General 04 Sep 2005 06:06 am
Photoshoping away pollution
If only it were that easy… As part of the Studio 8 launch tour, my team and I spent a fantastic weekend in Beijing. As part of our two days of tourist bliss, we made our way to the Great Wall of China.
Armed with our shiny new cameras purchased earlier in the trip in Singapore (I bought a Canon 20D), Jim, Jen and I snapped away. Unfortunately the combination of a hazy day with the abundant polution in Beijing (and I thought Los Angeles was bad), our pictures didn’t come out so well.
Photoshop to the rescue! I’ve never really gotten into Photoshop much but have recently had it on my list to learn the basics. Luckily I installed Creative Suite 2 before leaving San Francisco so this was the perfect chance.
I found the tool fairly easy to learn - well, the basics, anyway. In no time I was “Adjustment Layer’ing” away while having fun with the clone stamp tool and healing brush.
The results (keep in mind that I’m a newbie and a Product Manager by trade, not a designer):
Before:
After:
I love that “photoshop” is both a noun and a verb. That’s the mark of a truly successful product. I guess you could say the same about Flash, however, the verb-form for “flash” takes on an entirely different meaning… 
on 04 Sep 2005 at 7:29 am 1.Anon said …
Wow photoshop removed all that pollution?
humm… and the ppl that were in the first pics too.
were they also considered as pollution?
on 04 Sep 2005 at 10:31 am 2.Jerry said …
Thata pretty impressice. I have been able to do alot in photoshop and photoimpact I am a nature photgrapher and I love teh editing capabilities of both.
on 04 Sep 2005 at 11:36 am 3.John Nack said …
Hey Mike–I’m glad to hear that Photoshop is treating you right (and I’m jealous that you get to tour Beijing!). Maybe I can trade you some Photoshop skills in exchange for your helping me evolve my Flash techniques beyond the “Tell Target” days.
on 04 Sep 2005 at 12:00 pm 4.sqthreer said …
Wow, nice. I’ve been using Photoshop for almost 3 years, and I haven’t really attempted photo touch-ups. I see now that this must change.
on 04 Sep 2005 at 11:34 pm 5.Chris Charlton said …
What adjustment layer(s) did you apply?
on 05 Sep 2005 at 12:37 am 6.Mike Duguid said …
I imagine a curves adjustment with a slight ’s’ shape. By having a gradient with white at top, black at bottom it fits the amount of processing required as the fog increases with distance. Another simple trick to quickly improve contrast whilst retaining adjustability is to duplicate the layer and change it’s blending mode to overlay, adjust opacity to taste.
on 06 Sep 2005 at 7:29 am 7.Abe Pazos said …
I just saw your pictures and decided to test my photoshop skills working on your original image and came up with this:
http://www.hamoid.com/otherpix/index.php?folder=wall
using photoshop and two plugins: focus magic and light machine (the pollution is gone but maybe too sharp or saturated for some tastes).
If I’m allowed, as a 10D owner I recommend using RAW format. I shot JPGs for two years because I didn’t think it was worth it, but when I got a bigger memory for my camera and I found better software I switched to RAW. It’s really incredible. You can do magic with RAW files, converting ugly pictures into great shots. (downside: the extra work of converting all images)
If someone feels like watching pictures: http://pix.hamoid.com
on 06 Sep 2005 at 8:51 am 8.Derek Vadneau said …
And the 2-minute Fireworks version:
http://madebyderek.com/playground/Great_Wall_FW_after.jpg
(with people intact!)
on 07 Sep 2005 at 12:31 am 9.Mike Downey said …
Thanks for the tips and the re-touches. I had fun doing this and I’m discovering more and more great features as I go.
With regard to my removing the people in the photo, I did so because I wanted to play with the healing brush. I was blown away by how easy it was to remove items from a photo. Tons of fun!
Also, thanks for the tip on RAW. I wasn’t sure whether I would see much of a difference and I was also concerned that I’d run out of hard drive space on my PowerBook. Perhaps it is worth the increased quality…
MD
on 07 Sep 2005 at 1:47 am 10.Moca said …
Mikey! Fun Stuff
Come back soon, we miss you here.
on 07 Sep 2005 at 9:20 pm 11.liangbowen said …
I hope that’s fog, not pollution and not because of pollution
.
on 28 Dec 2005 at 4:21 am 12.Stephanie said …
Yea I have done some pretty impressive things with Photo Impact but this really shows just how great it works on making the picture that much more clearer!
on 15 Feb 2006 at 5:56 am 13.Bielizna Damska said …
Use filters in photoshop, has he very interested effects.
on 26 Feb 2006 at 3:21 am 14.Aparaty cyfrowe said …
Very much you got the pretty effect, I now robie retouch of the photograph, I found a few tutoriali for improving the quality of photographs when I read them effects were very good
on 19 May 2008 at 10:15 am 15.Dev said …
WhaaaaaaaaAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAaaaaaaaaaaT
photogarphy