I was hoping for some help.
Is there a way to soften an image without losing some detail?
Sometimes images look too grainy or the coloring is a bit too sharp. Is there a way to soften it?
I'm using photoshop.
Thanks in advance!
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Have you tried the reduce noise filter, or the blur filter? Do you have a picture to give an example of exactly what you are referring to?
Never even thought to use the noise removal haha. I'll have to play around a bit....if I can't get the results I want, I'll be back. So will be back in a bit lol.
Hope it works for you.
Blah.....not really. I can manage it in PSP because they have photo fixing stuff in it....it just doesn't like to work lately lol.
Oh, how frustrating. Did you try the blur filter?
Yeah I did....Tried a few different things, even trying posterize and some different blend modes.
For the colors being a bit too sharp, you can try using Levels (Ctrl-L) and Curves (Ctrl-M). Start with Levels and set the sliders at the bottom so that your histogram (the graph thing) just reaches the left and right sides of the graph space. Then move on to Curves and try adjusting the Master curve to tone down the too-bright areas (just click on the line and drag it down a little bit). It takes a little bit of learning how to do it so it looks natural, but once you master those two, you can save a lot of images that would be mediocre otherwise.
As far as softening it a bit, I'd try a Gaussian blur with a small radius, maybe 1.5 or 2 pixels, and then go over any spots that are still too sharp with the Blur tool.
Don't forget to create a smart object of your layer or create a new layer while doing this so you can go back if you have to ....to add to Holly's message .. if you duplicate your layer and place the blur on the upper one you can then use the transparency to bring up the lower layer and/or mask out/in just what you want to change and leave the rest
Images with a lot of grain have a lot of contrast. You might want to reduce it.