Pixels looks like watercolor…

CA
Posted By
Courtney_Armbruster
May 4, 2005
Views
329
Replies
6
Status
Closed
Our regional office has a Kodak digital camera that takes horrible pictures. I have never seen anything like this at the pixel level. It’s worse than the low-res cameras we used to have. It looks like the photo has had a watercolor filter or something run on it, but in fact, this is exactly how it downloads from the camera. Same results indoors, outdoors, light, dark, whatever.

See sample photo here. <http://www.cscos.com/pixelsample.jpg>

So, my questions are:

1. Has anyone else had a camera that outputs this kind of horrible quality?

2. Does anyone have any idea what I can do to improve the quality in Photoshop? (Sharpening does nothing good, it just enhances the watercolor effect, but in bad ways.)

Thanks!
Courtney
Related Tags
look pixel watercolor

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

C
chrisjbirchall
May 4, 2005
Courtney.

I’ve examined it in Photoshop and if you look closely at the wording, the "pixelation" effect is in fact due to jpeg compression artifacts. Evidence of this is the way the ‘clumping’ takes place around the lettering whilst the areas of even tone are relatively smother toned.

Not much can be done to improve this actual shot I’m afraid, but maybe a few things can be done to improve future ones.

First advice would be to ditch the camera! If that’s not possible however, take a look at the quality settings. This looks as though it was taken at the lowest setting. You’ll need to ensure it is set on "Fine" or "Best" jpeg – or better still on TIFF or RAW (assuming the camera has these settings).

The general image quality is very poor and is suffering from chromatic aberration (colour fringing). Check that the lens is clean using a proprietary lens cloth.

Hope this is of some use.

Chris.
DM
Don_McCahill
May 4, 2005
Courtney

Any possibility that the camera lens has something smeared on it? The fact that the date is sharp makes me think this might be a lens problem. I would suggest out-of-focus, but you said it was a cheap camera, so I am assuming autofocus.

I wonder if someone spilled a coke on the lens, and it has never been cleaned correctly.

Don
C
chrisjbirchall
May 4, 2005
The fact that the date is sharp makes me think this might be a lens problem

It’s both.

The date would be sharp because this would have been applied to the image in camera after processing the image as a highly compressed jpeg.
CA
Courtney_Armbruster
May 5, 2005
Thanks for the advice. I’ve never had this camera in my hands, but I asked our office if they had the highest quality setting on and they said yes. It’s a Kodak 6330, 3.1 megapixel. I know they must have it on a decent quality setting because the original files are 2032 x 1524 pixels wide. I can ask about cleaning the lens, but I think the photos have always been this bad. Is the high compression occuring within the camera? Nobody has touched this photo since it was downloaded from the camera. I don’t think that there are settings to save the files on the camera memory stick in any other format. I have a Sony Cyber-shot 4.1 megapixels right here at my desk and the .jpgs I get right from the stick look fabulous when I open them. I now here that there is speculation that someone once dropped the camera in water, but no one will own up to it. And the saddest part is that they complained to Kodak about the quality and sent them test shots and Kodak claims that the photos are perfect!!! Come on!!!

I gave the office my advice the first time I saw shots from this camera—get a new one!!! And now we’re DEFINITELY getting a new one because there is no way I can make these shots into anything worthy of printing.

Thanks for the advice!
Courtney
JJ
John Joslin
May 5, 2005
I don’t know the camera, but the pixel dimensions do not indicate the degree of compression, which is what would cause the JPG artefacts. Most cameras have the facility to compress more to get more pics on the card if quality is not a concern.

Having said that, even if the compression was at a minimum, your guess that the camera has been knackered is probably right.
DM
dave_milbut
May 6, 2005
I now here that there is speculation that someone once dropped the camera in water, but no one will own up to it.

lol! that might do it! 🙂

How to Master Sharpening in Photoshop

Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections