Hi!

I am having a serious problem with my photos as soon as I apply some digital effects, and I never found an appropriate way or workflow to get rid of pixelisation!

My digital camera does just offert jpeg fine mode..it does not have raw or extra-fine. I tried to clean my shots with noise ninja before processing..wich does not work fine, I tried image doctor, wich gives a really bad result.

The problem is as soon as I use some some toning and blur effects...the artifacts appear as shift of tones or tint in some areas.

My question or need is : Does somebody can explain me how to clean my image first or wich plugin could manage to improove a jpeg image in de-noise it and get rid of artifacts while keeping it crisp and having a clean result?

Thank you for your help I am really desperate :)

Message edited on: 05/17/2005 15:43

Message edited on: 05/17/2005 15:43

what mgpx cam are you using? are you starting with a copy of the original out of cam image with no other changes to the .jpg? not resaving or anything are you? & lastly what program are you using to edit with? this will help to understand the problem you're having :]

I owe a panasonic lumix fz10, wich have a high quality leica lenses and a 4 megapixels. I always duplicate my original to process it...and alway save in tiff at 300 dpi up to the last resizing for jpeg on the web, with a quality of at lest 90%. The problems appear as soon as i apply digital effects of toning and blurring on my tiff copies. I Use psp8 and often nik color effect pro wich is not known to create artifacts..The problem is probably a bad workflow or existing artifacts that are for sure amplified with any digital process I guess ! Thank you Cynlee for help!

not sure how much help i can be... my last cam was a 4mg & use the tiff to work on, like you, in PSP8.1...

are you resizing it first before applying the effect? which can change the look... hmmm... well darn i'm at at loss... maybe you could post an example of the artifacts? could be compression or oversharpening... but no, not if they appear as soon as you apply the effects... (thinking outloud)... sorry, still don't know right off... i'll tell you my workflow: 3 things that help me with my Olympus images... under PSP's enhance photo: clarify 1-2 edge perserving smooth 1-2 & sharpen then i go from there with whatever i want to do... this works for me

Message edited on: 05/17/2005 16:10

Attached Link: http://img267.echo.cx/img267/7382/juin20043319zm.jpg

There is not interpolation on any of my images !

Message edited on: 05/17/2005 16:17

I guess that any sharpening an saturation done by the camera processor is really bad on jpeg compress mode..Is it possible? I have read that professionnals use to turn it off to avoid noise... Where your settings on sharpenning, saturation off or on?

Attached Link: http://img267.echo.cx/img267/7382/juin20043319zm.jpg

oh yeah!!! in cam sharpening! turn that off!!! :]

Yes..this noise remains in part even after noise ninja and amplifies on digital processing! I guess It should be better with putting every setting to the lowest! Thank's a lot for the tips..Cynlee..I'll try it next time! Do you think it might be a good workflow to apply a light gaussian blur after soften with egde preserving ..and ending with a smart unsharp to recover some crispiness?

don't want to loose too much with the gaussian blur after smoothing edges... i'd have to try it but was satisfied with those 3 steps to begin

Oh thank you very much for your workflow wich I missed before posting..This is a great help for me..And I will go with this..I am very happy with your help..thank's a lot again Cynlee :)

Well here's another thing to think about..... what is the dpi of the image out of camera??? If you are upsizing from say 72 dpi or 96 dpi image out of camera to 300 dpi, the software is using interpolation to create pixels that don't exist..... You will see a degradation of image quality, even if you don't save as a jpeg. You seem to be doing everything else right, and that is the only thing I can think of that may be the cause.

ps... use your in cam max size... when you resize later noise will be reduced

Oh! Michelle this issue of the resolution output might be a point too! But I do not know how to figure out the dpi resolution I get from my camera .....The worse.. I never completely understood it..I taught that dpi was a question of just reorganise pixels resolution in an inch...When I do my final crops my resample box is always check..but I never enlarge as to my maximum possibility with 300 dpi for printing size of 5X7....would it be better to uncheck it? Hope to understand this issue one day ;-)

On exif original I have resolution X: 72 resulution Y: 72 Does it means that my pictures are sorting out of my camera with a low 72 resolution for the web? Why would we have 3 jpegs settings mode? Mine is set to fine! When saving our work for printing we absolutely have to go with 300 dpi for the lab...You think that it might add pixels and noise even when not overpassing the limit print size in 300 dpi he have with the image ???? Sorry..I am a bit confused with the dpi resolution!

Seems all have been answered well.One thing of note. I am an avid PSO7 and 8 user,but will only resize and save in Photoshop Elements.There is a noticible difference,which I have not been able to achieve yet in PSP.No matter what setting in preferences.Especially the Save for Web feature PSE has. Now PSE3 lets me do RAW.

What I use to eliminate the grain is the Dust&Scratches filter!! It does wonder!!! No more noise/grain and a background as smooth as a baby's bottom! Yep! ;)

Attached Link: http://www.lizardtech.com/products/gf/

It would appear that is the case. My older Minolta digi camera would output images, no matter what format I used, tiff, jpg or raw at 96 dpi. Which isn't too much better for printing than 72 is.

I used a software made especially for interpolating images to a larger size. It did a good job of it. It's called Genuine Fractal, it's made by LizardTech.... they have a pro version and a cheaper/non pro version.

As far as how to go about enlarging in PSP I am uncertain.... as I've never enlarged my dpi that way.

Message edited on: 05/17/2005 18:41

Thank,s everyone for your help..I guess I'll try a few scenarios on a same image to see...and never buy another apn with only jpeg options :-( I've notice what you mentionned Dough..but thaught that it was my imagination as Acdsee seems to do a better job for resizing to! This is a good idea Mihcelle as genuine fractal seems to do a very good job for the jpeg images to resize with soften edges and noise with crispiness! Thank's pascale..!

From what I understand if you need a larger print than that of a 4 MP image then check resample, but you will lose some image quality. Otherwise uncheck resample and set to 200-300 ppi for print. Also you prob. realize a smaller iso # will reduce noise, underexposed images will result in more noise in dark areas, and custom white balance is usually better than using auto because you can more accurately capture the desired tones.. (I just read that in my Feb. 05' edition of PC Photo magazine ;-) -jeff :-)

Funny Jeff..I'm just back from harware forum..and they mentionned the exact same thing about auto white balance..wich I am not using..always low iso as 50 or 100 but will uncheck resampling when do not need interpolation for enlargment ;-) I guess that might be the problem in psp..resample check..with the results of not the best algorythms...;-)

go to PSP sharpen ...then clarify then edge preserving smooth on level 5 then clarify once more if it is too grainy then undo the second clarify.. just my way and thoughts ...

Thank's a lot..I tried few of your workflows and it works fine...especially smooth with edge preserving and clarify, and dust & scratch on chromatic noisy photos! Great help and tips guys ;-)