Calling all Photoshop Experts...

[iGary]

I'd appreciate some help.

I've tried multiple adjustment layers, level adjustments, channel mixes, three or four different plugins from Fred Miranda, exposure, brightness and contrast....curve adjustments in all three channels.... the kitchen sink.

I even put them in Aperture to see if that would help. I'm stuck.

I had my head in a book all night last night trying to figure out how to make this crap I am getting lately look better (not pastel and fake looking).

#1:

#2:

Any help appreciated.

 

[bursty]

 

[iGary]

Yeah, they're pretty effed up, aren't they?

 

[bursty]

Yea, good luck with those.

 

[OutThere]

I'm in Switzerland at the moment and forgot to put Photoshop on my new powerbook before I left, so I can't play, but I think you might be running into problems with the fact that both pictures have some gradient in contrast from one side to another. Since you have this gradient, whatever adjustments you do to the picture as a whole will turn out leaving one part of it looking crappy...can you put gradients into adjustment layers? That would help but I don't know...

 

[iGary]

I'm in Switzerland at the moment and forgot to put Photoshop on my new powerbook before I left, so I can't play, but I think you might be running into problems with the fact that both pictures have some gradient in contrast from one side to another. Since you have this gradient, whatever adjustments you do to the picture as a whole will turn out leaving one part of it looking crappy...can you put gradients into adjustment layers? That would help but I don't know...

Yeah, I tried that - thanks, though.

That's the problem with the pics - they are backlit (into the sun) and hazy. The backlit part of the image is overexposed, leaves the rest of the image underexposed and the light illuminates the haze.

The folks I work for didn't have a problem with the best I could do with these until lately when they played around with highlights and shadows - they think just jacking the highlights is OK, but the images still do not look good.

Blah.

 

[BakedBeans]

im not really sure what your looking for gary, the photo lacks contrast and a little saturation and of course the blown little bits here and there, but without knowing exactly what your looking for (or more specifically what you 'cant' do) then im lost

EDIT: Might be best if you post your efforts so we can see which direction you going in?

 

[Mr. Anderson]

That haze sucks

The first one I pulled out the shadows and highlights using the shadow/highlight filter.

The second one I copied the image to a second layer, layer masked a gradient from top left down to lower right, multiplied the layer and set opacity around 50%

Then flattened the whole thing and adjusted the levels again.

Working in hires and 16bit will help, though, so your originals will work better.

And the end results weren't much better but I think it helps a bit.

D

 

[BakedBeans]

meh.... too small to do that much with

 

[iGary]

Here is one I did - I need to desaturate it a bit, but they approved it.

Still ugly, but less ugly, I guess.

Before:

After:

Crap in, crap out, I always say.

 

[BakedBeans]

Crap in, crap out, I always say.

spot on