Dark images help

[Parrot of Doom]

I did some informal photography at a good mate's wedding over the weekend. I specifically steered away from wedding photos, setup shots etc. I just wanted to capture the action as it were, people having a good time etc.

Anyhow, armed with a Canon D20 and a speedlight flash, I did my best and I actually got a very good selection of shots. Problem is that in the area where we all ate dinner, the ceilings were about 30-40 high - and I hate using the flash in people's faces. So I had to bounce it from the ceiling and see what I could get.

Anyhow, can someone suggest methods to brighten things up in PS? Heres an example using just brightness/contrast and slight desaturation:

Before (this is about the darkest image, the rest aren't too bad)



After:




I'd post some of the happy pics here but they're a private ceremony so I can't really. Besides which, I'm the only one who's seen any of them so far

Edited by Parrot of Doom on Tuesday 19th December 00:40

[graham@edinburgh]

Did you shoot RAW or straight to JPG?

The former should give you the opportunity to compensate for exposure a fair bit (about 2-3 stops really) but it's a lot easier than fiddling with JPGs.

[Parrot of Doom]

I had to use Jpeg because I didn't have enough memory otherwise (I shot about 200 images at 3504x2336). Its only a hobby is this, my speciality is moving stuff

[graham@edinburgh]

Fair enough. In which case I'll have to pass on giving any advice - I utterly suck at manipulating jpgs

[LongQ]

I've just spent a couple of mins with the dark compressed version in Lightroom. Obviously I'm not going to get a masterpiece with the compression which blocks up a lot of the dark colours but I can get a white table cloth no trouble and some reasonable looking skin tones, though you may struggle with the ISO800 noise. I would give it a go in Neat Image but not much point with the initial compression on the downloaded file.

Adobe Lightroom has a lot of interesting sliders that do stuff that I guess one can do in PS but it does it in a way that dummies like me can use. Worth a go - free beta download from the Adobe Labs site. Expires at the end of Feb 2007.

If you get it, 'import' the pic then go to the Develop menu. Try the white balance first then play with the Auto Adjust Tonality sliders and then maybe the Tone Curve. There are also some intyeresting features in the View menu - Show Clipping for example.

If you want to use that particular shot you may need to think 'arty' though. It may have some potential with an art filter if the ISO gets in the way. That said I have some very dark shots taken at ISO 800 that Neat Image has smoothed to remove all noise. I was utterly amazed. Might not offer the same benefits with the patterned nature of the components of your subject matter though. Worked a treat on a maroon Ford Anglia under a sodium light!

[greg964]

I spent one min on this in photoshop. Here's what i did..
auto levels
levels (slid the central slider a little to the left to brighten it more)
noise ninja plugin to reduce the noise (default settings)
unsharp mask to subtley sharpen up the image a bit.

[greg964]

great photo by the way !

[Parrot of Doom]

Thanks, I'll give those suggestions a go

[jwyatt]

Auto contrast really helps in this instance - and it affects colours less than auto levels which can add some strange colour casts. I find auto contrast really handy for a quick fix for any indoor stuff.

[greg964]

whoa ! Looking at the pic i posted again, my monitor at work is way darker than my one at home. Must correct that

[sparkythecat]

is that kid really pulling a boogie out?

[LongQ]

Oi! Parrot! How did you get on?

Just to add that I think the image you posted seems to have a lot of potential for a moody and grainy black and white image once the white balance is sorted and with a slight crop.

[Parrot of Doom]

My friends (it was their wedding) haven't got back to me yet with the images they want, so I'm waiting until they do

I got Noise Ninja, seems like a great piece of software although it takes a bit of playing around to get the best results.

Heres another pic:



There are a few like that, shots of things as they happened rather than staging stuff. I hate staging photographs, I'd much rather just snap away and get interesting faces (when they're not looking at the camera). This was another favourite:

[LongQ]

Haven't tried Noise Ninja but Neat Image seemed complex to me. Lots of trial and error to go beyong what the automatic assessment offered from scanned 35mm originals ...

Then I tried it on some dark ISO800 shots from a digital camera and the auto assessment results were spot on it seemed to me. Plus I could save the settings and simply apply them to all the relevant images. (Had I bought the full version I would have been able to batch process the lot so I may well do that soon.)

I agree with your preference for natural shots. Looks like the location was both a challenge (it's dark) and the source of some interesting backgrounds to the subjects. I could imagine someone with the right artisitic skills (lets me out then) getting some really different results with a bit of manipulation. I like all three of the compositions you have posted.