 Sara Shortt |
Adjusting levels appropriately I am a beginner at photography - never had any classes and learned what little I know from a few books and the BetterPhoto site. I've recently discovered the world of adjusting levels in pictures to make a photograph darker and lighter in Photoshop Elements 3.0. I've noticed that on several of the pictures where I have adjusted the levels, the pictues have much more noise than others. Is there something I'm doing wrong or is this just something I'm going to have to compensate for with other filters, etc? Any suggestions on manipulations within Elements that will work? Thanks!!!
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Jane M |
Do a google for Noiseware and Neatimage - free programs that are good for removing noise.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
Could be something you're doing wrong, like not picking good spots to set your blacks and whites.(if that's what you're doing when you do levels). Or it could be that the picture was orgianally under exposed and lightening it shows the noise. Which, despite what those that always claim that with digital all you have to do is fix it later, is one of the things about digital. You don't get much room to vary the exposure from correct. How are you adjusting your levels, and which picture?
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Sara Shortt |
Gregory - I bought a yard of black and white fabric to use as a background. In these pictures, it's not the background that seems noisy but the subject itself. In one picture, I adjusted the levels to make the rose brighter. In the other, I adjusted the levels to increase the shadows and bring out the color in the vase. Again the black backdrop does not appear speckled, but the vase does. I didn't have a specific way to adjust the levels, I just played with it until I liked what I saw... Thanks for your help!!
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Jane M |
Sara - it looks like you're underexposing in these shots. This is very easily done especially with the white backdrop. If possible you need to adjust the exposure either in manual mode or using exposure compensation to expose more, ie make shutter speed longer or aperture wider than what you are using. If possible you can meter just on the rose by moving in close to get the right exposure. Same for the vase, try to meter just on the middle of the vase to get the right exposure.
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Ariel Lepor |
Since there is not very much information stored in dark areas, brightening a shot too much leads to increased noise. I suggest you check out Helicon Filter. Even with the free version, you can adjust brightness and reduce noise in the same program. It works very nicely.
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Sara Shortt |
Thank so much for your advice! I'll look into the Helicon Filter. I was reading about spot metering just yesterday, although I have to admit that I know very little about it. I tried to figure out how to change the metering settings on my camera (I have a Nikon D50, which is so much smarter than me...) but I couldn't figure it out. I'll keep working on it!
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
" Sara - it looks like you're underexposing in these shots."
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Jane M |
"Or it could be that the picture was orginally under exposed and lightening it shows the noise." if we're quoting :-)
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Sara Shortt |
Thanks you guys. I'll try and reshoot these pics - they were easy to take - and change the exposure. I'll let you know what I come up with. Thanks so much for all your help!!!
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doug Nelson |
Levels is the basic tonal and color contrast tool. As others have pointed out, I give too simplistic an explanation of its use on my web site (article on Imaging programs). Sometimes, you don't want to bring the outer sliders all the way in to where the histogram slopes begin, because you could blow out highlights or block shadows. Check out Sean's tutorial at www.cambridgeincolour.com. It goes into more detail than does mine.
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Sara Shortt |
Sara
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