Can Photoshop CS5 Help Me Enhance a Shadowgraph?

[Saladsamurai]

I mean, I am sure that it can, but maybe someone could just tell me how to do it? I have never used PS before. My school has Photoshop CS5 that I can access. Here is what I want to do.

The following image is a shadowgraph. You can see 2 "pointy things" (electrodes) and a circle (which is a flame). You can also see a bunch of defects all about the image. What I want to do is somehow "smooth out" everything and tweak the contrast so that all you really see are the important features: the electrodes and the flame. It would not hurt to make the shadows a little more pronounced (i.e. make them pop out more) by brightening the background.

Does anyone have the patience to walk me through this? Or at least get me started? Even if you can tell me what they would call the "smoothing" function.

I'll trade you a flounder.

 

[Andy Resnick]

What you want to do is not difficult- I'm not a Photoshop expert, but I use ImageJ (a free program) and there are a variety of tools that can be used. A small amount of blur can do wonders, for example.

However, this appears to be a scientific image (as opposed to a photograph)- you should know that doing what you are asking to do can be considered scientific fraud- there are explicit rules about what sort of image manipulations are permissible.

http://swehsc.pharmacy.arizona.edu/exppath/micro/digimage_ethics.php
http://www.uab.edu/ethicscenter/educational-materials/rcr-materials/image-manipulation/image-manipulation-bibliography

That said, if you email me the image (PM me for the address) I can try to help you.

 

[Borek]

If you need just sketch of the important features, it will be probably easier and faster to draw them in some vector graphic program (like Inkscape).

 

[JaredJames]

An expert can do so.

Anyone can who has become familiar with Photoshop.