Newbie - image quality

[kirkmc]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm still surprised that it appears that Affinity Photo isn't smoothing things out better. I understand that it's best to start with RAW files, which I do shoot, but as this was my first experience with AF, I just tried with a JPEG. It's odd that other apps will do better on a JPEG than AP, and I'm not sure I get why that's the case. 

[anon1]

Thanks for this. There are light streaks across the field around the tree; what is causing them?

lens + sun 

[kirkmc]

The sun isn't coming from that direction; it's coming from the right (around 2 o'clock).

[R C-R]

I'm still surprised that it appears that Affinity Photo isn't smoothing things out better.

Affinity Photo will only do what you tell it to do. If you want to smooth out color variations then use one of the techniques already mentioned to do that. Don't (for example) push the color sliders in the Black & White adjustment so far that the color variations in the source image become more obvious than you want as a result -- the app gives you complete control over that & it won't try to override or guess why you are pushing them that far.

[harrym]

Hi kirkmc,

 

As per my post at bottom of page one you have lens flair in that image. This may actually be coming from clouds out of picture a lot of those cloud edges are really close to being blown there is even a hint of an aperture circle up at the top if you push the image to much. I processed it lighly due to that if you check it out. If you prefer heavier processing removing it (in this instance anyway) is easy.

Were you using a lens hood?

 

Other products aren't doing better RC-R's last sentence put it very well.

[kirkmc]

No, I wasn't using a hood on that shot. But the flare isn't coming from where the sun is.

[JimmyJack]

I'm with you kirkmc.

 

I think the B & W filter is a little screwy.

 

Any other method (I've tried) of creating a greyscale of that image does not create those splotches. HSL, Gradient Map, Threshold, Color Format change all seem to do a much better job. Yes there's noise in the jpg at high mag. But those blobs only show up with the B & W, without touching the sliders.

 

Hmm... just tried HSL with a Normal blend (for this I just go straight to color or hue out of force of habit) and get the splotchiness.

So try setting the B & W to Color or Hue (might as well use one of the other methods then). I think it gives a better initial conversion of the tonal values anyway. The default settings look overexposed from the original. You lose the individual color control, but you're looking for a global change anyway right? You can always tweak more specifically with curves.

[harrym]

I give up

[R C-R]

I think the B & W filter is a little screwy. {...} But those blobs only show up with the B & W, without touching the sliders.

I am not seeing that but maybe we are not talking about the same thing? I have assumed the conversion was being done with a Black and White adjustment layer, not some filter. Am I wrong about that?

[JimmyJack]

Yeah, sorry adjustment.

 

Default B&W adjustment and other.

(Both have been pushed with an independent global levels adjustment just to over emphasize the result.)

FWIW I haven't seen the B&W do this on any other image.

 

 

 

 

[R C-R]

JimmyJack, I don't see the splotches in your first screenshot with the sliders in the B&W adjustment at their default settings -- only after moving the Cyan or Blue to the left do I begin to see that. I was working from the OP's Dropbox image, set to 100% in Dropbox & then dragged onto the desktop from Safari.

[JimmyJack]

I used direct download, but I did what you did this time. Still get it. Here it is with no exaggeration. Straight up non-touched B&W adj.

It's harder to see (that's why I added the emphasis before), but there.... for me. Interesting.

 

 

Can you post a similar image with just the B&W?

[R C-R]

JimmyJack, this time I used the direct download method but I don't think there is any difference. Anyway, attached is an image similar to yours, but I don't know if you can tell much from it.

 

Just a thought but kirkmc said in another post that the photo was "slightly tweaked in other software," so I do not know if we are working with the original jpeg file or the tweaked one.