To moire or not to moire ... help I'm lost?

[llre]

Dear friends,

First, is what I'm seeing in the attached image moire or is it something else that looks like a moire pattern?

All the examples I've come across on how to deal with moire involve only one color, not thin lines of alternating
colors. (blue and white in this case)

Getting to the point, can this picture be fixed?

Thanks,
Robert

 

[mackguyver]

Robert,

This, unfortunately, is the worst kind of moire. The examples you're talking of with small, pixel-level false color moire can be fixed reasonably well with some software. The shirt pattern on the other hand, is not a fine pattern moire. Someone might have a way to mitigate (but not fix) it, but I don't think the result will be pretty. I think your best bet would be to crop or use some blurring to simulate bokeh and blur it out.

I'm interested to see what others have to say as there is a lot of science behind the moire pattern.

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi llre.
Yes it's moire, but you know that. I've not had moire to try it on but DxO has a moire removal tool, if all else fails move the out of focus foreground up to cover or just leave it and accept that technology has limitations!

Cheers, Graham.

Dear friends,

First, is what I'm seeing in the attached image moire or is it something else that looks like a moire pattern?

All the examples I've come across on how to deal with moire involve only one color, not thin lines of alternating
colors. (blue and white in this case)

Getting to the point, can this picture be fixed?

Thanks,
Robert

 

[privatebydesign]

It depends how important it is and what you mean by fixed!

Here is a couple of minutes in PS, forgive my masking and rough work, but it is entirely possible to get a fairly good result.

With advanced moire removal techniques and time the vast majority of moire can be removed.

 

[privatebydesign]

One critical thing to remember with moire is that it is a capture problem (an actual issue) and only honestly seen if viewed at 100%. If you are getting moire at less than 100% view it is very possible it is induced by the interpolation to the screen, for instance, I notice that my uploaded version shows 'moire' in the collar on my laptop, though not on my desktop screen, but in editing software at 100% view it doesn't exhibit moire on either, so what I am seeing on the collar in the forum is false moire and can be overcome by choosing a different compression or viewing size.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Fixing it means blurring the image so badly that you almost don't have pin stripes on the shirt.

Its important to know the limitations of a camera that has no AA filter, no portraits of fabrics with stripes or fine plaids, there are few situations that don't have some Moire, but in many its not a issue because your eye is not drawn to see it.

Wedding photographers who photograph grooms wearing pin striped suits learn quickly after their first ruined job.

 

[privatebydesign]

I didn't blur it, I phase shifted the color channels. The pin stripes are there exactly as they should be, certainly in the worst bits. If I took the time to do it properly and process the moire in directional sections I could get rid of it completely. The technique is sound, but obviously the time and effort is just not worth it the vast majority of the time. Certainly it is much easier to avoid getting it in the first place

Here is an up sampled crop of the worst section after my rework, the pin stripes and different colours are good. Given the full sized original I could do a much better job than the 800px version I actually worked on.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I didn't blur it, I phase shifted the color channels. The pin stripes are there exactly as they should be, certainly in the worst bits. If I took the time to do it properly and process the moire in directional sections I could get rid of it completely. The technique is sound, but obviously the time and effort is just not worth it the vast majority of the time. Certainly it is much easier to avoid getting it in the first place

Here is an up sampled crop of the worst section after my rework, the pin stripes and different colours are good. Given the full sized original I could do a much better job than the 800px version I actually worked on.

You probably should not have posted the image with the pin stripes blurred away, it looks like they were erased. I've seen other attempts to remove Moiré that were unsuccessful, so its good if its possible. It could very well be a issue with the image software that is built into the forum, but both images look bad in that area to me.

 

[privatebydesign]

I didn't blur it, I phase shifted the color channels. The pin stripes are there exactly as they should be, certainly in the worst bits. If I took the time to do it properly and process the moire in directional sections I could get rid of it completely. The technique is sound, but obviously the time and effort is just not worth it the vast majority of the time. Certainly it is much easier to avoid getting it in the first place

Here is an up sampled crop of the worst section after my rework, the pin stripes and different colours are good. Given the full sized original I could do a much better job than the 800px version I actually worked on.

You probably should not have posted the image with the pin stripes blurred away, it looks like they were erased. I've seen other attempts to remove Moiré that were unsuccessful, so its good if its possible. It could very well be a issue with the image software that is built into the forum, but both images look bad in that area to me.

I agree it is probably the forum software, or my incompetence, I have fallen foul of both before. I don't understand how it got changed in size from the original 864x1296 to my version at 666x1000, it has definitely lost something in doing that and as I say the forum looks quite different on my laptop and my desktop. So I am not surprised nobody has been impressed, maybe I'll try and upload an unresized version, though I'd rather have the original to work on to actually fix it.

I also agree it isn't a cure, particularly done as quickly as I did, but it is considerably better and could easily be massaged to be unobtrusive.

 

[privatebydesign]

If this were THE shot ... Clone stamp, warp, select and replace, feather in PS. If the shot were destined for fbook, inst, etc ... Just post and forget.

Cloning is a weak way to go and you'd never get the strips lined up nicely. But lets see your attempt.