A Shot in the Dark

Photographers do it all the time.

We take a series of flash photos, and sometimes the flash fails to fire. We look in our preview screen and a black void stares back at us. And so we take another shot, the flash goes off, and we don't give the dark shot another thought.

Until, that is, artificial intelligence came along.

Ever since DW gave me a copy of Luminar AI photo-editing software, I've gone back to some of my older photos and have seen if I can further enhance an image. Sometimes, I fill a blank sky with clouds or a sunset. Other times, I see if I can add a filter that changes the overall look or mood of the photo.

And sometimes, just for fun, I see if I can bring a lost image back to life.

Because Luminar AI has some neat portrait filters and editing tools, I've been going back to some of the model shoots that I've done, over the years, to see if I can change or improve what I've already created. I've seen if I can change how the light is cast over a model's face or I've added a filter that transforms the entire look of the photograph.

Recently, out of curiosity, I've looked at some of those dark images, where the flash didn't fire, and I wondered what the artificial intelligence could do with a RAW file that I had considered deleting from an image folder.

In August, 2018, I met with some photographers from my Meetup group at a farm in Ottawa's south end, just west of Manotick. Though this is a working farm, there are some abandoned structures, including a farmhouse and a barn. Today, I question whether the barn is safe enough for people to enter, but the farmhouse, despite the peeling paint on the walls and water stains and mildew on the ceilings, still has good bones. But in 2018, we used both of these structures for some creative photography.

Our model for this meetup was the talented and versatile Denisa Strakova, from the Czech Republic. Denisa works in fashion, classic portait, and artistic nude photography. As a lover of dance, she loves to be captured in dance poses. And for this shoot, she adorned her ballet toe shoes to strike some beautifully elegant poses that were juxtaposed against a desolate setting.

We used some ambient light that flowed from a window but also used a softbox studio light to further illuminate the room. With a trigger attached to my camera's hot shoe, I was able to fire the softbox remotely. Only, sometimes the flash failed.

Because Denisa was continually moving, if the flash didn't fire, it was hard to get her to recreate that identical pose, and so that moment would be lost. In the grand scheme of things, that wasn't an issue because most of the time, her graceful movements would be captured.

When I originally processed my images, I would see thumbnails of the black shots and my brain would automatically discount them. My eyes would search for the photos that were perfectly exposed, and I would work from those files.

Recently, I returned to my files from that photo shoot, and I was looking to alter some of the source files for photos that I had already processed, using PaintShop Pro as my editing software. Looking through the thumbnail images again, my eyes saw the black rectangular previews of nothingness, and this time I thought I'd see what Luminar could do.

Here is the RAW image, with nothing done other than to convert it to a JPEG:

One for the Recycle Bin, right?

By using Luminar AI, I applied the first preset filter that appeared from the Templates tab, which was in the Big City Lights collection. I told myself that this was definitely the wrong group of filters, but I humoured myself anyway.

From this group of filters, I clicked the first one, Frosty, and was amazed at the amount of information that the RAW image held. I could actually see things. The wall and Denisa's gown were cast in a cool-blue hue, while her skin and the window frame lit up with a warm, orange glow.

I kept this filter and went to the Edit tab, where I applied Luminar's default white balance, pulled back on the highlights, and reduced the shadows. Some sharpening, some noise reduction, and some high-key touchups, and this is what I got:

Pretty amazing, right? Considering I saw absolutely nothing in the RAW image, this was a huge improvement.

I wondered if my trusty old PSP could do as well, or even better. I let the program apply its own settings with its Smart Photo Fix tool, applied some noise reduction, and added a fill flash, and here's the result:

I know: it's not much better than the source file.

Not content to just work with one file, I chose another image where the flash failed to fire. Actually, I had taken two consecutive shots where the flash didn't go off. As I remember, I switched triggers at one point, and the problem went away.

Here's the very next shot, without editing:

Here's the Luminar AI edit, with a different filter (City Thrills) and similar editing:

I was sure that I could do better with PSP, so this time I didn't use the Smart Photo Fix feature. I applied the Fill Light/Clarity tool, bumping the Fill Light level to 40 (out of 127—don't ask me why that's the range). Denisa was visible, but not by as much as I wanted, so I applied the same tool at the same setting (which tends to be different than just setting the level to 80 from the start).

There was a massive improvement. I then applied some white balance and noise reduction, and performed a high-pass sharpening and a fill flash, which boosts the light saturation.

This is it:

Which shot do you prefer? I've set the images side-by-side: on the left, the Luminar AI edits; on the right, the PSP edits.

From an exposure aspect, the photos are still dark and lack definition. But I think that from an artistic perspective, the images create a wonderfully dark mood. And I'm glad that I could revive a photo that was shot in the dark.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Happy Friday!