Quick PP for free?

[landyvlad]

This is a photo of my missus' son Patrick, having just scored two bullseyes in darts :)

Would anyone be kind enough to spend a few minutes refining / balancing it so it'll look better when printed for framing.
I know the resolution and dpi isn't great but it was taken with a potato phone and it is what it is.
Ideally also if there's a way of making the darts stand out better from the dartboard background (even if that means masking and adjusting the colour) that'd be ideal.
I had a go ,myself but if anything it came out worse :)

Image is attached

147624


Thanks ion advance to anyone willing to take this on for me.

[ameerat42]

Hmm, a bit of a challenge!

For a start, the darts are all but lost in the original, so you need to show what it is he's
pointing to. The rest is a bit of ancillary tonal adjustment and [some sort of highlighting]
crop.

Here is an attempt where I used the following techniques in Photoshop:
Lighting Effects (two passes, using Omni and Spot, the latter on a selection of the darts);
History Brush to restore some of the original tonality;
Hue/Saturation on a selection of the darts to bring up and then lighten the flights of the darts;
A mild sharpen of the dart flights;
Shadow/Highlights in a mild global application with some History Brushing as needed;
Saturation brush applied to arm (incl finger) pointing to the darts;
Final 3:2 crop, including a circle of the dart board, hopefully "balanced" with his head.

Dartagnan...
147625

[Toddyh]

Happy to have a look at this for you. Have you got the original file? The image above is only 96kb which is tiny even for a potato.

[ameerat42]

...The image above is only 96kb which is tiny even for a potato...

Yes, the edit wasn't for free, only the ideas :D

[Toddyh]

Yes, the edit wasn't for free, only the ideas :D
I meant the original. Not your edit AM.

[ameerat42]

I know, Toddy :th3: I was just giving Lands some ideas that he might like to try.

(It was a good challenge, though.)

[landyvlad]

Hi all sorry for not getting back earlier, I was having trouble accessing with my phone Now on PC.

That IS the "original file" I have (at least as it was sent to my missus via SMS and then emailed.
I've no idea what phone was involved but an old one I suspect.
I only have PSE12 without many of those tools mentioned.
How big could that image be printed with acceptable printed resolution?
8x10? 5x7? 4x6?

[ameerat42]

IMO, max 12x8 inches at that size, going on appearance on screen.
Better if you up-res it with a suitable "uprezzer", maybe 2x.

[ameerat42]

PS: Photoshop's (hence Elements) Bicubic Smoother 200% made a noticeable improvement.