This isn't MINI photography, but this seemed like a better forum for this than OT. This is a special request that I have of someone with some photo editing skills. I myself am pretty useless in this area.

When I was home for Thanksgiving, my mother pulled out my grandfather's old army uniform, which he hadn't seen in many years, and had him try to put it on (he couldn't button it). I snapped a photo, but I didn't realize how dark it was until I uploaded it to my computer. It was a special moment that I am unlikely to get a chance to photograph again.

I don't know how much can actually be done with this, it's pretty dark, but I'd be willing to pay someone for their time to make it look as good as possible.

I've uploaded the full size one to my gallery, too.

Thanks!
Chris

 

lightening it up isn't the hard part. It will lose a lot of pixels. send me a PM with the link and when I get home I'll see what I can do to make it look shnazzy
ps
I'm easy to bribe

 

Awesome, thanks! I definitely don't need it anywhere as big as it is. If I could get a decent-looking 5"x7" print out of it, I'd be really psyched.

 

Chris, all I did was change the levels and it was 33 KB

You got the 1.2 MB file? I didnt try to change anything else BUT the levels.

 

Whoa, holy crap!!! That's fantastic. Wow, I really need to get some photo editing software. I still haven't bothered to download the freebie stuff that people here have recommended.

 

Have you got a bigger file than this?

 

I knew someone would beat me to it
I'm still going to play with it when I get home. I like projects.

 

yeah But I really didnt do anything. Notice her blouse is way to bright because the level were uniformally changed. To do it really right the thing needs to be dodged/burned ... whatever

Give it a shot!

 

It's linked in my first post. I think StoopidGirl is helping me out, but if it's fun for you, go nuts.

Her photos are beautiful, by the way - everybody should click her links and check them out. Well, maybe except for people with 8-year-olds looking over their shoulder.

 

Here's my attempt at it. I worked from the full size version and did a bit of de-noising as well. There's a fair amount of detail in the dark areas despite the underexposure so the trick is to try to bring that up without ending up with a spikey or combed histogram and lots of noise.



If you like, you can grab the adjusted full-size one at http://www.scheuern.com/temp/grandpam1.jpg

Mark

 

MarkS, huge thanks.

You guys are awesome. I love this place.

 

yep I'll definately be playing with it shortly. thanks for the compliments too!

 

OK, I'll leave it to her.

Last shot. resized to "about" 5 x 7.25. 300 dpi for printing, some more noise gone, added a bit of fill-flash for grandpa.
2.2 Mb ... Chris if you want to save it to your disk, plz do cause 2.2 Mb is huge hunk of NAM space

 

Thanks! I'm sure between all of us playing with it you'll end up with something reasonable!

Mark

 

Yes, will definitely do that. Thanks again.
Done.

 

Okay . . . here's my stab at the pic.


Click on the photo for larger (2.1mb) version.



Hope you don't mind the cropping.

-Juan

 

Do any of you retouch/photoshop photo's taking out blemishes, shadows, etc..?

 

yes...all the time (I break out a lot)

 

For me, generally, no, since most of my stuff is photojournalistic and making changes beyond the digital equivalents of simple darkroom procedures is a no-no. But for shots for friends and such and some commerical images, yeah. Even there, though, I tend to not like doing heavy digital manipulation.

Mark

 

Chris,
Definately give Picasa a shot on your own. You'll be impressed with how easy they make it and its completely free.

http://picasa.google.com/

Usually with dark pictures, if you just click the "I'm feeling Lucky" button, you'll get a pretty satisfying result. I've installed this on everyone who ever asks me to help with their photos computers.

 

Juan, thanks a lot! I downloaded the big one, in case you'd like to take it down. The cropping looks good!

I just downloaded Picasa, and it's scanning my computer for photos (I have a LOT).

Edit: Just tried out Picasa - what a cool program! I should have checked it out a long time ago. It's a good thing I have a date tonight, or else I'd probably sit here for the next six hours and play with all my photos.

 

ok here's what I got. I tried to make the background less significant.

 

Very cool. Thanks a bunch!

 

Just checking back into this thread to say that Picasa is my new favorite program! I barely get any sleep now; I just go back through my thousands of old photos and mess around with them. :impatient

Here are a few from my friend Andrea's concert in New York on Monday night. The lighting was awful and the photos came out looking very bad in a high school gym kind of way, so I had to go kind of crazy to get them to look decent. I actually really like the first one.

Oh, in case you're wondering, yes, that is a runway, and yes, the Pussycat Lounge is a strip club, but not on this particular evening, at least not upstairs where she was playing. Hey, she gets the gigs where she can.

These were also taken using her Canon, since I didn't know if I'd be able to get my camera in the door.

 

Oh and by the way, I ordered a bunch of different prints of various versions of that photo with my grandfather, so thanks again for everyone's efforts!