Too Much Noise?

BeCentricBeCentric Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
edited January 22, 2013 in Finishing School
Hello all,

I work for a newspaper doing color correction and retouching. A few times a year we put out a supplement with a glossy cover. I have received an image from the art department as a possible cover candidate and they want to know if it is usable.

http://24bitcolor.com/uploads/IMG_0881.jpg

My initial thought was that there is too much noise and the image is pretty soft to make a decent cover.

For the past year or so I have been following and incorporating techniques of Dan Margulis and Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction.

Since I am dealing primarily with News Print and a much larger dot gain I typically do not worry too much about Noise in the photos. As a result i have very little practical experience with noise reduction techniques. That being said,I welcome opportunities to broaden my experience and skills.

My question is: Is this photo salvageable and if so a suggested plan of attack.

The photo will print at approx. 8x10 and doubtful if I can get access to a RAW file.

Thanks so much and I look forward to any response.

Comments

  • SamSam Registered Users Posts: 7,419 Major grins
    edited January 22, 2013
    The image isn't soft. It has a lot of motion blur. This can not be fixed.

    Removing the noise is easy. I was able to eliminate about 95%. You would never see any noise in print and may not see it on screen.

    The color can also be tweeted to show the couple wearing white dress and tux rather than pink.

    You will also have to crop the image to an 8X10 aspect ratio.

    Your art director may like the motion blur and see it as an artistic image rather than a real life documentary photo.
    i-QNRwTML-L.jpg


    Sam
  • BeCentricBeCentric Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
    edited January 22, 2013
    Sam wrote: »
    The image isn't soft. It has a lot of motion blur. This can not be fixed.

    Removing the noise is easy. I was able to eliminate about 95%. You would never see any noise in print and may not see it on screen.



    Hey Sam,
    Thanks so much for the reply and your version of the photo with significant noise reduction. I am really interested in is how you got from the original image to your version.

    I did notice in your version there was added detail in the brides face in both the Green and Blue channels. Taking that as a clue:

    I applied, to the original image, a low median blur to the Red channel and played with the Dust & Scratches filter on the Blue channel. I then did a few channel blends via Apply Image blending some of the Red Channel into the Blue and Green Channels. I then applied Curves in Luminosity mode.
    The results were better for a quick experiment. Still have some noise though.

    http://24bitcolor.com/uploads/IMG_0881_2.jpg

    I would love to hear any suggested work flows... I am 100% Photoshop with no Plugins
  • PeanoPeano Registered Users Posts: 268 Major grins
    edited January 22, 2013
    If you're only going to print this 8x10, standard NR should do. I used Imagenomic Noiseware Pro.

    100% crop:

    noise2.jpg
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