Hello everyone! I've been gone for sometime, but now I'm back. Although I haven't posted anything, I have been reading your posts.

I'm having a terrible time with this image and could use some suggestions. I just can't seem to get the face right and the racoon eyes are driving me crazy. I've gone to channels and don't see any difference in any of them, but then again I have always had I hard time with that. I think this would be a good challenge photo someday. The cracks and missing pieces are not really a problem, but the the face always comes out looking like an alien when I reduce all the dark shadows. I have never had such I had time with an image before. I am truly stumped!

Just a suggestion...this might be one of those photos to which you dont want to make any changes other than repair the damage...the shadows, in my humble opinion, should be left as is to preserve the feel and over all visual tone of the photo.
As this seems to be a casual snapshot. Trying to turn it into a studio quality piece probably isnt going to work and it will loose its charm in the process...just my opinion though. Tom

Thanks Tom. I agree with you - to a certain extent. I would be happy just to reduce the racoon eyes, to bring out the eyes a bit and the 5 o'clock shadow.

But maybe you're right - "less is more."

Hi Anthony,

I don't know if this is what you're after, but did you try to duplicate the background layer, use screen blending mode, make layer mask and fill with black? You could then paint with white (soft brush, and maybe 10% - 15% opacity) on the area of the eyes to try to lighten them up a little. Just a thought.

Ed

It's not a quick, easy fix - but this doesn't look like a candidate for a quick, easy fix...

I did some airbrushing...

(there's a tutorial for it)

I got a pretty pixely image, so it's a really dirty job. Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but that was the only thing I could think of to do to it... :(

I approached it by adding a layer, filling layer with 50% gray, and setting blend mode to overlay. Then when you paint black it darkens the image, paint white it lightens. So for this I basically set the paintbrush to white with a low opacity. I started with a brush size just barely bigger than the dark circles around the eyes, then went to gradually smaller brushes. Finally I hit the X key to switch to black and started on pupils and painted back in, again with gradually larger brushes (Just for pupils and irises, though, and to cleanup details like eyebrows, etc.)

Time, about 2 minutes.

I don't have time to fix it but I'll critique the efforts.
Jaks image changes her to a different person.
Dougs, while might be good, is too small to see.
greg

I used the technique Mike (I think?) posted somewhere else today. I made a quick selection around the dark areas of the eyes. Changed to QuickMask mode and blurred the edges of the selection. Then back to Standard Mode and copied the selection to a new layer. Changed the layer to Screen mode and set opacity at 50%. It looks like there's some damage to the right eye, but I didn't take the time to fix that.

Jeanie

OOoops did I post in the wrong part of the forum or another similiar thread? I have a feeling I have got a posting wrong somewhere:depressed sure I meant to reply to this

Doug, that's an elegant solution. This approach is much better than what I had in mind which was dodge and burn. I guess I am still thinking the old fashioned way.:oldman:

Mike,
You posted in the "other" active "how do I get rid of shadows?" thread (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=27973#post27973). It seemed very appropriate there too. :)
Jeanie

Thank you all for your help - I really appreciate it. I will try these techniques and let you know how it turns out.

Doug I tried your technique and it really worked. After removing the dark circles I did not like her left eye at all. So copied her right eye flipped it and used curves to make it slightly lighter then the other, since that side has more sunlight on it. I erased everything around the copy and left just the eye. Did the same with her eyebrow. I also painted the bottom half of her face with the white just to lighten it a bit. I slill have to make a few minor adjustments to it, but I was so excited I had to post a copy. Now I just have to give her a nose job and I'm almost done. That should be fun, since this is the only picture of the woman and I have no idea what the nose looked like. Thank you.
Anthony

Much better Anthony. Nice job.

Ed

Thanks Ed. You and Doug had the same idea and it worked.

Anthony

Nice job! :D I agree - that left eye definitely needed fixing!
Jeanie

Thanks Jeanie.