How can I reduce moiré or wavy lines when photographing a striped dress?
Asked 9/29/2015
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When I photograph a striped dress, I sometimes see wavy lines across the fabric. The effect can also show up when the image is resized for screen viewing or printed small, such as wallet size. What causes this, and what can I do while shooting or in editing to reduce it?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
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There doesn't appear to be any moire in the image itself. What you are seeing are scaling errors when the image is resized by a particular application for display on a particular size screen or print.
To solve this you can create, optimize, and export different resolutions of the image for different display environments.
For instance the display on a MacBook Pro (3rd gen) 15" is 2880x1800 pixels. Assuming you wish to view the image in portrait mode you would create a version of the image that is 1800 pixels tall by 1200 pixels wide.
For printing those wallet sized photos, you would take the native resolution of the printer in ppi (pixels per inch, not to be confused with dpi - dots per inch) and multiply by the 2.5 x 3.5 inch size of each picture on the sheet. If the printer's native resolution is 300 ppi, you would need a version of the image that is 1050 x 750. Note that you will need to crop about 7% off the height of the photo from the top, bottom, or a combination of both to fit your 1.5:1 aspect ratio photo to the 1.4:1 aspect ratio print size.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
10y ago
0
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This effect is usually moiré, which happens when a fine repeating pattern, like fabric stripes, interacts with the camera sensor or with image resizing for screen/print output.
Ways to reduce it:
- While shooting: change the magnification slightly by moving closer/farther away or zooming in/out. Even a small change can stop the pattern from conflicting with the sensor.
- In post: Lightroom has a simple fix. In Develop, use the Adjustment Brush, paint over the affected area, and increase the Moiré slider until it looks natural.
- For display/printing: some “wavy” artifacts can come from poor resizing rather than the original photo. Export versions sized appropriately for the screen or print instead of relying on an app or printer to resample aggressively.
So the cause may be capture-related moiré, output scaling artifacts, or both. The best approach is to slightly change your shooting distance/zoom, then apply local moiré reduction in editing if needed.
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