sky-wash

[msvadi]

I don't know if other owners of G series cameras noticed that, but the sky on my pictures (G2) often is quite noisy. The problem only gets worse if I convert to b/w or apply various enhancements like contrast or density or shrapenning. One solution is to buy a software like Neat Image, and I was seriously thinking about it. It is not only the price ($60-$80) that stopped me, I did not want to learn how to use one more software. I was sure that there was something cool and simple in PS that could do the job.

The technique below (it's from Katrin Eismann the restoration and retouchning book) was designed to improve skin texture on portrait shots. It turns out that sky is a lot like skin, the same method can be applied to cleaning sky.

1. apply gaussian blur filter. set the radius to something like 20 pixels.
2. take a history snapshot (press alt +clicking create new snapshot icon in History palette.
3. edit>>undo gaussian blur
4. select history brush tool. blending mode - normal (for portraits retouching it's darken or lighten). set opacity to 30%. set the history source to the snapshot from step 2.
5. paint the sky

it helps if you zoom to 70-100%. always work on a duplicate layer, so you can easily recover the original and compare the results.

[ssim]

I find that the 10D can produce quite a noisy sky at times so you are not alone in this.

Do you have any before and afters posted anywhere. I would really like to see an example of this.

I use Neat Image to clean up mine. It is really easy and quick to use and has very consistent results.

I'll give your method a go.

[msvadi]

thanks for a response, Sheldon. I'm not sure if the example below is a good one. It's the first and quick experiment. I was not very careful when painted near the lighthouse. I believe it can be done much better.

There was no resizing, these are actual pixels (crop).

before:

http://pantheon.yale.edu/~vm49/swb.jpg

after:

http://pantheon.yale.edu/~vm49/swa.jpg

this method is very easy to apply to a clear sky. If there are clouds then it needs a little bit more work, because you don't want to "wash" too much clouds. decrease the opacity (to 15% ?) and the bursh size when you paint near clouds edges or any other lines that need to be preserved.

[stopbath]

Hmmm.... I prefer the grainy shot more as the detail in the clouds has gone, and there is a dark halo around the lighthouse.

The grain imparts a bit of feeling to the shot that works well in this instance!

The blurred sky seems too warm and soft for such an isolated image.

[msvadi]

thanks for looking. Like I said, it was a quick text and I was not very accurate around the lighthouse, that explains the halo. I don't agree about clouds details. It's only a very small part of the image (it's a crop from 100%) There are enough sky details left when you look at the full picture. Well, I guess my example is not very good, but I still believe in that method. ;)

[stopbath]

thanks for looking. Like I said, it was a quick text and I was not very accurate around the lighthouse, that explains the halo. I don't agree about clouds details. It's only a very small part of the image (it's a crop from 100%) There are enough sky details left when you look at the full picture. Well, I guess my example is not very good, but I still believe in that method. ;)
Perhaps on the full picture the loss of detail isn't that noticeable.

Just like removing skin blemishes, it'll work well on some subjects while weakening others.

Myself, I think grain helps some (but not all) images (not so much colour).