"Advanced" image processing

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?
--

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/

"Alfred Molon" wrote in message
...
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?

Wow, what a question. You can replace the whole sky with Photoshop! You
can adjust the heck out of everything!

Post-processing is as big as photography, if not bigger.

In article ,
"Charles Schuler" wrote:

"Alfred Molon" wrote in message
...
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?

Wow, what a question. You can replace the whole sky with Photoshop! You
can adjust the heck out of everything!

Post-processing is as big as photography, if not bigger.

Not really photography at that point, more like image
molestation-bordering on rendering.

What you choose is your business, not right answers except what seems
right for the self.
--
"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely,
the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great
and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire
at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
- H. L. Mencken, in the Baltimore Sun, July 26, 1920.


Reality-Is finding that perfect picture
and never looking back.

www.gregblankphoto.com

On Tue, 31 Oct 2006 19:51:20 -0500, "Greg \"_\""
wrote:


Not really photography at that point, more like image
molestation-bordering on rendering.


I'd have to agree. One can always tug at the curves
in Photoshop to make the situation something it wasn't.


rafe b
www.terrapinphoto.com

In article ,
Raphael Bustin wrote:

On Tue, 31 Oct 2006 19:51:20 -0500, "Greg \"_\""
wrote:


Not really photography at that point, more like image
molestation-bordering on rendering.


I'd have to agree. One can always tug at the curves
in Photoshop to make the situation something it wasn't.


rafe b
www.terrapinphoto.com

He he

As someone that has painted since a young age,...and considered being a
professional "artist" I laugh out loud at those feeling contrite at
*******izing two media. My thoughts then say if your going to do
something that totaly crass & disreputable why stop at photo go for some
you could make a lot more money doing....like politics or professional
hit man
--
"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely,
the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great
and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire
at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
- H. L. Mencken, in the Baltimore Sun, July 26, 1920.


Reality-Is finding that perfect picture
and never looking back.

www.gregblankphoto.com

On Tue, 31 Oct 2006 22:12:32 -0500, "Greg \"_\""
wrote:


As someone that has painted since a young age,...and considered being a
professional "artist" I laugh out loud at those feeling contrite at
*******izing two media. My thoughts then say if your going to do
something that totaly crass & disreputable why stop at photo go for some
you could make a lot more money doing....like politics or professional
hit man


Truth be known, I haven't sufficient imagination
to be a great artist, let alone a middling one.
That's why I settled on being an engineer.

I'm also not quite smart enough and/or too lazy to lie.
Lying takes too much mental effort. Lies are like
economies, and need constant compounding.

Hence most of my photo work really is pretty
straight, simply because I don't know better
and can't imagine a suitable embellishment
for the reality.

I'm not above doing a few helpful touch-ups
here and there, though.


rafe b
www.terrapinphoto.com

Greg "_" skrev:

Not really photography at that point, more like image
molestation-bordering on rendering.

Yes, it is about impossible to draw the line, isn't it?

How far you can go depends on what you want to do - do you want to show
the facts as you saw them or just to use the picture as starting point?

In any case, you start even before you press the shutter - by selecting
what is and what is not in the picture. The camera or your computer
adjusts things - the RAW is useless on its own.

I have no problem with adjusting sharpness and colours, in in most
cases cropping is fine too (can be dubious if you cut "unwanted"
persons out).

At the moment I am preparing a picure for a present. It is of a
traditional Algarvian house to someone who likes the style of
architecture - i.e. a representation of a type of house more than a
specific house. I have no problem in removing power lines and TV
areals(sp?), for this purpose I think it is ok.

/Martin

In article , Charles
Schuler says...

Wow, what a question. You can replace the whole sky with Photoshop! You
can adjust the heck out of everything!

It's not that easy. If you simply replace an overcast sky with a blue
sky, it will be very obvious for everybody because the lighting in the
rest of the image will not match. Additional steps would be necessary
and I wonder which ones. I'm not even sure you can do that and get a
natural looking result. The other option would be to keep the overcast
sky and process the image to make it look better, but then what would
you do?
--

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 ,
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?

There's a subtle line between truthful photography, artistic rendering.
Both take skill.
--
"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely,
the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great
and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire
at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
- H. L. Mencken, in the Baltimore Sun, July 26, 1920.


Reality-Is finding that perfect picture
and never looking back.

www.gregblankphoto.com

In article ,
Alfred Molon wrote:
Just curious if anybody knows techniques to substantially enhance images
taken under bad lighting or weather conditions.

There is no magic here. It is possible to improve the color and balance
on images like this, but only at the expense of reduced sharpness and
increased noise. Look at the image adjustments menu in PhotoShop.
Start by playing with the curves and levels controls.