"Advanced" image processing

Alfred Molon wrote:
Just curious if anybody knows techniques to substantially enhance images
taken under bad lighting or weather conditions. For instance if you shot
photos on an overcast, dark day, if there is a way to make these photos
shine. Would it be possible to transform an overcast sky into a nice
blue sky?

Or if you shot images under hazy conditions, with poor visibility, would
it be possible to give these images "vibrance", good contrast and
colours and if so how?
As a photographer who started investigating Aldus PhotoStyler years
before it was bought out by Adobe, I can tell you that I'm delighted to
be able to exercise the amount of control over images that PhotoShop
affords. I used to struggle in the darkroom trying to adjust highlight
contrast without affecting middle or shadow contrast. I was never able
to adjust, no matter how creative I got with burning and dodging,
"pleasing" values in a negative that had badly burned-out highlights and
dark values. Now with the "HIGHLIGHT/SHADOW" menu item under "IMAGE" in
PhotoShop, I have more control than I know what to do with. I'm still
learning about that control.

PhotoShop is a tool. How you use it makes a difference as to a crass or
beautiful end result.

David A.

Alfred Molon wrote:

How about this?
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/mi..._processed.jpg

It's good - you completely removed the haze. The only problem is that
the colours look a bit unnatural (pink sky and green river). I guess
you can't have everything.

Yes you can. How about this?
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/mi...processed2.jpg

By the way, what colour is the river supposed to be? It's harder for me
because I don't know what the original colours looked like, or what you want
them to look like.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk

John McWilliams wrote:

It occurred to me that leaving the haze in the sky and on the
buildings might be a good thing.

All depends what you're trying to achieve. Does Alfred want to capture
reality or turn it into something that it isn't?

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk

David Azose wrote:

PhotoShop is a tool. How you use it makes a difference as to a crass
or beautiful end result.

Exactly. It annoys me when people associate Photoshop with 'manipulation'
(some people are even starting to assume that RAW = manipulation too).
Software doesn't manipulate photographs, people do.


I often "manipulate" photographs in Photoshop to make them look *more* like
what I actually saw, since the camera often can't capture the reality that
we see (for example with extremely high contrast ranges that our eyes have
no problems with).

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk

Alfred Molon wrote:

Thanks Scott. You managed to completely remove the haze, but the
colours unfortunately are pretty much gone. Even increasing the
saturation does not help.

Actually, boosting saturation is often a bad way to improve colours. The
Selective Color tool is far better. For example you can alter the colour of
the river without affecting the rest of the picture.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk

On Wed, 1 Nov 2006 20:12:13 +0100, Alfred Molon
wrote:

In article .com,
Scott W says...

Ok, here is the page with the samples:
http://www.ddde.de/enhance/

OK here is my try at it
http://www.pbase.com/konascott/image/69541142
Mine has a over processed feel to it and I have to say I like your
version a lot better.
This is pretty typical of what I can when I try to make a photo look
like the day was nicer then it really was.

Thanks Scott. You managed to completely remove the haze, but the colours
unfortunately are pretty much gone. Even increasing the saturation does
not help.

Want colours? Take a look at my try:
http://00-00-00.org/PA113877ny.jpg

First I used the HDR function in PhotoImpact 12. Then I selected
colour ranges and made adjustment to those. The sky became rather
full of jpg-blocks, but I painted that away with a strong blur
effect.

--
regards
Vidar Grønvold

In article , Paul Saunders says...

Yes you can. How about this?
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/mi...processed2.jpg

Wow....

By the way, what colour is the river supposed to be? It's harder for me
because I don't know what the original colours looked like, or what you want
them to look like.

Can't remember exactly, but it is safe to assume that the Yangtze in
Chongqing is not turquoise-blue, but rather greenish/brownish.
--

Alfred Molon
------------------------------
Olympus 50X0, 7070, 8080, E300, E330, E400 and E500 forum at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MyOlympus/
Olympus E330 resource - http://myolympus.org/E330/

In article , Paul Saunders says...

All depends what you're trying to achieve. Does Alfred want to capture
reality or turn it into something that it isn't?

Perhaps it might be a good idea to show the world how much smog there is
in Chongqing.
--

Alfred Molon
------------------------------
Olympus 50X0, 7070, 8080, E300, E330, E400 and E500 forum at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MyOlympus/
Olympus E330 resource - http://myolympus.org/E330/

In article , Vidar Grønvold
says...

Want colours? Take a look at my try:
http://00-00-00.org/PA113877ny.jpg

Yes, but ehmm... now the image looks not very natural.


First I used the HDR function in PhotoImpact 12. Then I selected
colour ranges and made adjustment to those. The sky became rather
full of jpg-blocks, but I painted that away with a strong blur
effect.

There is also the RAW file on the page in case you are interested.
--

Alfred Molon
------------------------------
Olympus 50X0, 7070, 8080, E300, E330, E400 and E500 forum at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MyOlympus/
Olympus E330 resource - http://myolympus.org/E330/

Kinda looks like L.A. on a bad day, if the Los Angeles River actually was a
navigable waterway...

--
Skip Middleton
www.shadowcatcherimagery.com
www.pbase.com/skipm