Photography Tips

Brighten up the subjects and minimize the image noise

Many times beautiful subjects are hidden because of bad photography techniques or camera settings. In most cases, it is possible to resurrect these images with the help of a little touch-up. The photo seen here is somewhat underexposed; the gaining can hardly be noticed, especially in shady regions, and the artifacts are seen to possess image noise in the mountainous region. The image noise stands out clearly if you increase the brightness to see more detail. The photographer can capture the same subject in a much better manner if he/she uses a longer shutter speed or a manual exposure correction of one to two f-stops. A possibly low ISO value would also reduce the visible image noise. Or, you could brighten the photo using Photoshop. To do so, select the option “Image | Adjust | Levels”. You can define the total value spread in the editing dialogue using the 'Black & White' slider. If you move the right white slider to the left, then the entire image will become brighter than it was earlier. The disadvantage here is that the image noise will be clearly seen. However, it can be rectify with the help of the function “Filter | Noise | Reduce noise”. To do this, move the slider for “Reduce Color Noise” to 100 percent and then move the other slider correspondingly. The end result will make your picture look a lot better than it was earlier.