Peculiarly grainy digital photo

[marlene]

Someone sent me a couple of digital photos that seem to be peculiarly grainy. I don't know if it's their camera or something they did to the photos before sending them. The files were actually forwarded to me by my client, so I don't have direct contact with the photographer.

I've uploaded one of them to:

http://www.mallomar.net/modern/grainyphoto.zip

I have to use this one in a full-color magazine. If anyone wants to look at it and let me know if it looks grainy to you (maybe it's not as bad as I think), and the best way to deal with it (blur?), I would appreciate it.

mxh

[Andrew B.]

The photo does strike me as too grainy, with the area that is most distracting being the faces. Zoom in and you will see the pixelization that is creating the problem. Is a better version of the photo available? If not, then I guess you need to fix it. But I have no idea what level of improved you need to get this too, or what tools you have. But here are some ideas.

Copy the image to a new layer. Run the Despeckle filter. The result will look a little too smooth, but see how it looks after you run unsharp mask. If it still looks too processed for you, undo the sharpen. Add a layer mask and bring back some of the grain using a brush at partial opacity, then sharpen (if needed).

If you have a smart noise removal tool, such as Neat Image or Noiseware, use that. You will still have to do the followup steps as above, but you might prefer the result.

[LoisWakeman]

Marlene, I too would suggest trying to despeckle or use a noise removal tool. What you see is typical of a lower-end digital camera used at too high an ISO value, or for a very long exposure (not likely in this case).

[marlene]

Yeah, I zoomed in on the faces, and was appalled at the graininess. And unfortunately, a better image is not available.

I've got Photoshop CS2 and a bunch of stuff I STILL have not installed from an Andromeda bundles (Nik Color Efex Pro, Splat, Xenofex, LensDoc Filter, Varifocus, Perspective, and Redeye).

I'll fiddle with the photo in Photoshop, using your suggestions, and see if I can make it better.

If you have a smart noise removal tool, such as Neat Image or Noiseware, use that.

I don't have either one -- maybe I should look into them. I do get a lot of bad digital images, but most of them have JPEG compression problems. Would either of these programs help to lessen those problems?

mxh

[marlene]

typical of a lower-end digital camera used at too high an ISO value

Interesting ... I don't think I've ever even looked at the ISO setting on my camera (assuming there is one). I have what I guess is a mid-level camera, but I think many of the digital photos that are sent to me are from lower-end cameras. I think a lot of people get sticker shock when they buy a digital camera, and they aren't knowledgeable enough to understand the differences in quality, features, etc.

mxh

[Andrew B.]

I've got Photoshop CS2Windows or Mac?

...and a bunch of stuff I STILL have not installed from an Andromeda bundles (Nik Color Efex Pro, Splat, Xenofex, LensDoc Filter, Varifocus, Perspective, and Redeye).No noise tools there.

I'll fiddle with the photo in Photoshop, using your suggestions, and see if I can make it better.Let me know how it works out.

I don't have either one -- maybe I should look into them. I do get a lot of bad digital images, but most of them have JPEG compression problems. Would either of these programs help to lessen those problems?Yes, these work on some jpeg problems too. Not magic, but often surprisingly good. Noiseware is easiest to use, so you might want to test drive that one first. Neat Image is more powerful, but it is not doing better on the picture at hand.

...Andrew

[LoisWakeman]

Marlene: the default in most cameras is auto-everything, including ISO - so in dark situations, the ISO gets bumped up to gove a shorter exposure. The first thing I did when I got my camera was to set the ISO to 100 so I had control.

[JohnC]

That doesn't look like noise to me (at least not the type of noise you would get from high ISO settings on a small sensor). It looks more like heavy JPG compression artifacts, like they selected maximum compression instead of maximum quality. When you look close in on the images there are squares in there. Noise is a more random pattern of color dots and bright spots.

[LoisWakeman]

John: I did wonder about that - different cameras presumably have slightly different noise patterns. But it didn't look much like JPEG compression either - which does not generally impose a uniform colour speckling - but smooths out colours and introduces blockiness as you say. That looks too colourful!

[JohnC]

I'll try to do some experiments over the weekend with underexposure and heavy JPG compression to see if I can come up with something.

But the photo here doesn't look like it was underexposed and brightened up. In addition to the noise I would expect extreme contrast build up, too. There is too much detail in the jackets and ties. Looks like the exposure was right on. But almost looks like it has a moiré pattern from scanning a print (but not quite).

John

[marlene]

Windoze.

I've been hung up on other tasks and problems, but need to try some of the noise-unmakers soon. This job goes to press next Friday.

mxh

[marlene]

Actually, my first thought was that it was a scan of a crappy inkjet print. And it might be -- I have no way to contacting the source to find out.

And I can't tell if the problem is JPEG compression -- I don't see any of the telltale "edges" I usually see with JPEG compression.

I wonder if upsampling could be the problem? Maybe someone was trying to meet my 300-dpi demands with a lower resolution image.

mxh

[Franca]

But almost looks like it has a moiré pattern from scanning a print (but not quite).That's what it reminds me of also. Like scanning something that's been halftoned, from a magazine for example. Odd.

[fhaber]

That's exactly what it looked like to me, a scan of some digi-modern equivalent of halftone rosettes. But I *have* seen camera compression algorithms hiccup and do something similar.