Panorama Photo Correction

[00banksy]

I have used photoshop quite a bit but never for correcting photo exposure. I took this panorama of the wave field at Storm King's art center but the exposure turned out poor. Any suggestions for correcting this? Ot if someone out there who does this type of thing often and knows the problem and knows a link to the solution. Any help would be apprechiated

 

[iDad]

What I think I would do first is duplicate layer put top layer in divide mode and then use the burn tool on the darker areas. Tool in shadow mode at about 35% brush with soft edge, percentage may vary, I'm pretty sure that will get you close to what you want a bit of tweaking may be needed from there but a good start

 

[Tom Mann]

I'll bet that you left the camera on "auto" exposure instead of using one fixed manual exposure for all of the component shots that went into the panorama.

HTH,

T

 

[00banksy]

Not much a photographer, taken with my smart phone so all the settings associated with the panorama setting are not adjustable except exposure.

 

[Tom Mann]

Yup, it was a dead give-away: auto exposure always causes that sort of problem.

You (ie, anyone) will spend more time trying to fix it than it's probably worth, and it will never look as good as if it had been shot correctly in the 1st place.

The way I work is that if there's a chance I'm going to be taking anything more than snapshots, I'll throw some little P&S (that has some minimal controls) in my pocket and save myself a huge amount of trouble later.

BTW, I don't know if you used an in-camera app to stitch the component images together or you used PS or some other real software, but there are substantial differences between stitching methods in terms of how well they blend mismatched exposures. You might give Pano Tools or even just PS's stitching facility a try.

T

 

[iDad]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't he asking how to repair the picture not the camera process?

 

[Tom Mann]

Hi iDad - I recommend photoshop-based "fixes" when I think that is the best approach, but when someone doesn't know what caused the problem, and a bit of advice might save him hours and hours of work on this and future images, I feel that I would be steering him wrong by not bringing it to his attention in a very clear way and, instead, discussing PS.

With respect to software "fixes", even there, the best approach is not photoshop, but a better stitching program. My very last choice would be PS (or equivalent). Even the TV show, CSI, uses specialized software when needed. LOL.

Tom

 

[iDad]

I am assuming the pictures done and he is looking for fixes of the image above no reason Photoshop can't fix what he has with some time and patience. What you said is all well and good but with all due respect, it does notaddress the fix for the image above.

 

[Tom Mann]

Well, since Dad would like to see some work applicable to the already stitched version of the image and no one else has stepped forward, here's a bit of work I did on it ...

Like iDad's suggestion, I also used a layer in the "divide" blending mode, but for my denominator, I used an estimate of the local brightness in the foreground. I got this estimate by selecting the foreground, then using extreme motion blur in the vertical direction to vertically average each vertical slice as you go across the image. I then blurred it a bit isotropically (to hide the fine vertical lines), used some blendIF settings, and after a bit of tweaking, got what you see below.

Also, since the original was so dark and flat, I brightened it up considerably and applied a good bit of local contrast enhancement.

A lot of the original banding is still quite visible, but at least it's on a smaller length scale, it's not so dark, and generally, it's not quite as visually intrusive as the original, at least IMHO. Topping my version off with purely manual methods (eg, dodging and burning), would easily improve this.

Attached below are:

a) the original - downsized to display in line for easy comparison;
b) the estimate of local brightness in each vertical strip;
c) my quick and dirty tweaked version.


That being said, if, by some chance, the OP has the unstitched component images still available, he is essentially guaranteed to get better results using PanoTools to re-stitch the image instead of the above sort of after-the-fact desperation approach like I demonstrated.

HTH,

Tom


PS - @iDad - I would love to see how the method you proposed worked. Maybe if one is going to do everything manually (like you suggested), it doesn't make sense to bother going through the estimate of the local brightness like I did.

 

[Paul]

Layer mask over the darker lines then i set a blur to the mask before applying then i applied and then altered lighting and colour, with same procedure i would get it better, but this is to demonstrate Photoshops twists and turns in approach and final results.

 

[iDad]

That's what I'm talking about, giving it a try this, it's the best learning tool I know of. and what's good about that is everybody has a way if they try hard enough. it's entirely possible to make that picture look good when I have to time I'll try. my posted solution was no guarantee that's why I used the word tweaking

 

[Paul]

Like i said in my earlier post, with some more effort and time thrown at it, i feel i could get it a lot better/brighter and cleaner to the eye:mrgreen:
Photoshop is the bomb is it not

 

[iDad]

It is the bomb, as you're picture shows it looks like a bomb went off.......... j/k

 

[iDad]

what a mess, just got really into this image. some serious manipulation,tweaking, and time.

 

[Tom Mann]

what a mess, just got really into this image. some serious manipulation,tweaking, and time.

No, really? I would have never guessed.

;-)

LOL,

Tom

 

[iDad]

Not saying it's not possible serious time means serious $, if that is all he has, higher professional that has the time
Tom,.... bite me!:mrgreen:

 

[Tom Mann]

Sorry, but the phrases that keep going through my mind when I think of these after-the-fact "solutions" include, "closing the barn door after the horse is gone", "putting a band-aid on a broken leg", etc..

Sure, it can be done, and if you work really hard, the result might be tolerable, but would you really want to? Would you want to process a few dozen pix from vacation all taken this way because your cell phone says that it has a pano stitching mode, etc.

In other words, this :banghead: versus this .

Now, to use one final phrase, I'll stop "beating a dead horse".

LOL.

Best regards,

T

 

[iDad]

Don't stop on my account, four words that you just said is all I was looking for, thank you Prof. show me the money I'll give it a try when the horses come home

 

[Tom Mann]

LOL, Dad.

Tom

 

[iDad]

Who's ya Daddie...... Now go to your room! Classroom, that is!