How about a Camera Raw image

[Tom Mann]

Hey, Mike - I wasn't quite sure what to do with your door, so I just got silly with it.

T

 

[Steve]

My try.

 

[Janifar]

I have no idea about ACR. Please somebody help me.

 

[ALB68]

Here is my attempt at the last file Steve posted. All ACR except the resize. I tried to concentrate on the lighting from the skylights and to bring out the detail in shadows on the beams.

 

[ALB68]

Janifar
ACR = Adobe Camera Raw. In CS6 (and some older ones too I think) it is a built in plugin. It is a powerful program on it's own merits. Many times you can process your image in ACR before you go to PS and do minimal work in PS. It is intended to open RAW files that are produced by some camera brands. It will also open jpgs and tiffs. You can open your files from Bridge by right clicking on the file and designate Open in Camera Raw. Suggest you grab a tutorial off the net and learn a little about it before you try and use it. It is a great program.

 

[Steve]

Time for another Raw file.

This was deliberately underexposed
It was past sunset and I just wanted a silhouette but see how much detail you can pull out of this raw file in ACR.

 

[ALB68]

Here is my first shot at the old fort. It is really noisy and grainy for some reason. I couldn't seem to improve on that much but got amazing detail considering it was almost black.

 

[MikeMc]

Nope.....I think it looks far better as shot....I do not have any hope at de noising it..Tom Mann might?

 

[Steve]

Well like I said, this was intentionally shot this way, I wanted just a silhouette.

I posted this specific image to show how useful raw images are and how powerful ACR is.
This was done in ACR CS6 including noise reduction, nothing in Photoshop.



You can't do this if you shoot JPG.

 

[sprucemagoo1]

I've only ever used raw once before, and I didn't know how to use it, so I left forth with.
Hopefully this is a bit of a better effort than my first.
View attachment 30682

 

[Steve]

I've only ever used raw once before, and I didn't know how to use it, so I left forth with.Hopefully this is a bit of a better effort than my first.View attachment 30682

There you go Chad, nice job.
I'm hoping folks that haven't tried ACR and don't shoot Raw will see the advantage.
Even JPG and TIF files can be opened in ACR if you set it up that way.
You're options aren't nearly as wide as they are with a RAW file but you still have some powerful tools for JPG's in ACR.

For anyone that hasn't downloaded the RAW file this is the original image as a JPG.

 

[MikeMc]

Steve...That looks great....How did you drop all the noise...I can't get close?

 

[Tom Mann]

... and here's my take on it.

95% of this was done in ACR CS6, but I did bring it into PS for a couple of final tweaks:
Topaz de-noise - to reduce the vertical banding
Topaz Adjust - to add a bit more sparkle and interest into the dark foreground.

If anyone is interested, I'll be happy to make an ACR (CS6) preset and post it. Note, however, that the noise reduction in CS6 is much better than in earlier versions, so that might account for some of the differences you are experiencing.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Tom Mann]

Here are the ACR settings I used.

Tom

 

[ALB68]

I was just trying to get as much detail out as I could per Steve, which resulted in an overkill. You have to give credit for being brave enough to throw it out there first though. Had I waited and let you dudes throw yours out there I would have wised up and fixed mine before I presented it to the graphic police station. I could have just waited on Tom's preset!

 

[Steve]

Steve...That looks great....How did you drop all the noise...I can't get close?

It would depend on your version of Photoshop.
CS5 and CS6 have noise reduction in ACR.

 

[MikeMc]

It would depend on your version of Photoshop.
CS5 and CS6 have noise reduction in ACR.

CS5.5

Still didn't get it looking that good in ACR....Must be the way I set the workflow

So now I can try to get to there

 

[Hoogle]

Just a question as lightroom is basically ACR on STeroids is that allowed to be used for this.

 

[Tom Mann]

Mike - My memory could be going, but I thought the big improvement in ACR's NR was between CS5 and CS6, not between 4 and 5. If so, that could be part of the reason for the difference you are experiencing.

T

 

[MikeMc]

Mike - My memory could be going, but I thought the big improvement in ACR's NR was between CS5 and CS6, not between 4 and 5. If so, that could be part of the reason for the difference you are experiencing.

T

I have heard that a couple of places....BUT, it could be me, I'm gonna give another go And my version is CS5 extended