Suggestions for PP ambient HS BB

Well, I've done alot of 2-speedlite photos that I'm pleased with, but now I really need some help with ambient light post processing because I found a coach that won't allow flash.

Below is a photo taken with ambient lighting with my camera at its limitations: 40D, ISO 3200, f/1.8, SS 1/400. Basically, I feel I can't get my hardware to take any better photos than this one in this gym. I am at the highest ISO, the widest aperture, and the slowest reasonable shutter speed.

There is lots of noise and no "pop". One notices the OOF spectator walking in front of the bleachers before they notice the going-to-Division-I HS player.

Any suggestions on improving the photo in PP besides NR? The untouched original is found at http://twsp.zenfolio.c​om/img/v4/p332584939.j​pg (I have the RAW. The photo below is a resized original jpeg, no PP done whatsoever, including no cropping.)

Any help from the gurus? Thanks a bunch!

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try this for PP

dupe layer and apply a heavy NR to the background layer and then add a very light touch or gausian blur.

now working on the top layer - quick mask out the subject. when you have the subject isolated you can add your sharpening to just the subject.

save

Thanks, but which software package? I assume that's not MS Paint. I have not purchased any software for my hobby yet.

40Dude6aedyk wrote in post #7073854
Thanks, but which software package? I assume that's not MS Paint. I have not purchased any software for my hobby yet.

I use photoshop but I think the steps could be done in most photo editing apps.

IMHO I would probably invest in some kind of NR software and make sure that it's works with the photo editing app that your using. If your photo editing app has a built in NR use that.

And the sharpening stage could be worked around with any program that supports layers.

Even if you don't use PS, IMHO great books reads would be


The photoshop cs2 / cs3 / cs4 book for digital photographers

A tighter crop would solve the BG, I tend to like to crop tight. A little Noise Ninja, levels, USM in CS4

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For NR software, on other photos I have used DPP, NoiseWare and NoiseNinja. As far as I can tell they all give the same results, but have different speeds and convenience factors.

Thanks for comments! And thanks gromeo, I'd probably crop even tighter removing the kneepad and skin in the lower left.

I use Elements 7 and Noiseware. Seems to work pretty good but here is some advice I was given/learned to help out.

1. Shoot raw and make as many adjustments as you can there, WB, exposure, fill light, etc....
2. Once the files have been converted, go back and do a levels adjustment on the pictures that need it.
3. Make a duplicate layer and use the "adjust color curves" option and if you are still not satisfied with the results add a little saturation.
4. Make a duplicate layer of the photos that need sharpening and use the "High Pass" filter. I've gotten better results with that then with Unsharp Mask.
5. Run the pictures through Noise Ware. I'm currently using the free version but I'm going to purchase the plug in for elements.

Good luck,

Theron

I did a quick edit of what I described above:

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I use Lightroom and find that I can do plenty of adjustments to RAW files there, including noise reduction, cropping, some cloning and healing, etc. without any need to go into Photoshop. There are also a number of adjustments you can make to exposure etc to give the photo the "pop" it needs. It is also a great organizing program and has other benefits (eg web templates, slideshow, etc) that you may find useful.

As to cropping, try and stick to standard crops, 8x10, 5x7 or 4x6 especially if you are possibly selling images as prints.

tmalone, your edit above looks very nice.

Chris

How about a custom white balance as per your camera's manual?

I'll take a whack at it, using Elements 6 and Noise Ninja. I wouldn't enjoy working this much on every picture, but if you only have to fix the ones that sell, it wouldn't be too bad. It's a tough situation there, not having the luxury of flash. Edit: I added plenty of saturation, which I forgot is a flaw on the monitor I'm using. If it's too much for most monitors, I'm sorry. It didn't occur to me until after I posted.

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Thanks everyone for all the tips. I will have to mull over which software to get that does "layers".

Z, the colors in the photo appear to be rendered faithfully to me. Did you see a problem?

IMHO...

in cases like yours, since the equipment is being pushed to the limit, see the bright side of it, this is an awesome chance and time to learn to capture what you want in camera with very minimal cropping to be done in PP.

if you do very minimal cropping and apply any noise reduction software, you will see that the images will turn out fine. don't worry about the noise at ISO 3200. it will barely be there once you get the "right" exposure, which from your posted image, looks pretty close, maybe a +1/3 bump in post, "pop" can be done with levels and curves, I asked about it when I 1st started out too, with ambient light, it's almost impossible, if not impossible, as adviced by more senior members, to achieve the "pop" shot in well lit gyms/domes/arenas or with strobes.

don't worry too much that you are at max ISO, widest aperture and minimum require SS and concentrate on creating straight out of camera images.

at a regular HS level, with ambient light, you get what you can get, be thankful that you are not in a complete dungeon.