A bad case of color moire, what to do?

[pegelli]

Got this on a picture last weekend (1:1 screenshot from Lightroom)



Are there any methods or tools which can remedy this? I tried the moire brush in LR but that didn't achieve anything useful.

It was shot with a NEX6 + E20/2.8

 

[MikeEvangelist]

I tried the moire brush in LR (just using your screenshot) and could completely eliminate the moire colors. It still left the pattern, though. Like so...



I would then try applying/painting on a second brush to the lighter areas of the pattern, and reduce their exposure so they match the surrounding areas. (alternately, you could use Photoshop's dodge/burn tools to match them.)

Tedious, but it might save the shot.

I also tried Capture One, which did a similar job, with the pattern still visible.

Both these techniques will doubtless work better with the real file ;-)

 

[pegelli]

Thanks Mike, I also found patience is a virtue. I tried the moire brush again since in my raw file it didn't achieve anything while your work on the jpg showed a much larger effect.

And after waiting about 2 minutes suddenly the screen "popped" and the moire was gone. Also there is no more pattern like your post showed, that's probably because I'm working on the raw file and you tried it on the jpg screenshot. So your effort definitely put me in the right direction. The Moire brush is either very processor hungry or my machine is too lean, but the file is repairable.

 

[MikeEvangelist]

The Moire brush is either very processor hungry

It definitely is!

 

[pegelli]

Here's the result after waiting two minutes. So the moire brush works very well, but also very slow

 

[MikeEvangelist]

So the moire brush works very well

Gotta love that Adobe magic.