Help Needed for Wedding Photo

[susan]

I have a picture from my DD's wedding of her dancing on the beach with her father. I dearly want to use it in a LO with Tina's wordart, but the problem is that it was taken in very low light (night time on the beach) by a disposable camera. Consequently the quality of the image is very poor with a lot of noise (?).

Is there any way I can improve the image? I'm using PSCS and have been using only the basics in image enhancement.

I'd appreciate any suggestions from some of the pros out here...

[Karen]

Susan do you think you could post a copy of the photo in the photography section so we can have a look?

Karen

[susan]

Karen, here's a link to the photo... any help is appreciated or thoughts are appreciated. Since it's the only photo we have of this moment, I really want to be able to use it somehow...

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=8181

[Angie]

Hi Susan;

I did a quick fix in photoshop and neat image. I explained how I did it where I posted the picture.


Fix:
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=8191


Original:
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=8181


Angie

[Karen]

Susan I had a little play not sure if its much or any better at all :)

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=8198

[susan]

I've already downloaded neat image and can't wait to try this fix. It makes a huge difference. While not perfect, I think it will be good enough to get across the message for the scrapbook.

My DH and I were heartbroken when we saw the original picture so now I can surprise him - hopefully tonight. I'll be sure to post the page.

You are both angels. Thanks again!

[jleist]

Hi Susan

I thought I would try my hand at this.

A big part of the problem is the background, so I replaced it, attempted to match the blur with the picture and added a shadow. I selected a portion of skin that I thought looked good and pasted as a new image, I then smudged and pushed it with various brushes untill it had an even tone (I also added noise and used the blur) then I used this swatch of "skin" as paint and painted at a low resolution over the worst parts of the skin. I used the smooth tool often and the light brush for small areas that were too dark. I copied small portions or the picture and pasted them as new images, worked with them and then pasted back onto the original as a layer... this was a rather quick fix and with more time spent it cold look a little better


Fix: http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=8225

Original: http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=8181

[susan]

Julie, what a great look. Actually, my LO isn't done yet and I've been playing the background issue myself. I'm working with some other pics taken that night on the beach - earlier with better lighting - and will probably use one of them for the background.

Thanks so much for your try. I read through your details and will include some of your steps also.

I'm so new at this, wasn't sure where to start, but you've been very helpful. Really stretching the envelope for my skills, but learning a lot on just this one pic. LOL


Thanks so much.

[jleist]

Thank You,... Oh no,... Thank YOU!!

Lilke I said it was a fast fix.

One thing to remember with digtal photography is that you are no longer
limited to whats in the photograph.

Something you don't like... get rid of it! something not quite what
it could be? Enhance it! Suddenly get a creative idea? Implement it!

One of the things I noticed first off with this picture was theat the background
was so dark, it FORCED you to look at the focal point.

And while there is a reason they call it the FOCAL point, if it doesn't POP
on it's own (low quality photo etc), it is helpful to add other items on the canvas
to give the viewer something else to look at. (whether they are aware that's what's happening or not) but not too much that it distracts from your focal point.

That's one reason I blurred the background.. it was obviously a blending technique,
but without the blur, the background was more interesting than the people.

You can take that too far as well, If the picture had been clean, I could have blurred the back a little more and the focal point would have really popped. BUT, because of the poor quality of the photo...in this case, blurring the ground more would only draw attention back to the poor quality of the photo....

I don't know... don't ask me how I know this stuff... LOL maybe I'm just blowing hot air
But that's my two cents worth! (what a value eh?)

Have fun with your LO and thanks for letting me play with your picture. (not that I dont have plenty of my own that need help - its always more fun to do someone elses)

Julie

[Emma]

Sometimes these grainy photos are just ripe for creative opportunity. Try a Distort>Diffuse Glow filter to add some shine on it, use white as the background color in the Toolbox.

Have you tried the Median filter? It blurs interior objects while maintaining edge integrity.

Noise>Remove Noise can help clean things up a little after the Median filter.

Select just the couple after removing as much noise as you can, the use Select>Feather with a value of about 3 and use Image>Adjustments>Levels to brighten them up to make them pop out from the background.

Use Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer to tweak the colors on the couple and get them to pop as the focal point.

You'll have a hard time getting a crystal photo out of it, so use some ingenuity on the layout to add some more textures or overlays to get a nice effect, and no one will notice that the photo isn't supposed to be just how you make it look! Have to make it look like you did it on purpose.

Lesson 3 this week has some help with some of those Adjustments I mentioned. Go through that then have another stab at this photo.

Good luck!