Askmir]

Re: Why is this happening?

Thanks Tony, I appreciate your response. The fabric is a black matt lycra fabric with no reflections, I have 3-4 different black fabrics all had the same problem, I'm looking now for a black fabric which I can use for my future still life shots, since the fabric is the culprit.

[Chain]

Re: Problems with Moire

I assume the original photo is in color? Is the moire colorful? If so we can probably remove it quite well. Would need a 100% crop/version of the original image to test.

(Never convert to black and white in the camera, and preferrably shoot in raw).

Example of crop of an image with moiré that was easy to remove:
http://adobe.rognemedia.no/images/160-1.jpg

The process is to essentially adjust luminosity (brightness) per color so the pattern ends up the same brightness. Then with a color-blended layer on top use surface blur or similar to blur away the remaining color moire.

http://adobe.rognemedia.no/?pg=article&id=160 - My tutorial in Norwegian.
Google translate does a good job.

[Pictus]

Re: Problems with Moire

If this http://vimeo.com/23508129 do not fix, do a extraction and substitute the background...

[Chain]

Re: Problems with Moire

Yeah, that video shows the same technique as in my text-based tutorial.
Although I think mine has a sliiightly better and faster workflow I think. Minor details.

He simply fills the entire area with the same color. Mine uses a surface blur on a marged copy to retain more of the original color variation where possible. Both methods can be combined!
He also adds a pixel layer filled with white set to color blend instead of simply chaning the blend mode of the Hue/Saturation to Luminosity. Same result, but a pointless extra layer full of needless pixels.

But yeah, using a different fabric in the future will be best!

[philbach]

Re: Problems with Moire

Well the Moire seemed to be confined to the darker part of the image. So using curves eliminated it.