Long shutter speed & chromatic aberration

double_entendredouble_entendre Registered Users Posts: 141 Major grins
edited August 27, 2015 in Finishing School
Hope this is in the right spot.

I was in downtown Los Angeles recently wandering around and taking photos that will be used for some work I'm doing.

While I was wandering around, I went down to take photos of the subway and took this picture. I thought it was intriguing and, for a handheld shot it turned out OK. (For values of "OK" = I'd like to go there again with a tripod and see what I can do.)

There's a lot of chromatic aberration around the fluorescent lights and I can't seem to figure out how to fix it. I shot in both raw & jpg and downloaded Adobe Camera Raw 5.5 to view & edit the NEF files. I've read that there's a way to fix the aberration issue in Camera Raw, but I can't seem to find it and don't see a user guide anywhere. Maybe I'm kinda slow.....

Any help you can offer would be great and C&C for how to take photos in a subway station without using a flash would be great. Been a long time since I picked up my DSLR--10 years, probably.

Thanks!

DSC_0289.jpg

Comments

  • PeanoPeano Registered Users Posts: 268 Major grins
    edited August 4, 2015
    In this case, an easy fix is to open a blank layer (in Photoshop), change blend mode to Color, and paint over the CA with a neutral tone (black, white, or any shade of neutral gray). In Camera Raw, there's a CA panel under the Lens Correction button. Sometimes it works very well, in this case maybe not.
  • D3SshooterD3Sshooter Registered Users Posts: 1,187 Major grins
    edited August 5, 2015
    I don't understand what you mean with chromatic aberration in your picture , as far as I can see (on the posted picture) I see no purple fringing (that is chromatic aberration, because the lens could resolve all he wavelengths on the same focal plane) What I see on the detail is just some colorcast . Of course I can't see the raw picture and maybe on that one , it can be seen.
    Do you have purple fringing on the edges ?

    Fix it is easy in LR , just go to the development tool tab and scroll down to the lens corrections..... tik of the purple fringing and you are done...

    It has nothing to see with long shutter times.....(CA).

    Good luck
    A photographer without a style, is like a pub without beer
  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,893 moderator
    edited August 5, 2015
    Aren't the red areas on the lights reflections of the red light over the train doors? If they bother you, Peano's fix is easy enough. But at the resolution of my screen, I don't see any chromatic aberration. ne_nau.gif
  • PeanoPeano Registered Users Posts: 268 Major grins
    edited August 5, 2015
    Richard wrote: »
    Aren't the red areas on the lights reflections of the red light over the train doors? If they bother you, Peano's fix is easy enough. But at the resolution of my screen, I don't see any chromatic aberration. ne_nau.gif

    Yes, now that I think about it, I agree. The red areas I took out aren't CA. I downloaded the full-size image and could only find some very minor CA on the lights in the background (this is at 400%):
  • double_entendredouble_entendre Registered Users Posts: 141 Major grins
    edited August 5, 2015
    D3Sshooter wrote: »
    I don't understand what you mean with chromatic aberration in your picture , as far as I can see (on the posted picture) I see no purple fringing (that is chromatic aberration, because the lens could resolve all he wavelengths on the same focal plane) What I see on the detail is just some colorcast . Of course I can't see the raw picture and maybe on that one , it can be seen.
    Do you have purple fringing on the edges ?

    Fix it is easy in LR , just go to the development tool tab and scroll down to the lens corrections..... tik of the purple fringing and you are done...

    It has nothing to see with long shutter times.....(CA).

    Good luck

    Sorry, I do have the raw image, but not on me at the moment. The CA is there, but no, it's not really visible in the jpeg. The purple fringing is around the fluorescent lights on the ceiling.

    At this point it's as much about learning as anything. Need to find the button in Camera Raw. (I don't have LR, by the way. Just Photoshop Elements and Camera Raw 5.5 at the moment.)
    Richard wrote: »
    Aren't the red areas on the lights reflections of the red light over the train doors? If they bother you, Peano's fix is easy enough. But at the resolution of my screen, I don't see any chromatic aberration. ne_nau.gif


    You're right, the red lights are the reflection. I'm going to have to tinker tonight with the RAW file and create a higher res jpeg.

    Might go back there sometime with my tripod and see if I can take some more interesting pictures. Never played with photos in an urban area except for work.

    Thanks!
  • double_entendredouble_entendre Registered Users Posts: 141 Major grins
    edited August 6, 2015
    OK. I'm more slow than I'd like, but here's the original and I figured out--with much help!--how to get rid of the CA. (Can someone please explain how to do the "reasonable size" inserted pic with link to the full size?)

    Looking forward to finding time to go to the station and take more pics with long exposures and see what happens.

    Between then and now, there's some show jumping (horses) in town, so I've put my 80-200 onto the camera and will go to the show with my tripod and see if I can take anything worth taking. On the bright side, electrons are basically free, so I can shoot at will and see what is worth keeping, if anything. lol3.gif
  • PeanoPeano Registered Users Posts: 268 Major grins
    edited August 6, 2015
    OK. I'm more slow than I'd like, but here's the original

    The real original is the raw file, and that's the puppy we need. You could upload it to Dropox (or something comparable) and post a link here.
  • double_entendredouble_entendre Registered Users Posts: 141 Major grins
    edited August 10, 2015
  • PeanoPeano Registered Users Posts: 268 Major grins
    edited August 10, 2015

    Cool. Now I see the CA. I'm using Photoshop CS6. The CA correction tool in Camera Raw fixed it in one click. Not sure whether the Elements version of ACR has that feature. If so, it's under the Lens Correction button:
  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,694 moderator
    edited August 27, 2015
    The software correction for chromatic aberration ( magenta and green fringing or purple fringing ) is pretty good these days. I rarely have to correct more than 1 pixel in dimension, usually I leave it set on 0 and it works just fine

    I use the CA correction tool in Lightroom CC for every image. It can make lesser lenses look pretty darn good these days, like my old Tamron 28-300 travel zoom even.
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

    Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
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