Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: adjustment, saturation, tuning | Themes: Digital Cameras
- 1. How to Fix a Bad Photo
- 2. Brightness and Contrast for Dark Images
- 3. Color Adjustment for Bluer Skies
- 4. Saturation for Dull Images
- 5. Hue Adjustment for Color Correction
- 6. Keeping the Ocean Blue with Color Thumbnails
2. Brightness and Contrast for Dark Images
Lighting conditions for any photo session are seldom perfect, making brightness and contrast problems one of the most frequently seen issues in consumer photography. Brightness is essentially the total amount of light (or white) in a pixel, while contrast is the difference in brightness between various pixels. Since brightness and contrast are so closely related, they’re usually adjusted together (usually brightness first, and then contrast).
The image below shows problems with brightness, where the overall darkness of the image makes it difficult to see details.
Of course, how much to brighten an image is an issue of personal preference, but tools such as a Histogram can help (more on this later). It’s usually best to brighten an image in increments, such as by six or 12 points. One the brightness is close to what you have in mind, you can then fine tune by increasing or decreasing the brightness one point at a time, until the brightness looks correct.
Once brightness was applied to this photo, it looked somewhat faded, which is an issue easily corrected with a contrast adjustment. I increased the contrast by 36 points, which brought out details and even made the street signs more legible.
- Previous page How to Fix a Bad Photo
- Next page Color Adjustment for Bluer Skies
Loved the article. Thanks guys!
how about fixing the photo that was in the cover?
http://media.bestofmicro.com/adjus [...] 8852-2.jpg
bait and switch article ?!?!?!?!
Damn... You didn't fix the photos, you actually RUINED mosto of them...
As a professional VFX artist, I have to say that this article is a little on the juvenile side. Some of the "after" photos contain less information than the "before" photos. You never want to clip information in your photograph, and always want even exposure. Never underestimate a good matte for affecting only certain portions of your image. Furthermore, a good levels adjustment never hurt, and can always add some "punch" to your image.
As a professional VFX artist, I have to say that this article is a little on the juvenile side. Some of the "after" photos contain less information than the "before" photos. You never want to clip information in your photograph, and always want even exposure. Never underestimate a good matte for affecting only certain portions of your image. Furthermore, a good levels adjustment never hurt, and can always add some "punch" to your image.
I dont think this article was written for the professional VFX artist. It was written for the average consumer who barely knows how to take and edit pictures, let alone correctly. A mix of both worlds.
The article text provides a reasonable introduction to basic photo editing, but the "fixed" photos are perfect examples of what happens when a beginner goes way, way overboard. It's too bad because the miserable "after" photos significantly undermine the credibility of the article.
Why do people insist a bluer sky or greener trees make a better picture? Isn't the point of photography to capture what actually is, not whimsically change it to what you want it to be? Sure I understand if you underexposed the photo, or your white balance is off or whatever, but shouldn't the goal generally be what the subject actually looked like?
good stuff. Now to see if this works in gimp.
This reminds me of the millions upon millions of teenage girls who see a picture of themselves and say, "Oh noes!!! ACNE!" *cries for hours and then suddenly has epiphany* "WAIT! I've GOT IT! I'll just crank up the brightness and make the picture black&white! THANK YOU COMPUTER!"
It's a shame that the raccoon now looks like it is hovering.
This reminds me of the millions upon millions of teenage girls who see a picture of themselves and say, "Oh noes!!! ACNE!" *cries for hours and then suddenly has epiphany* "WAIT! I've GOT IT! I'll just crank up the brightness and make the picture black&white! THANK YOU COMPUTER!"
Black and White hides zits? That IS an epiphany.
I enjoyed the article.
I can't help but agree with most guys... the raccoon looks like it's hovering, the sea looks like mouth wash, the waterfall trees look like plastic, and the desert highway looks boring and cold.
Anyone that has actually been in a tropical island will tell you that the waters ARE emerald green, and there's no hint of pollution. Also, clouds at sunset tend to be yellow, then orange, then even purple! Turn them all white, why don't you!
On the other hand... if you keep giving people such advice that will make all photographs boring and amateurish, that will really deify us photographers...
picasa ftw
It's free, very easy to use and works very well for the sort of basic image editing you covered above. Not that it completely removes the need for photo impact. I got the originals of some professionally taken family photo's that were blury - needed the full power of the more advanced PI sharpening tool to sort that out. Then used picasa to fix colour, contrast and it's diffuse glow tool to get the right effect. Wife was so impressed she had me get a 24 inch print of one of the pictures
thanks for your sharing !very nice !
I like to think that the overuse of effects was to really highlight what each one does. Subtle is better for real use but for theory you want the effects to show. As a complete beginner to this stuff it's good to get a basic intro to some features that would scare most happy snappers. Good article.