I have a very nice photograph of myself, my aunt, grandmother, and mother. It’s a special photo due to the simple fact that one of us is usually behind the camera during holidays or occasions, so there just aren’t very many (re: none) of the four of us together. The problem is that, for some reason, the digital camera went funky while dad was taking the picture and did something to it. Can this be fixed at all? I’m an amatuer with Photoshop, and about all I can do is remove “red-eye”.
I’ve got a smaller version of the picture, here . If anyone thinks they could do something with it, I’d be happy to email the original.
Well, the photo itself looks a bit soft, and the contrast is off, but it should be fixable to a point that you’ll be happy with it. Feel free to email it to me. Address in my profile.
What don’t you like about the photo? It’s not exactly frameable but it looks as good as most indoor flash shots. Is the blurriness worse in the full size version?
Well, Smack Fu, it just seems rather blurry to me. I wouldn’t mind if just the background was blurry, but our faces seem slightly out of focus. My grandmother would probably say that’s a good thing ( ), but I would like something I could frame, even if it’s just a casual shot to put on my desk.
That weird kind of blurriness is caused by the flash going off right at the same time as the camera moves, so it creates more of a noticeable double image - the very short instance of the flash, and the smudge of the (few milliseconds longer) exposure.
I was thinking about it, and my camera actually has a mode that does this kind of thing. It’s one of the flash modes, and the icon is a little guy in front of a mountain (I think). What it does is use a long shutter speed plus the flash. The idea is to avoid the black background you would normally get when you take someone’s photo with the flash and with a distant background.
In actual use it tends to give you a blurred background and a ghosted foreground, or other similarly trippy effects that make it look like you were at a rave.
Only if you don’t understand how best to take advantage of this mode. This is called slow-sync flash and–in my opinion–when used correctly is far preferable to straight flash at short shutter speeds.
All you need to do is make sure that your subject (that will receive the flash exposure) is in a darker area (at least 2 f-stops or so) than the background. What will happen then is the foreground will receive the flash exposure, with little to no bleed from the background lighting.
Also, ghosting effects can be very effective in conveying the energy of activities like dancing.
I’ve also noticed that some digital cameras (older ones, mostly - some of the newer ones I’ve tried are much better) have a delay between when you press the button and when the camera actually takes a picture. If you’re like me and used to regular cameras, which snap the shutter as soon as you take the picture, you might move after you press the button, leading to blurry pictures with digitals. I’ve learned to hold still for a few seconds longer when using a digital so that the pictures stay crisp.
I don’t own a digital camera myself, but I’ve used one at conventions and such. It’s an older model and this delay is quite pronounced - some of the newer ones I’ve tried out in the store seem better.
), but I would like something I could frame, even if it’s just a casual shot to put on my desk.