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Scottes
14th of April 2004 (Wed), 19:27
I had an idea from JZaun's post about curves.

Do you have an image causing concern because you just can't get right? I'm sure there are several of us here who would be willing to take a stab at "correcting" it. I think it would be pretty interesting to see how several people would "correct" a single image. It would be best to work on a large image, and I'm willing to put it up on my server to make it accessible. Interested parties could then download it, correct it, and post it back to the forum at a reasonable size.

Any takers for both image and correction?


If so, I have a few suggestions. Let's hash this out here and then start a new thread for any image(s). These are suggestions, so fire away with ideas and suggestions until we make a decision.

1) The "problem" image should be of some interesting content (maybe) but should be neither too close to perfect nor too far out of whack. It should be an image that needs some help but not a miracle. Anyone can post an image they'd like to have "corrected."

2) People with said "problem" images should post untouched ("straight from the camera") web-sized examples to the forum when the "pick an image" thread is created. Interested "correcters" should pick 1 or 2 images to be corrected. Hopefully we'll get at least 3 or 4 people who will volunteer to correct each image. If we get 10 correcters to volunteer then we'll have several images to correct. If we get only a few volunteer correcters we'll pick 2 images from the posts.

3) I'll PM the photographers of the "problem" images so they can email me the picture. I definitely suggest that the picture should be full-sized straight from the camera. If RAW the correcters will hopefully be able to handle the format. (Or should they be straight-processed to TIFF to make it portable?) If JPG then anyone will be able to work on it.

4) I'll make the image available on my server and start a new thread for each image with a link so they can be downloaded by the correcters.

5) The correcters should make notes on what they did, in the order done. This can then be a learning experience for everyone.

6) The final images should be posted to that picture's thread, and all should be at the same size. I suggest that final images should be resized to 700 pixels wide if landscape, or 700 pixels tall if portrait. Notes should be included of course.

7) I don't think that the image should be "manipulated" so much as "corrected." That is the content shouldn't be changed, like erasing a tree or a branch. Rather we should concentrate on image correction - color, saturation, hue, sharpness, etc, etc. No cropping by the correcters - leave the composition as the photographer took it. This is the "Post Processing" forum anyway, and IMHO shouldn't be about taking a better picture.

7a) Maybe this can be left to the poster of the image. Perhaps the problem is that a particular feature, like a branch, spoils the picture. Perhaps the photographer doesn't like the composition

7b) Perhaps it's just a free-for-all.

8) This suggestion intentionally left blank because "8 )" turns into a smiley.

9) This *isn't* just a Photoshop exercise! I'd love to see what people can do with Paint Shop Pro or Elements or Picture Window Pro or whatever!


Any ideas?
Any volunteers for "problem" photos or "correcters" ?

PacAce
14th of April 2004 (Wed), 20:28
OK, I'm a sucker for a challenge. I'll volunteer to be a corrector since I don't have any images that won't take a miracle to correct! :mrgreen:

eric1
14th of April 2004 (Wed), 20:47
alright guys, i have a pic of my cat laughing himself to death. i inadvertently hit the EX comp. it's uder exposed. if i were shooting raw
would have been easy to fix, but it's a JPG. it needs lightening masks.
all my attemps have failed. you up for it Leo?

thanks
eric1

Conk
14th of April 2004 (Wed), 20:53
It is a good idea Scottes. Retouch Pro does this thing all the time.

mttmrphy
14th of April 2004 (Wed), 23:09
eric, did you try making a duplicate layer and changing the blend mode to screen? Thats usually an easy fix when I under expose. Then you can adjust the opacity to your liking.

tommykjensen
14th of April 2004 (Wed), 23:45
alright guys, i have a pic of my cat laughing himself to death. i inadvertently hit the EX comp. it's uder exposed. if i were shooting raw
would have been easy to fix, but it's a JPG. it needs lightening masks.
all my attemps have failed. you up for it Leo?

thanks
eric1

Yesterday I discovered the wonderfull function "Shadows/highlights" in PS CS, with that I could correct a lot of photos that were underexposed (shot in jpeg). See a few examples here: http://www.klein-jensen.dk/ee/list.php?exhibition=17

MediaMagic
15th of April 2004 (Thu), 00:15
Great idea,
I'll offer the first photo for correction. I have one that was shot with the wrong color balance, white hats, dark clothes, screwed up skin tones, exposure off by about half a stop, an all around a pretty crappy shot. It'd be interesting to see what you guys do with it. jpeg format. should be a pretty good challenge to start.

here's the small version. I'll email the original if someone wants to hack at this one.

http://mediamagicnw.com/shares/challenge.jpg

Sam North
15th of April 2004 (Thu), 05:02
Ok, took me 20 minutes or so, but here's what I got:

http://www.theimageplane.net/challengeb.jpg

In Corel PHOTO-PAINT 11: Colour balance, contrast enhancement, freehand mask tool, selective saturation levels.

Sam

chris.bailey
15th of April 2004 (Thu), 09:47
Nice idea Scottes and I'm sure it will lead to some interesting variations

JZaun
15th of April 2004 (Thu), 11:40
Since I brought this up I have to give it a try.. About 5 min time..
:? :? :?
I did this with the web pic from this post :D PSE2



http://gallery.bytephoto.com/data/3131/51challenge_2_copy.jpg

JZaun

Meerkat17
15th of April 2004 (Thu), 13:32
Good Idea, I'm certainly up for doing some of the post-processing.


David

garethhhhh
15th of April 2004 (Thu), 14:03
my effort:

(I edited the posted jpeg)

http://www.garethhhhh.co.uk/images/cdpp/challenge.jpg

in Photoshop:

Auto Colour > Adjusted Midtones & Highlights in Colour Balance > Curves for RGB and RED channels > Increased Contrast > Decreased Brightness

MT
15th of April 2004 (Thu), 16:15
http://www.pbase.com/image/27989434/original.jpg

Of course I'm not terribly proficient...but I had to try anyway.

Scottes
15th of April 2004 (Thu), 19:18
OK, we've had several people work on MediaMagic's image, and it's great to see the variations. Excellent work. If you want to try working from the original, full-sized image you can download it here (http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/127_2753.JPG) - it's a 2.7 meg 3072x2048 JPG.


For the next image I propose a NEW THREAD. If you have an image go ahead and post a new thread. Please post a resized version and a *link* to the original-sized version so people can download it without being subjected to viewing it full-sized. I think it's easier to work on the full-sized original, we won't get triple-compressions, there's more latitude for changes, etc, etc.

If your server can't handle people downloading a large image then PM me and I will host the images so people can download them. If you wish to remain anonymous for any reason again please PM me and I'll host it.


Keep'em coming - this looks like a pretty interesting exercise and a great learning experience for all of us. There's a million ways to correct an image so it's nice for anyone to learn a variation.

PacAce
15th of April 2004 (Thu), 20:02
It's interesting to see how much color variations there are in these pictures. I'm wondering if a few may need to have their monitors calibrated. :) (Or maybe I do! :shock: )

CyberDyneSystems
15th of April 2004 (Thu), 20:05
Excellent Idea! :)

JZaun
15th of April 2004 (Thu), 20:16
It's interesting to see how much color variations there are in these pictures. I'm wondering if a few may need to have their monitors calibrated. :) (Or maybe I do! :shock: )

I understand what you are saying but my pic printed just like my monitor. Mine is different because I just am not good enough yet! Now I think MT had better skin tone than I did!. I am happy that I did so well but I am not satisfied with my results after seeing MT's. Now just what do I need to do to get better. ,, hummm.. I sent a PM to Scottes asking to set this up again and start with a RAW image. I would love to see how my raw post processing compares with others..

This is one of the best learning "things" :D we have done here!! Wow.

JZaun

PS: You know we could just possibly resolve the raw/jpeg issue once and for all
:lol:

maderito
15th of April 2004 (Thu), 22:09
As noted by MediaMagic, this shot has plenty of problems: blown highlights, wrong color temperature (too cool), strong magenta caste, differential lighting of foreground (flash) and background (ambient light), and difficult skin tones - even after basic color correction. Here's my attempt which still leaves a lot to be desired.

http://display.lifepics.com/imgdisp.asp?filespec=%60foxhx2cuxmwdogx%5D9%3C%3D8 %3B9dOjeOrmlfdqtupy%7D4nzj%11254%40B%3F%0D%3A38352

Meerkat17
16th of April 2004 (Fri), 02:02
Here's my attempt but I think that MT has it with those skin tones:

http://www.btinternet.com/~David.Lewins/g5/images/127_2753_a.jpg

David

Riccardo
16th of April 2004 (Fri), 02:57
This is my attempt
http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v60/ricfranz/TMP/127_2753_WEB.jpg

MediaMagic
16th of April 2004 (Fri), 11:58
And, here's my go at it... This took about 15 minutes using a graphic tablet (would have taken at least double that using a mouse).


As Moderito pointed out, the highlights are gone, so attempting to do anything with that aspect of the shot is futile. I thought using a shot with so many errors would be a good challenge since "correction" was the theme.

http://mediamagicnw.com/shares/Correction.jpg

maderito
16th of April 2004 (Fri), 12:32
So MediaMagic -- the burning question: Does the taller woman have blond or silver hair? Perhaps your "go at it" speaks for itself? :)

MediaMagic
16th of April 2004 (Fri), 12:49
So MediaMagic -- the burning question: Does the taller woman have blond or silver hair? Perhaps your "go at it" speaks for itself? :)

hah! she's definately blonde. I couldn't get the hair right to save my ass on the taller lady (when I did get her hair close to correct, I lost other parts of the image and masking just wasn't working for the hair)... the little short one who can barely see over the edge of the frame is my wife, so, unless I wanted no dinner, I had to get her the closest. :mrgreen:

This would have typically been a throw away image in my book. Just too much wrong with it, but sometimes these horrible shots make for good practice and learning. Even if they can't be corrected, the effort usually lends itself to some new ideas or information.

maderito
16th of April 2004 (Fri), 15:48
So MediaMagic -- the burning question: Does the taller woman have blond or silver hair? Perhaps your "go at it" speaks for itself? :)

hah! she's definately blonde. I couldn't get the hair right to save my ass on the taller lady (when I did get her hair close to correct, I lost other parts of the image and masking just wasn't working for the hair)... the little short one who can barely see over the edge of the frame is my wife, so, unless I wanted no dinner, I had to get her the closest. :mrgreen:

So you owe me one for getting her hair right! Perhaps an introduction? :mrgreen:

After performing global color corrections, I used a mask to do futher corrections on the hair and skin together.

BigRed450
16th of April 2004 (Fri), 18:08
OK I couldn't resist. Here is my go.

http://users.air.on.ca/cbjaps/challenge2.jpg

Curves did not give enough control where I wanted it so I used Variations +yellow, +darken, then tweaked the magenta channel in Selective Color.

maderito
16th of April 2004 (Fri), 19:04
The bandwith on this thread is wearing out my computer.

I posted another example @ "Scotte's Challenge (continued)" - http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=30068

MediaMagic
19th of April 2004 (Mon), 13:00
So you owe me one for getting her hair right! Perhaps an introduction? :mrgreen:


Hey, I'd be happy to introduce you to her. Only problem is, she's married with a sensor full of kids.

good for lots of portrait work... bad for dating :wink: