Quality improvement

[Pedro_ivo]

So basically, a friend of mine is doing an album with his girlfriend and I asked to edit some pictures and he gave me some. He said his girlfriend's cousin would be editing some of the photos. He showed me a before and after and I think the result is amazing. Problem is, I have no idea how he (the cousin) achieved such improvement (especially in their hair). If someone could tell me, I would be very grateful, cause I going insane trying to discover this.

 

[IamSam]

If someone could tell me, I would be very grateful, cause I going insane trying to discover this.

Hello and welcome to the forum.

What's you Ps experience level?

The problem is that there could have been many techniques, filters, and effects used on the after image! Far too many for us to guess at.

As for the hair, he just darkened the contrast................he could have used many different techniques to do this. I would have used a Curves adjustment layer.



Your absolute best bet would be to get into contact with the cousin and ask him what he did.

 

[Pedro_ivo]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

What's you Ps experience level?

The problem is that there could have been many techniques, filters, and effects used on the after image! Far too many for us to guess at.

As for the hair, he just darkened the contrast................he could have used many different techniques to do this. I would have used a Curves adjustment layer.
View attachment 99256


Your absolute best bet would be to get into contact with the cousin and ask him what he did.

Hello and thanks for the reply
I don't use it professionally, but I'm not a complete noob also. Perhaps something like an almost intermediary.
Maybe I should have made it more clear. I don't want to make the same technique (I know there are thousands of ways to make the same thing in photoshop), just some way to get as close as possible. The smooth and sharpness in his picture are really good and in the right places. And you can actually see the locks of hair.
What I would like to know is a way to improve the quality, so I can see as much detail as in his picture.
Thanks again

 

[thebestcpu]

Hi Pedro
The first step you should start with is better original picture. Your before picture is not the actual "before" picture yet an image that has gone through compression with artifacts while your after image does not have those compression artifacts. That would be a good starting point because many color and tone shifting techniques will make those rear their ugly head.

The image below is the blue channel only of your original image on the left and the after image on the right. You can see the hug amount of compression artifacts (blocking) on the left. So there is no way the left image is a starting point image from which to achieve the after image.

If you can provide the actual original "Before" image, then forum members might have a better shot at helping you.

I agree that the easiest way would be to ask your cousin for the exact steps they took compared to the trial and error approach to duplicate the same result via a forum member. Either way, starting from the actual original image is likely critical for a good end result.

Just my opinion of course
John Wheeler

 

[Pedro_ivo]

Hi Pedro
The first step you should start with is better original picture. Your before picture is not the actual "before" picture yet an image that has gone through compression with artifacts while your after image does not have those compression artifacts. That would be a good starting point because many color and tone shifting techniques will make those rear their ugly head.

The image below is the blue channel only of your original image on the left and the after image on the right. You can see the hug amount of compression artifacts (blocking) on the left. So there is no way the left image is a starting point image from which to achieve the after image.

If you can provide the actual original "Before" image, then forum members might have a better shot at helping you.

I agree that the easiest way would be to ask your cousin for the exact steps they took compared to the trial and error approach to duplicate the same result via a forum member. Either way, starting from the actual original image is likely critical for a good end result.

Just my opinion of course
John Wheeler

View attachment 99282

Hey man, really appreciate the answer.
So basically this is what happened. He told me he was doing an album with his girlfriend and I asked if he could send me some of the pictures, so I could play a little with it. His girlfriend's cousin shot the pictures and my friend sent me this one "before" saying it was the original, and after a while, he sent me the "after" picture to show me the cousin's work. So maybe the compression issue happened when he sent me or something like that. Unfortunately, this is the only one I have. I even tried to get the PSD file, but her cousin did not send. Dude is a professional, so I understand his side.
Anyway, what you said makes a lot of sense and kinda explain why the methods I saw weren't working. You also showed a cool trick, so I see as a complete winning.
Thanks again

 

[thebestcpu]

Your welcome and your explanation makes sense. He sent you a highly compressed version of the original yet not of the final image.