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High contrast difficulties

Started by seekingoz, March 03, 2013, 03:26:25 PM

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seekingoz

This image has no information at the bottom. I've pulled what I can from under the tree. I got the most information for the presents in the CMYK yellow channel. I've been looking at this for too long and could use some input. Any suggestions?

Judy


ORG


WIP

Mhayes

Judy, you did get more info on the presents, but I find doing a Level Adjustment in RGB has the colors looking more natural. On yours it looks like more of a shift to green and the lightening on the packages with yellow looks like warm light in a lamp rather than the natural light from the windows. It's great you are trying to get more out of the photo, but I think maybe the shadows in the original hindered getting a better view. I'm not sure why so much noise at the bottom unless it is water damage.

Margie
"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

Pat

Hi Judy, I tried doing a levels adjustment for each of the individual channels, then adjusting for 50% gray, and finally made a contrast adjustment.  Keeping in mind this is one of those situations where less is more, this seemed to bring out some fairly decent detail on the gifts and improve the color. 



Pat
Pat

"Take a deep breath and think of the three things you are grateful for, right in this moment."  -MJ Ryan Author

Tori803

Tori
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence." -Calvin Coolidge

Mhayes

"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

seekingoz

Hi Pat.

I've been trying to recreate your results but haven't managed it yet, so I have a couple of questions.

--When you add a levels adjustment to the individual channels, do you use auto or tweak them yourself?
--What do you do, specifically, to adjust for 50% gray? And is that in each channel or on the layer itself? I tried using the gray eyedropper on the railing (which I thought was the closest thing I could find to middle gray) in the layers panel but I'm not sure that's what you were talking about.
--And finally, did you do your contrast adjustment using curves? I couldn't get that smooth transition of color along the left side and across the bottom.

I'm in awe of your corrections and hope I can figure out how you did it.

Judy

Pat

Thanks for the great questions Judy; sorry I wasn't clearer in my original post.

--For each of the individual Red, Green, and Blue channels of the Levels Adjustment Layer I made the following adjustments:  Red highlight 235 and shadow 59, Green highlight 230 and shadow 40, Blue highlight and shadow 14.  That gave me the following results:




--I wanted to try and improve upon those results so decided to adjust for 50% gray.  When adjusting for 50% gray I always follow the method described at this Peachpit link:  http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1350898  this told me where to set the gray point (see black arrow below) with a Curves Adjustment Layer gray dropper tool giving me the following results:




--Finally I applied a Brightness and Contrast Adjustment Layer and increased the contrast to about 18 but masked out the area where that blew out the highlights on the gifts.  All that brought me to the following which still needs a bit of tweaking and restoration work in individual areas.



I hope this helps, Pat


Pat

"Take a deep breath and think of the three things you are grateful for, right in this moment."  -MJ Ryan Author

seekingoz

I'm running out the door in a minute and won't get a chance to work on this until tonight or tomorrow but I wanted to let you know I'm really anxious to go through everything step by step. I'll update you when I can.

Thanks so much Pat!   :loveit:

Judy

Bambi

Thanks for sharing, Pat. Great setp-by-step.

Bambi

seekingoz

I hope this looks better.   :)
Judy


Pat

I think you're on the right track Judy  :) 

Take a close look at my results after the contrast adjustment.  See mine on the left side below compared to yours on the right.  I think maybe you want to back off a bit on that step.  You don't want to totally block up the shadows and lose all definition in the tree and floor area surrounding the gifts.  Also when increasing the contrast don't forget to mask out those blown out highlights on the gifts.



Pat   
Pat

"Take a deep breath and think of the three things you are grateful for, right in this moment."  -MJ Ryan Author

seekingoz

Ah, computer screens. I spent a lot of time flipping back and forth between your image and my WIP. They looked so much closer than they do now that I've uploaded mine and see your comparison.  :funny:

I'll definitely work on the contrast again. I appreciate your help with this.

Judy