Thaumaturgy, or raising the dead image

[LocalHero1953]

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With my discovery of the Topaz Denoise and Sharpen, I thought I'd go back and look at some images I'd taken some years ago and, with those tools and my greater experience in post processing, see if I could make a better go at making the dead or nearly dead image acceptable.

I took this shot at one in the morning in the Piazza Maggiore in Bologna in 2014; I came across the young of the town dancing the night away. I had the M240 and Elmarit-M 28 Asph, and it looks like I just took what the exposure meter said: ISO 2500, f/2.8 and 1/30s. I took several other shots closer to, but this one, as I approached them, showed the dancers best. It was such an atmospheric moment that I wanted to capture it despite the middle of the night conditions.

I show first the SOOC shot in horrible colour, followed by the best I could do in Lightroom at the time; lastly is the best I can do now, using Topaz DeNoise AI, then converted to B&W in LR, with various other adjustments. It is not a miraculous change, but it is better than my 7 year old attempt. Click on the images to see the detail in the forum viewer.

Anybody else wish to post their attempts at recovering old problematic images in the light of better tools and experience?

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Edited March 12, 2021 by LocalHero1953

[jaapv]

The same experience with M8 shots, even ones that don't need denoising. The present-day algorithms of ACR and Photoshop CC (and presumably Lightroom CC) are clearly much improved over the last few years.  Denoise AI and Sharpen AI are stunningly good programs as well. Having said that, I have no problem at all with the colours of the original shot, they look quite natural under the lighting to me.

[jankap]

+1

[LocalHero1953]

1 hour ago, jaapv said:

The same experience with M8 shots, even ones that don't need denoising. The present-day algorithms of ACR and Photoshop CC (and presumably Lightroom CC) are clearly much improved over the last few years.  Denoise AI and Sharpen AI are stunningly good programs as well. Having said that, I have no problem at all with the colours of the original shot, they look quite natural under the lighting to me.

I agree about the colours - they're better than I remember them - perhaps Adobe's profiles have improved a lot as you say. I wish I'd been there with the SL2-S!