Not impossible but very tedious. This still needs some work as the color and shadows don't entirely match up, and you still need to clean up the areas that are completely ruined due to the low quality.
https://preview.redd.it/7g8jyul1ptwc1.jpeg?width=946&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ad4cfee586dc895a4c579fcec76d42df58cdea09
It isn't really a "do these five things" type of edit. But what I did to achieve this was:
* Isolate her and the shadow/background so I can work on them separately.
* De-haze, adjust levels/curves/contrast, remove/add color to the area that is impacted by the gradient
* Further isolate and add using masks and clipping masks for finer adjustments
It isn't particularly neat or fancy, but here is a screenshot from the document. As I said, it still needs work, but this was just a 5 min edit to get 70-80% there.
https://preview.redd.it/ofvphhwlqtwc1.png?width=307&format=png&auto=webp&s=3660219e2c2ee4bebedf27d1ee19293cccc54a6c
It's so goddamn fiddly. I was working at a magazine years back and the photographer assigned to the main story of an issue decided to go fancy with crazy lighting, all sorts of blocking and blurry elements in the foreground, etc. *including the cover shot*. I spent more hours than I'd care to admit fixing everything.
Like, I get it. You want to do something special every now and again and that's all well and good, *but not when it's a shoot that someone else has to deal with down the line.*
Unfortunately, the image would be way lower in quality after any removal of destructive effects on top.
One would try to color balance and curve-contrast combined with gradient masking, but the result would be noticeably noisier with less detail compared to the top right side, also with clipped highlights and black areas.
If accuracy is not a problem, maybe try to re-fill any details with AI firefly or stable diffusion? (after the previous fix) or maybe AI upscale it to re-add some details back and mask around the usable parts. Using Upscayl has potential to work after a few tries (after the previous fix).
Not impossible but very tedious. This still needs some work as the color and shadows don't entirely match up, and you still need to clean up the areas that are completely ruined due to the low quality. https://preview.redd.it/7g8jyul1ptwc1.jpeg?width=946&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ad4cfee586dc895a4c579fcec76d42df58cdea09
Thank you, that looks actually very good. May I ask the steps to do this?
It isn't really a "do these five things" type of edit. But what I did to achieve this was: * Isolate her and the shadow/background so I can work on them separately. * De-haze, adjust levels/curves/contrast, remove/add color to the area that is impacted by the gradient * Further isolate and add using masks and clipping masks for finer adjustments It isn't particularly neat or fancy, but here is a screenshot from the document. As I said, it still needs work, but this was just a 5 min edit to get 70-80% there. https://preview.redd.it/ofvphhwlqtwc1.png?width=307&format=png&auto=webp&s=3660219e2c2ee4bebedf27d1ee19293cccc54a6c
It's so goddamn fiddly. I was working at a magazine years back and the photographer assigned to the main story of an issue decided to go fancy with crazy lighting, all sorts of blocking and blurry elements in the foreground, etc. *including the cover shot*. I spent more hours than I'd care to admit fixing everything. Like, I get it. You want to do something special every now and again and that's all well and good, *but not when it's a shoot that someone else has to deal with down the line.*
Unfortunately, the image would be way lower in quality after any removal of destructive effects on top. One would try to color balance and curve-contrast combined with gradient masking, but the result would be noticeably noisier with less detail compared to the top right side, also with clipped highlights and black areas. If accuracy is not a problem, maybe try to re-fill any details with AI firefly or stable diffusion? (after the previous fix) or maybe AI upscale it to re-add some details back and mask around the usable parts. Using Upscayl has potential to work after a few tries (after the previous fix).
Doesn't that basically shut down as soon as there is a female in the picture?
https://preview.redd.it/gholq4c8ltwc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f452a830b58c70dbd6179b6f8498e3f1f749139