Photo editing can work miracles, but some pictures come out of the camera so bad that not even Photoshop can help them. I was worried that this image would be one of them.
Before is on the left, after on the right. What do you think? Was I able to salvage it?
Is it worthy of framing and hanging on the wall after its edits? No way. But I think it’s much better and would make for a fun 5 x 7. Or a Facebook profile.
I can’t even begin to list all the things wrong with this pic, but I’ll try.
- My ISO was at 12,800 because this was taken during my nighttime photography class.
- Decided to turn on my flash because ISO just wasn’t getting it.
- Forgot to turn down ISO after turning on flash. CRAZY Noise.
- The flash washed out the subject and created harsh shadows.
- Crazy white balance due to the halogen street lights. Remember how I mentioned ignoring white balance in my nighttime photography post? This funky yellow cast wasn’t even atmospheric – just yucky.
These are the photo editing steps I used to combat this noisy mess:
- Imported image in Lightroom.
- 1st thing, ran Nik’s DFine noise reducer. Normally, I would run this later in my workflow but I couldn’t concentrate until I smoothed out the grain.
- Grabbed the white balance dropper and clicked on the lettering on his shirt, knowing that this area should be a neutral white.
- Fine tuned the white balance by sliding the Temp slider just a touch towards the yellow.
- Clicked on Auto above the exposure slider. I usually start with Auto on pictures that really need help, and fine tune from there.
After these Lightroom adjustments, this is what I had:
- Next, I opened the image in PSE 8 and ran Darker and Richer from MCP’s Complete Workflow. This helped with the washed-out look created by the flash.
- Then I ran Color Burst Part I, from the same action set. I masked in the areas that I wanted to have “extreme” pop. This action is the most colorful of the 3 levels of color pop available in the Complete Workflow. Here is my layer mask:
- Ran part II of Color Burst.
- I adjusted the Color Explosion layer to 72%.
- Finished by turning on the Color Burst Cool the Color layer, because I still wasn’t happy with my White Balance.
- Well, actually, I finished by running MCP’s Finish It so that I could sharpen, format the file for the web and show you this version:
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I dont know whether thats Lightroom 2 or 3 but if it was 3 then you would have done far better to stay inside Lightroom and use HSL amongst other things to work out the color on this image. The noise reduction in LR3 is hands down the best out there now, so upgrade if you dont have it.
There’s a time and a place for an action but this is not it. To me that was just a straight up plug for Jodie’s actions rather than actually doing something worthwhile with the image.
In my opinion you didn’t save it nor did you teach anyone anything.
The final image still has a yucky yellow cast that could and should have been either calmed down or removed entirely.
Sorry Erin
Cheers
Stu
I like a guy who tells it like he sees it! I disagree with you about several points, but am so grateful that you read my blog and care enough to comment. Thank you, Stu!
I do use LR 3 and agree that its noise reducer is much better than the NR in LR2. However, I still like Nik’s product better. And I don’t receive affiliate income for saying so. Nik’s Dfine has a selective NR tool that is much more flexible than LR’s sliders. And I think Nik’s NR engine is just plain better even than LR 3s. But I do use LR’s noise reducer when I’m shooting well under 12,800 ISO.
I like your non-action centric perspective too. I often jump to an action first, thinking I will save time, rather than trying a few manual edits. I suspect that many of my readers do the same thing. So my photo editing workflow on this shot followed my normal workflow and wasn’t designed to sell actions. However, as my disclosure policy states, I do try to earn income from my blog.
For those of you reading this thread, Stu and I corresponded via email about this image. He provided me with lots of helpful tips on how I could have taken a better photo or improved the current one better in LR only. He advice was spot on, as I would expect from a professional photographer with Stu’s experience.
Honestly, I would say that the compositional and exposure flaws in this image make it unworthy of being saved in the first place and certainly didn’t warrant lots of time on my part trying to perfect it. However, the subject of the photo loved it and loved my quickie edits. And given her response to it, I thought it would be worthy of a short blog post.
As Stu pointed out to me, I could have taught lots more in this post about ambient readings of the street lights, flash settings, and correction gels and much more. Those topics aren’t my forte, so I will leave them to the pros. Stu’s website is full of great tutorials about LR and CS5, and I hear that he just might have some products for Elements in the future, so check it out.
Thank you again Stu! I welcome your feedback anytime you have it.
Erin
I think considering the original image, this edit is pretty decent.
Out of curiosity, were you shooting TTL or manual with your flash? I’m just surprised that your original image wasn’t a little closer to having a good exposure if you were shooting TTL.
TJ McDowell´s last [type] ..GPS – The Greatest Technology For Photographers Who Travel
Thanks TJ!
It was on camera flash, camera on manual, flash on auto. I don’t use a flash even when I should and know nothing about flash settings. Obviously, right?
Anyway, I’m looking forward to a workshop I’m taking in November that will cover off cam lighting
I think a lot of photographers don’t want to mess with flash settings.
You’re going to LOVE off-camera lighting. It’s more work, but well worth the effort.
TJ McDowell´s last [type] ..GPS – The Greatest Technology For Photographers Who Travel
Thanks Erin, for posting my comment as many would have just trashed it. So many brownie points to you for sticking it online. I was maybe a little short and sweet with my comments and that is why I am happy you called me out in an email and gave me the chance to elaborate a bit more.
I disagree that all the settings, flash, ambient etc are for Pro’s like me and I would love to do an article or two for you on the subject which brings it all down to a easy going language that everyone can understand without getting all techie.
Also if you email me the original image file, I will put my money where my mouth is and create a video tutorial based upon how I would process the image in Lightroom first of all with maybe a little Photoshop for effect later.
As you know I have a huge range of actions that I sell to Photoshop users but for me there is a time and place to use them I just felt this wasn’t it.
Cheers
Stu
P.S. Thanks for the link back.
Stuart, I’m just glad you can help. I am in this first and foremost to improve my photography. It would be an honor for you to write guest posts here. Let me confirm with the subject of the photo that she and her hubby are ok with becoming movie stars. If so, I will send you the Raw file and let you go to town.
Sure no worries. That sounds like a lot of fun. Send it over if the approve. I got the login and I will email with ideas, before putting pen to paper so to speak!
Looking forward to more ideas on improving this (if it gets approval). Thanks for the honest exchange; this is how we learn.