is there a better auto level tool?

[koenvdw]

Hi 

I'm working with aerial photo's. I'm currently working on a dataset of 46300 photos. 

Some of the photos are good, some of them are washed out or suffer from haze. 

This is normal as some of the photos are made towards the sun and other ones are made in the opposit direction. Also as time progresses the lighting changes. This was a rather long flight so the photos in the beginning are 'different' from the ones towards the end.

The good news is that the biggest problem with the photos can be corrected with just the levels adjustment tool. 

The bad news is that I can only use the auto options to use in a batch operation, because I can not edit 46000 photos by hand. 

In the pictures below you can see that the auto option in the levels tools is not as agressive as i would like it to be. 

Ideal would be if you could set a level for the black pointer (red line in picture) and one for the white pointer. Photoshop moves the sliders towards the point where the level and the histogram meet...

original

auto

manual

I can also do somewhat the same with the curves tool, but again this wont benefit foto's that are already good. It would make them to dark. So it's not usable in a batch operation. 

Are there third party addones or plugins?

Is there another way?  Am I missing something? 

All tips are welcome and remember I can only use the auto options. 

thx

[Jef Bracke]

Hey Koen

In the Auto Color Correction Options... 

1. switch your auto color correction options to "Enhance Per Channel Contrast"
2. play with "Target Colors & Clipping below" until happy
3. check "Save as defaults"
4. Hit "OK"
5. hopefully, smile 🙂

[Mylenium]

As a start try free image viewers like XnView. Adding some options to the processing stack like Autolevels and a Gamma Adjustment may already take care of a good chunk of these problems. Other than that you can always try video processing software like After Effects or DaVinci and the color correction tools that come with them. Lumetri has an auto mode as does DaVinci and they allow batch processing either directly (DV) or by ways of importing image sequences on the timeline. Depending on how strong the changes are, even the latter might only require a bunch of keyframes on some effects to account for slight variations across the sequence. I guess, though, the real trick would still be to find an elegant way of pre-sorting the images and group them into similar batches/ sequences so you don't work your fingers off... Otehr than that I would imagine that there is soem specialized aerial photo software somewhere or you could creatively use Google Maps'/ OpenStreetMap's image editing and stitching tools, but that of course may conflict with the privacy and usage conditions of your images...

Mylenium

[Myra Ferguson]

Instead of using Auto levels, try using Image > Adjustments > Match Color...  in your action and use one of the images that has the color set the way you want it as the Source. 

[koenvdw]

Wow 3 replies under the hour that's impressive. 

I will try your tips and come back to you. 

I can already tell that I resetted my preferences... That made the auto option much better. 

If we automaticly could sort the photo's that would be the greatest achievement, but it's still a work in progress. 

We have our Python guy looking into it and we have an FME workflow, but either of them is ready. 

I'll will try Davinci as I heard good things about it. 

I will try the match colors workflow. 

[koenvdw]

I managed to make an action that corrects the washed out images and leaves the good ones alone. 

90% is the enhance monochromatic contrast option under the options of the curves adjustment. 

I took a little less black color for the shadows and a little less white color for the highlights. I also do a 0.5% clip in the white. 

5% is a shadows correction under the Shadow/Highlight adjustment. I used the options: A 30 T 30 R 30.

5% is a bump in vibrance and saturation.

washed out image before:

washed out image after:

normal pictutre before:

normal picture after:

Please keep in mind that I'm aware that these pictures can be a lot better if you treat them individual. 

Also these are screenshots of the actual pictures. 

@Jef Bracke 

This option colorized some of the pictures very red. I don't know why, but this was ruled out very soon. 

On other pictures it worked really well.

[Kukurykus]

Due to your instructions that was easy for me to add 5 values to vibrance and 5 values to saturation from 'Vibrance and Saturation'. I used the 30 & 30 & 30 for Amount, Tone and Radius in Shadows of Shadows/Highlight. Do you mean these values are 5%? But I'm lost with Curves Adjustement. I know where is 'Enhance Monochromic Contrast', but how to set it to 90%? I found a 0.5% clip in the White, but what do mean by 'taking a little less black color for the shadows and a little less white color for the highlights'? How much?

[koenvdw]

Hi 

No the percentages are my own estimations on what impact each tool had on my original file. 

So if I had only used the curves correction, the picture would already be enhanced for 90% of the end result. 

The other tools had less impact so I estimated them both for 5%.

In the picture below you'll see what I ment by taking a little less white.

If I didn't do that then some of the white objects (red arrow) would become to bright, as in completely (255) white, thus losing detail. 

But this is a solution for a very specific task and I wouldn't recommend it. 

I'm not a professional. I only thought myself the things I need to know for this specific task.

[Eugenio.NYC]

Hi, in my opinion, Lightroom will be a great solution for this, or Bridge and the Camera raw plugin

 

[J E L]

Yes, I was thinking Lightroom, too. Select images that need the change and drag and apply the fix to all. There could be several presets. It's still a big sorting job though and you'd probably have to work in smaller batches if the files are large. Can't imagine the writing time for more than 100 images at a go. @koenvdw this is a great discussion you started and let us know what ultimately works!

[Conrad_C]

The Auto Levels options in Photoshop are mostly threshold-based (just math), but you don’t have to rely on the three buttons alone; you can tune how they process your image sets using the detailed advice in this article:

Don’t Underestimate Photoshop’s Auto Color

Some are suggesting Lightroom/Lightroom Classic/Camera Raw (Lr/CR) which share a processing engine that’s different than in Photoshop, and that’s worth exploring. The Auto correction feature in Lr/CR was recently revised to be based on machine learning, this tends to produce much better results than the old math-only version of the Auto feature and Photoshop Auto Levels. That’s why it’s worth an experiment; the results should be different than Auto Levels in Photoshop. What you want to find out by experimenting is if Lr/CR Auto is different in a better way or a worse way for your image sets (there’s no adjustment for it, so it either works or it doesn’t).

If Lr/CR Auto turns out to be better, that’ll save you time, because unlike Photoshop, in Lr/CR you can select many images at once, click Auto for all of them, and then all you need to do is export the edited batch. No need to open and process each image individually as in Photoshop.

[koenvdw]

Hi thx for the input, but as you can see from my answer to Kukurykus, I'm already doing that. 

As for Lr. I don't have any experience in it. I tried it ofcourse but it seemed to me that it was not the right tool for the job. 

You only have one button that says auto... and it didn't do a great job. I can be mistaken offcourse. 

Another solutions would be to divide the data set in photo's with similar problems and then hope you can adjust them with the same group of settings. 

As I said before, we don't want to do any selection of photo's by hand. We have 2 airplanes that constanly take pictures...  It's just to much work.

[J E L]

@koenvdw I know you are looking for automation. But in Lightroom, you could take one photo, make the level adjustments as needed, save that as a preset, and then copy that preset onto other images that need the same amount of adjustments. So it would be nearly auto but you would have to make that first preset, which sounds like what you need to do as not all images need the same amount of correction. You could have batches of images and presets, for example, severe correction, moderate correction, and light correction. Then apply the preset accordingly. You would only need to set up three or four presets in the beginning. Still, I realize this is not ideal and maybe better solutions are on the way to this thread!

[Beachcolonist]

You would need over ten hours to allow one second each to look at the images, viewing deceptive thumbnails would not do (on that point there is no mention of final output size requirements).

I would surmise they must be processed via their characteristic curves, not their appearance and in that regard the two basic categories would be those whose tone range needs to be compacted vs those that must be expanded. It's a fantastic project simply for the volume issues.

[Beachcolonist]

Probably reading you wrong if so please excuse, but you do not need to, "open and process each image individually" using Photoshop. You review/select/sort/label/rate then batch process via Bridge.

[Conrad_C]

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@Beachcolonist wrote:

Probably reading you wrong if so please excuse, but you do not need to, "open and process each image individually" using Photoshop. You review/select/sort/label/rate then batch process via Bridge.

---

You’re right if this was only about culling and rating. But the request is to apply image processing to the images themselves, involving adjustments such as exposure and channel clipping points and maybe Dehaze and Clarity. Those require running the images you select in Bridge through either Camera Raw or Photoshop. 

It can potentially be done without leaving Bridge (without Photoshop), by selecting multiple images in Bridge, opening all of them into Camera Raw, applying image adjustments, then using the Save button in Camera Raw to batch export them all with the adjustments. Or using the new batch Export panel in Bridge.

[Beachcolonist]

I never say it's just about culling, and I never say you don't leave Bridge. How about instead you simply pay attention to my clearly worded, polite criticism of YOUR post; that one does not open each image individually in any case. Way to read a post incorrectly and then go running off in your own direction.

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." George Bernard Shaw

[Conrad_C]

Apologies if it was perceived that way, it was not intended. I thought I read it clearly, you specifically wrote:

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@Beachcolonist wrote:

you do not need to, "open and process each image individually" using Photoshop. You review/select/sort/label/rate then batch process via Bridge.

---

But the original post had requirements that cannot be fulfilled with Bridge alone, so what you wrote (“You review/select/sort/label/rate then batch process via Bridge”) did not cover the scope. I read that very carefully before responding.

---

@Beachcolonist wrote:

Probably reading you wrong if so please excuse

---

That was my perception, and I did excuse, and I was trying to be fair and respectful which is why I began my own post with “You are right if…” I am a little surprised that you have taken offense, given your quote there. Again, no offense is intended.

[Beachcolonist]

"VIA." Via means "through." It does not mean "exclusively with." Ok enough, thanks.

[rayek.elfin]

I would probably just use a Dehaze tool. In PhotoLine I created an action to apply the Dehaze effect first, then auto-levels, and save the two images using the batch tool to automatically process all images in a folder.

Results with no manual intervention:

 

 

[r-bin]

UPD. did not notice what was already suggested above. : )

[koenvdw]

Hi

ok the dehaze function looks promising, but it does make the shadows more dark. 

But I tried some different stuff. 

I think I'm going to have a good result with the following method. 

1- curves correction to make the shadows brighter

2- in Camera Raw set the dehaze function to +65

3- in Camera Raw press the auto button

I still have to see if opening CR and using it will slow down the process. 

It can be quicker, it can be slower...

[Kukurykus]

Rather not real difference if you're going to fully automate it.

[rayek.elfin]

If you have over 10.000 images to process, I would use an automatic batch function to take care of this.

The shadows actually would look like that without any air pollution/haze.

Are you really going to do all those images one by one - manually clicking those buttons?

[Kukurykus]

46300 clicks, so 12 hours 51 minutes & 40 seconds if processing of 1 image would take 1 sec!