Possible to improve this image further?

[generik]

It is somewhat out of focus..

and even after expending the strength of nine cows (i know there is some chinese proverb like that... ) I still can't get it to be focused.

The original is like this:

After some processing it is like this:

Now, I gotta say I'm really a newbie at photoshop. In fact I know nothing until a few days ago, so all expert advice welcome! (Not so expert advice welcome too!)

Thx! :lovegrin:

 

[Peter Lim]

Yes, take the model out and re-shoot again, this time please bring along the tripod
with you, and stop down the apecture. Photoshop can't help you.
Happy Photography !

 

[Flare]

The problem is camera shake, the best way, is to avoid that all together.. hahah, this is the best I can do:

What I did was:

Unsharp mask, 100%, 5 pixels and no tolerance,
burn/dodge part of the eyes, redrew part of the eyes using the clone stamp tool,
duplicate layer, gaussian blur 15 pixels, opacity 60% for the soft effect to hide the flaws/shake etc,
Levels Adjustment layer to brighten up the image,
Flatten image, neat image to remove the enhanced noise due to the sharpening,
Resize,
post

edit: left out some steps, added them

 

[generik]

Wow.. her eyes do look clearer after what you did.

But overall it does seems like the whole picture is quite soft right? :sweat:

 

[Flare]

Wow.. her eyes do look clearer after what you did.

But overall it does seems like the whole picture is quite soft right? :sweat:

yeah, i tot that a soft focus effect would look nice on it, and hides the camera shake and sharpening artifacts as well. The image without the soft filter effect doesn't look as good. :embrass:

 

[generik]

Do you happen to know what "soft light" blending does?

I've tried that option, and adjusted a saturation & brightness a little:

Does seem to bring out some of the skin tones.

 

[jopel]

The red and blue channels of the image have a lot or noise. Only the green channel is clean. Your camera is not good for low light, try to use the flash.

 

[generik]

How did you do that?

It does look different.

 

[jopel]

How did you do that?

admittedly it is not a good job because I did it globally but an idea of what PS can do. After some PS your pic will be OK for a 4R print and be acceptable to many lay people.

use your filtered file
1. use pen tool to select the girl (which i did not).
2. After selecting go to curves> white ink picker(set white point)> pick the white point from her front teeth. closed the curves.
3.go to channels>red channel>curves - increase at midpoint.>green channel (green opposite of magenta) at midpoint decrease slightly.
This will enhanced the colour of her face.
4. Inverse the selection >apply gaussian blur to the curtain and background.
5. Inverse back > duplicate the image >chose luminosity from the dropdown > apply USM
6. flatten the image

I also used the burn and dodge tools to add texture.

simple answer - soft light allows the luminace from 0 - 50 of the bottom layer to show thru.

 

[teerex]

My try.

1. Adjusted Levels
2. Applied slight "S" curve
3. Hue/Saturation to adjust lips and skin tone.
4. USM 100;1.5;0.0
5. Denoise with Neat Image.

 

[yanyewkay]

My try
USM 200.3.2,0
dodge the white of the eyes and
touch up the eyes so that it looks sharp.
also used healing brush to touch up some wrinkles that were apparent after USM.

 

[yanyewkay]

with the eyes sharp the other parts doesn't really matter being a little blur.