here's a quick trick that'll help punch up any photo suffering from similar conditions.
1) open the photo in photoshop. from the Image menu, choose Adjustments, then Levels. This gives you a graph of image brightness data; dim images like this usually have it all bunched up on one side. Here's what this image looked like:
2) See the three triangles at the bottom? Grab and drag the black or white one as and use them to bracket the bunched up data as closely as possible. The grey one should move automatically; if you have the Preview enabled feel free to tweak it, but you shouldn't need to.
3) Hit Okay. The result should be to punch up the brightness and saturation of your image without radically affecting the overall color balance.
Most any decent image editor will have a similar command; you may have to experiment a bit to find it.
You could have started with "have you tried adjusting levels?" and then explained if I answered in the negative. I did take an entire semester course in Photoshop, you know. :p (granted it was in 2000, but I use the basic skills all the time)
Anyway, I don't think there's a lot of detail to be found by adjusting levels in this case. The dark parts are underexposed. You can burn down overexposure but if there's no data, there's no data. *shrug*
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no subject
Date: Jan. 4th, 2005 05:05 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: Jan. 4th, 2005 06:58 pm (UTC)From:1) It looks better full size. Detail always suffers from being shrunk.
2) I'm working with a low-end digital here.
no subject
Date: Jan. 4th, 2005 07:31 pm (UTC)From:1) open the photo in photoshop. from the Image menu, choose Adjustments, then Levels. This gives you a graph of image brightness data; dim images like this usually have it all bunched up on one side. Here's what this image looked like:
2) See the three triangles at the bottom? Grab and drag the black or white one as and use them to bracket the bunched up data as closely as possible. The grey one should move automatically; if you have the Preview enabled feel free to tweak it, but you shouldn't need to.
3) Hit Okay. The result should be to punch up the brightness and saturation of your image without radically affecting the overall color balance.
Most any decent image editor will have a similar command; you may have to experiment a bit to find it.
no subject
Date: Jan. 4th, 2005 08:37 pm (UTC)From:Anyway, I don't think there's a lot of detail to be found by adjusting levels in this case. The dark parts are underexposed. You can burn down overexposure but if there's no data, there's no data. *shrug*