low light pictures

[docevi1]

I was at a gig tonight and took some pictures with a long shutter speed but as a direct result they are all noisy. What techniques can I use to tidy them up well?

I've tried here but as you can see they are all pretty crap An original saved at 25% JPEG compression here (221kb)

Any ideas?

[luca brazzi]

What about this...bearing in mind its down to 25Kb for the web...



LB

[docevi1]

now that is impressive What technique did you use there? The way I did was adjust the colour saturation/contrast/balance and then apply a Median Filter, but it's left them rather kinda abstract/dodgy

[luca brazzi]

Used Neat Image a few times within Photoshop. Then applied Unsharp Mask, then lifted some of the shadows.

2 minutes.

Didn't mess with the brightness, looks better untouched, IMO.
LB

[docevi1]

what does Neat Image do? I use Paint Shop Pro so will need to find it's name there...

You are right btw, I'm fiddling hence why it's pants

[size13]

docevi1 said:

You are right btw, I'm fiddling hence why it's pants

Stop fiddling, that way you might take better pictures!

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

docevi1 said:

what does Neat Image do? I use Paint Shop Pro so will need to find it's name there...

You can run NetImage on its own so which editor you use shouldn't be an issue.

Have a look in this www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=143013&f=109&h=0 to see what it can do. How it works is another matter....

[docevi1]

ohh, thanks for that link and advice I think that gallery will be updated shortly

[Mad Dave]

I love taking lowlight shots, great fun.

[Bee_Jay]

Also try Noiseware from Imagenomic - the Community Edition is free and very very good - I use the Pro plugin for PhotoShop...

[rj_vaughan]

Thats a cool shot, very atmospheric

Done anything to it?

>> Edited by rj_vaughan on Thursday 16th December 17:54

[V6GTO]

I just copied the above piccy and played for 5 minutes only.

Original...


New...

I dare say it could be improved some more...

Martin.

[Mad Dave]

rj_vaughan said:

Thats a cool shot, very atmospheric Done anything to it? >> Edited by rj_vaughan on Thursday 16th December 17:54

Me? If so, nothing mate - just scanned the print in and resized it. No cropping, retouching or jiggery-pokery at all.

[docevi1]

that is mighty impressive there! I never knew fiddling could yeild such results (still in the dark ages of "I took the picture so it's staying like that").

[joust]

luca brazzi said:

What about this...bearing in mind its down to 25Kb for the web...

DOn't forget to remove the colour cast. I used the PS colour cast tool and clicked on one of the fairy lights which should be white.

You then get this

[joust]

Mad Dave said:

I love taking lowlight shots, great fun.

Nice - here are two that I did off the back of a ship that I quite like

[luca brazzi]

Joust...#1 is stunning! Great colours.

LB

[fergusd]

Couple of mates of mine (Beach fire, North East Scotland, Vito Voightlander, HP5)

www.ziplockk.com/exploits/mono/images/10.jpg

San Francisco Bay Bridge from the Oakland side (Digital IXUS)

www.f-d.org.uk/gallery/displayimage.php?album=13&pos=0

Handheld in the light of a campfire (D70 - Squamish, Canada)

www.f-d.org.uk/gallery/displayimage.php?album=28&pos=109

Mini Tripod, 30 seconds exposure and a candle (D70 - Vancouver Island, Canada) ;-)

www.f-d.org.uk/gallery/displayimage.php?album=28&pos=172

Nothing to be scared about long exposures and low light stuff ;-)

Everything straight from the camera . . .

Fd

>> Edited by fergusd on Sunday 19th December 22:13

[simpo two]

That CANADA one is clever!

[luca brazzi]

simpo two said:

That CANADA one is clever!

Agreed. Always wanted to do that....but crap at writing backwards

LB