Fixing a dark photo?

Question

I'm using Photoshop 2.0 and I need to fix a photo that was taken at night time with a digital camera. The picture appears almost solid black (you can see the faintest trace of a real photo if you look really closely), and I need to make the subject visible and clear with as close to it's actual color as possible. Step by step instructions would be great.

I've gotten it to the point where you can see basically what the photo is, and there is a lot of graininess as it was said there would be, but is there any way to cut that graininess down and make the picture more clear?

Answer 1

Your project will not get the result needed. The ccd imager in your digital camera has an artifact in that individual pixels have considerable variation in current flow when dark. Thus the areas that have low illumination will have this fixed pattern when the gain is brought up after the fact of image capture. It looks like grain in regular film photography, in video it is like looking through a "screen door". Also as to color, without adequate light the pixels have no way of determing the color reflection of the subject. Any color generated when turning up the gain in Photoshop will be false color at best. Remember that reflected color shifts depending on the source of the light. The light illuminating could have been greenish tint from fluorescent or mercury vapor street lamps. That's why the camera has a flash, use it next time.