blending question - DPChallenge Forums

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

05/08/2003 04:39:47 PM · #1

I am working on a photo that I have had to make some major adjustments too. I am getting a result in the sky that is similar to heavy JPEG compression. It is in black and white, and is instead of a smooth black to light grey transitions, there is some serious banding. Does anyone know a good way to fix this in PS?

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

05/08/2003 05:02:52 PM · #2

What are the grayscale values for the lightest and darkest areas, and how many pixels does the area span? And then what are the tonal values for the rest of the photo?

It sounds like you need to increase the tonal range in the sky, while not distorting the other parts too much.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

05/08/2003 06:26:24 PM · #3

It is a major section of the picture, but to achieve the look, I want, I need to do some extreme adjusting.

I first darkened the blue/cyan channel significantly.

Then, I had to adjust the shadow point, after converting to BW.

My first attempt, the print looks good, but the there is serious noise on my monitor, and I would not want to display it on the web.

I think I am going to trying to adjust levels before adjusting the color channel and converting to black and white.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

05/08/2003 07:13:55 PM · #4

You might also try making the conversion to B+W using Channel Mixer with the monochrome option set -- I haven't played with it much but many people say it gives you a lot more control over how the B+W will look.

But banding is usually caused by having too few shades covering a span of too many pixels. If this is not for a challenge entry, I'd suggest creating a mask for the sky and increasing the tone range there separately.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

05/08/2003 07:42:00 PM · #5

it is not for a challenge, it is a film image from a few years ago, before the kids when we could actually travel.

Thanks.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

05/08/2003 07:46:47 PM · #6

Originally posted by Zeissman:

it is not for a challenge, it is a film image from a few years ago, before the kids when we could actually travel.

Thanks.

You should try and travel with the kids! It's such a pain, but worth it in the long run, kind of like kids themselves...

If you want, email me a low-res version and a description of what you're trying to get and I'll see if I have some amazing trick to help out...