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MD6
MD6
Participant
October 6, 2018
Answered

Is there any hope for this image to look better?

  • October 6, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 530 views

Hello there everyone. I am new to these forums so forgive me if such a question or request rather has been answered already. What I have here is a typical problem many would have. I took a picture using my cell-phone in a dark area with little light. I know had the flash been turned on, I wouldn't have this issue. So I took this picture after a rock concert I went to recently and the picture looks great except for the fact that it's dark as you'll see here:

I am not as experienced using Photoshop or any other photo retouching program as I'm sure many on here are. I did my best to make the picture look better which you'll see attached here:

But I don't know if more could have been done to improve it. I messed around with several sliders, levels, curves, off-setted colors and temperature. I'm just curious if somebody could take a crack at it and using your expertise, what you could do to make the image lighter and just overall look better. I do love this picture. Just want another to mess with it. Thank you!

I edited the picture in Photoshop CC.

Oh and in case it's relevant: I have a Samsung Galaxy LG5 Phone.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer descender

    Here is just a quick stab at it in about five minutes. It won't fit everyone's sense of improvement and there are always tradeoffs, especially between opening up shadow detail -- particularly when shooting on a phone and in difficult lighting -- and running into noise issues. But at least this should contribute to your sense of what's possible.

    Your original is a little out of focus in addition to the tough lighting so that presents some hard limits on how far one can go with it. But it was fun to give it a shot. By the way, check out the Adobe Lightroom app for cell phones, it allows you to save in raw format just like DSLRs can, so despite the lower capabilities of phone cameras you can at least preserve a lower noise floor and greater ability to post edit. Not something that casual shooters are usually going to bother with, but any time you have a few seconds available to open LR instead of your phone's default camera app it can really do a lot.

    My process: I opened the photo in PS, opened the Camera Raw filter (essentially Lightroom's capabilities contained in a Photoshop filter) and brought up the shadows and dropped the highlights a bit, adjusted the tone curve a little. I noticed that the black level was hanging well above zero so the image was not yet making use of the full range of darks and therefore we did stand to gain at least a little shadow detail without ruining anything too much. That was a good sign.

    It was noticeably improved, a lot like your results, at that point, but then I took the image through Nik Color Efex (well, now DXO... i still have the plugin from when it was a free download under Google for several years) and made use of its Tonal Contrast and Contrast-Only filters, also a detail extractor and a couple of filters that allowed me to balance brightness between the center and edges of the image. Sorry for the 3rd-party tool but it's just part of my usual process and you might be interested in trying it out. I'm always surprised Adobe didn't buy out this package instead of someone else -- IMO it is absolutely the missing contrast-improvement engine that PS and LR lack.

    You may have different visual preferences for sure. Good luck and have fun in all your photo activities.

    2 replies

    joanH
    joanH
    Inspiring
    October 6, 2018

    Hello md6, 

    Sure there is an exposure problem. Try several things - Use the image adjust list - exposure. Also, take it into Camera Raw and use sliders until you are happy with the results and then go to curves and regulate the saturation slider. It is best to test these things on your own and then let us know the results. Consider this a true learning experience and search the Adobe Stock guidelines. I will list a link or two for you. Best regards, JH

    To learn more about the type of content we're looking for, please visit this page: https://www.adobe.com/go/stock-contributor-help

    descender
    descenderCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    October 6, 2018

    Here is just a quick stab at it in about five minutes. It won't fit everyone's sense of improvement and there are always tradeoffs, especially between opening up shadow detail -- particularly when shooting on a phone and in difficult lighting -- and running into noise issues. But at least this should contribute to your sense of what's possible.

    Your original is a little out of focus in addition to the tough lighting so that presents some hard limits on how far one can go with it. But it was fun to give it a shot. By the way, check out the Adobe Lightroom app for cell phones, it allows you to save in raw format just like DSLRs can, so despite the lower capabilities of phone cameras you can at least preserve a lower noise floor and greater ability to post edit. Not something that casual shooters are usually going to bother with, but any time you have a few seconds available to open LR instead of your phone's default camera app it can really do a lot.

    My process: I opened the photo in PS, opened the Camera Raw filter (essentially Lightroom's capabilities contained in a Photoshop filter) and brought up the shadows and dropped the highlights a bit, adjusted the tone curve a little. I noticed that the black level was hanging well above zero so the image was not yet making use of the full range of darks and therefore we did stand to gain at least a little shadow detail without ruining anything too much. That was a good sign.

    It was noticeably improved, a lot like your results, at that point, but then I took the image through Nik Color Efex (well, now DXO... i still have the plugin from when it was a free download under Google for several years) and made use of its Tonal Contrast and Contrast-Only filters, also a detail extractor and a couple of filters that allowed me to balance brightness between the center and edges of the image. Sorry for the 3rd-party tool but it's just part of my usual process and you might be interested in trying it out. I'm always surprised Adobe didn't buy out this package instead of someone else -- IMO it is absolutely the missing contrast-improvement engine that PS and LR lack.

    You may have different visual preferences for sure. Good luck and have fun in all your photo activities.

    MD6
    MD6Author
    Participant
    October 7, 2018

    Thank you for replying and taking a stab at it. I'm not expecting anything magnificent. Just wanted to know if anything could be done to improve it even just a little bit further. Thank you for the suggestion of the Camera Raw filter. I did not have that plugin installed. But that did allow me to have a little more control over the highlights, shadows, clarity, noise reduction. Very good filter I must say. I pretty much did the same adjustments you did, descender, with the exception of those 3rd party plug-ins you mentioned but just tweaked the brightness a little, adjusted the shadows and highlights a little, moved the temperate slider a little into the blue to still kind of off-set that orange look I had, and I slightly reduced the saturation. This is my end result. Again, I wasn't expecting miracles but I am quite satisfied with this new result. Thank you!

      descender
      descender
      Inspiring
      October 7, 2018

      I would say you did well given the difficulties. And I'm glad you know about the Camera Raw filter now, it's super useful.

      One nice feature that's easy to overlook is the color profile choice that is right at the top of the main adjustments window of Camera Raw. It's not necessary to use or change it at all, but sometimes you'll find that it does wonders for getting color situations right. Best of all, it can be applied only to a chosen amount, 0 to 100 percent, with a slider. Have fun out there.

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