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Attempt at high quality from low quality photo!!


jjdaniels7

Member
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la-muhammad-ali19.jpg

ali.jpg
I wanted to make the photo look sharper and crisper at the same time giving it a bit more detail. My second time using topaz so everyday is a learning process!!
 

ALB68

Dear Departed Guru and PSG Staff Member
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Interesting. Which filter did you use?
 

Paul

Former Member
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Looks like a good photo as been given the grain effect, and another good photo as been hit with the smudge tool.
 

jjdaniels7

Member
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Interesting. Which filter did you use?
Ok, I think I better start keeping notes of the filters I use, I did apply topaz adjust, stylized, extreme color blast, then I poked around with the adjustment options to the right for a while. I also used the topaz b&w filter not sure which one, but I did use the options on the right to make the black colors darker.
 

Paul

Former Member
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So why does the original have less grain on it then yours?
10443674-standard.jpg
 

Paul

Former Member
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The neck line is the give away mate, for me this is a reverse doctored image
 

jjdaniels7

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The neck line is the give away mate, for me this is a reverse doctored image
Like I said I am new at this, not really sure what you mean by that, lol. But I do know no smudge tool was used, it's possible that the suppression tool gives the appearance that the smudge tool was used, maybe I suppressed a bit to much, lesson learned though. Thanks anyway..TopazFlower_Duo.jpg
 

Tom Mann

Guru
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@OP: I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but all you did was demonstrate the core problem which has plagued noise reduction software for decades: you made his skin look like it is made of plastic or burnished metal. Just Google {"noise reduction" plastic skin} and you will come up with a 17 million hits, most of which discuss exactly this problem / effect.

You need to be much more restrained and selective when you apply noise reduction (eg, the suppression slider in some of the Topaz efx), especially when it comes to skin. Read some of the suggestions / comments on this subject offered in some of the results you just Googled.

Also, in your first post, you say, "I wanted to make the photo look sharper and crisper at the same time giving it a bit more detail...". Once again, I hate to dampen your enthusiasm, but how can you possibly think that your after photo is sharper and has more detail when you have removed all detail (eg, pores) from his skin. In fact, you have done the opposite. What probably is misleading you is that you did increase both the global and local contrast in the image, and sometimes people think this is the same as sharpness or detail.

Finally, I also have to take exception with the title you gave this thread. There is an old adage in computer science: Garbage in, garbage out. It applies to post processing as well. About the best one can do is trade one form of garbage for another. For example, you traded popcorn and other high spatial frequency noise for skin so smooth it doesn't look human.

I apologize for being so negative, but a big part of the PS learning process is that one has to learn what sorts of image problems you can fix (without too many complaints of artificiality) and which ones will cause you to realize that the power of PS in some areas is indeed very limited.

Tom
 
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jjdaniels7

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I hear you loud and clear my friend, everyday is a work in progress. So I think it'll probably be better to let the image keep some of its original noise and lay off that suppression slider.
 

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