Krista (norton94) here, hello and TGIF!  I’m talking about those less than stellar pictures today.  And brace yourself, a way to save them from your delete button…read on.

Some of you are gifted photogs and may seldom need this program, but surely there will be a time or two it could come in handy!  Many times I’m lucky to get a smile, much less fabulous lighting too.  I found a program for the rest of us called Neat Image that is available as a free demo.  I’ve found it really helpful in saving some of my *less than professionally-lit* pictures. 

Quoted from the Neat Image website:

Neat Image is a filter designed to reduce visible noise and grain in photographic images produced by digital cameras and scanners. Neat Image is indispensable in low-light(indoors, night, astro) and high-speed (sport, action) photography. It is a tool for both professional photographers and digital image processing enthusiasts.

Many times when you lighten up a low light picture there are pixels of black or oddly colored (like yellow) pixels that just make for a messy looking image. 

Here is an example straight from my camera:

and here is the same pic closer up - so you can see the poor quality of the image

and here is the same pic after using Neat Image - not nearly as grainy!

Check it out after lightening the exposure some - the effect is even more dramatic

  Before

  After

Well I can’t say it is perfect, by any means, but at least it is USABLE (remember this is a blow up of my original).  Neat Image can’t save every picture, but it surely makes that “perfect smile but bad lighting” picture more manageable.  Especially if you are willing to let it be artistic and play with blending modes!

                             Blending fun!

There are many more examples on their website http://www.neatimage.com/examples.html if you’d like to see more.  I encourage you to give it a try and see for yourself.  The Demo edition of Neat Image is freeware for non-commercial use and can be downloaded at http://www.neatimage.com/download.html 

One thing I did find is that it is BEST to process the image with Neat Image before cropping.  The calibration relies on a uniform area that is large enough…often what we crop out has those larger areas and then the calibration is less accurate, therefore producing a lower quality output image.  Another tip is to adjust the final contrast prior to processing with Neat Image.

I challenge you to scrap a layout using a picture you previously felt was un-scrapworthy.  Whether you use Neat Image, play with blending modes, or let it be grungy/blurry/whatever.