How can I salvage this photo?

[Tatiana B.]

I like it, it's very grainy though. I think it's a nice moment between my niece and SIL but I dont really know how to make it better. Any ideas/suggestions would be awesome!




I think i made it worse!

[kencaleno]

This has been converted from color-chroma noise in shadow areas-would have been better to have applied noise reduction on color version, before converting to black & white- If noise had been all over luminance noise, it would have looked like grain, which would be acceptable-regards, Ken

[Katie_Belmont]

This is what I came up with. If you have photoshop and would like to know more specifics let me know.
It was a combination of layers, selective sharpening, lightening, surface blur, ran it though a grain reducer and adjusted the levels.

[autofocus]

Does this work a little better for you?

Vince

[PhotoPhix]

Post the original and describe what you would like your end results to be.

Armando

The photo posted is to small to get any great results from, some artifacts in the babys eyes.

[Tatiana B.]

Originally Posted by Katie_Belmont

This is what I came up with. If you have photoshop and would like to know more specifics let me know.
It was a combination of layers, selective sharpening, lightening, surface blur, ran it though a grain reducer and adjusted the levels.

I love this! Thank you so much! What exactly did you do? I tried to PM you but its not sending,

Thank you everyone for your help! I'm happy to know this photo is not a loss!

[Katie_Belmont]

I also tried to reply to your PM but it wasn't working and it wouldn't let me use html to show the images along the way. So here goes:
This is going to be a doozy.
I saved samples as I go along so hopefully they help.

First I made a duplicate layer.
The first layer I adjusted using levels. I lightened it up so that the baby's face was properly exposed
and darkened the blacks a little until I had a rich black.
Then on the underneath layer I lightened it up so that the corners would match the exposure on the face (of the first layer.)
Then I added a layer mask to the first layer and used a big soft brush to paint away the corners, revealing the lighter corners below.
That was to correct the vignetting and loss of detail. I'm not sure if you added the vignetting or not but I'm not a fan so I corrected it.
When you're happy with that combine the layers so you're back down to one.

At this point I desaturated it to black and white. Idk if you wanted it in the tone you had it in or genuine back and white
so if you wanted to warm like you originally had it then skip this step.
If you do convert it to black and white look at the levels again. You might want to lighten up the highlights a little.
Sometimes black and white needs a little more contrast than color.

Then I ran it through a noise reducer. I use "Neat Image." You can download it for free from their website. Just google it.

Next to sharpen the eyes up I made another duplicate layer. Make the top layer invisible and select the bottom layer.
Select the eyes with the lasso on the underneath layer. It doesn't need to be precise because you're going to use a layer mask. It just
makes it easier to adjust them without having to ignore the rest of the face when you're adjusting them.
First sharpen them by going to filter -> unsharp mask
You want them to look a bit more defined by not over done. For the low res image I used 56% at 4.1 radius threshold 4
Then on the underneath layer with the eyes still selected adjust the levels again. I lightened the highlights a little and darkened
the shadows.
Next, add a layer mask to the top layer and get a small soft brush. One that will be a good size to use on the eyes.
With the soft brush paint away the eyes to reveal the layer underneath.
If they look to intense undo it and lower the opacity of the brush. Then re-paint them.

The noise reducer helped alot but there are still areas in the shadowed areas that are grainy.
Combine the layers so you're back down to one. Then make a duplicate. This will be the layer we use to tone down the noise.
On the layer underneath do a mild surface blur, just barely enough to smooth the noise. Threshold around 3 radius around 3 or 4.
On the top layer make a layer mask and use a large soft brush on about 50% opacity and paint over the areas with bad noise.
They should smooth out because of the blur on the lower layer.
The final picture is a link because it's stupid and won't let you post more than 4.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ine/Stage5.jpg

[daddyoproductions]

nice job on the edit, katie!