Newbie seeks help

[henchard]

Hi all,

Firstly can I say I'm very much a newbie; in fact I have only been using PS Elements about a week or so. However, the tutorials on here have been very useful and I think I'm making some headway. Thanks.

I'm an amateur film photographer who has had to grasp the nettle and start scanning and working on my own images. The attached photo of a man in Tigray Ethiopia is one of my favourites but was taken in the very strong sun and suffers (in my amateur eyes) from burnt out highlights and strong shadows as well as strange skin tones (harsh sun?) and a distracting highlight on the nose from the bright light.

Accordingly I've had a go at trying to deal with these. But I would welcome advice as to what I could do better (and how to do it?). Please note that I have cropped the altered version but I have uploaded the full scan of the original.

Thanks in anticipation as everyone here seems so helpful!

regards

John B (UK)

[Flora]

Hi John,

Welcome to RP!

First of all great shot!!!

You also did a good job in correcting the problems you have pointed out!

Even though, it might be my monitor, but your correction looks a tad 'muddy/grey' to me ... You managed quite well to soften the highlights, but the shadows are, in my opinion, still very dark...

I don't have PSE ... (I work with PS CS), but I had a go at your picture only to show what I meant...

I used the Curves to lift the shadows only and Selective Colors to adjust the colours of your picture trying to maintain a warmer 'bronze' glow on the subject's skin ....

[philbach]

In Photoshop CS I used Image/Adjustments/Shadow Highlights with its default settings.

[henchard]

Originally Posted by Flora

Even though, it might be my monitor, but your correction looks a tad 'muddy/grey' to me ... You managed quite well to soften the highlights, but the shadows are, in my opinion, still very dark...

I used the Curves to lift the shadows only and Selective Colors to adjust the colours of your picture trying to maintain a warmer 'bronze' glow on the subject's skin ....

I knew you lot were helpful! The trouble for us Newbies is the longer we look at a picture and 'play with it' thinking we're improving it the worse it gets. So having a point of reference is very helpful. I like your changes a lot Flora and no its not your monitor!.

OK first question. 'Curves' although not standard In Elements I have downloaded a 'fix' so that I do have use of them and I've read a few tutorials but don't necessarily understand it all. But did you apply the curve across the whole picture or just selectively to the shadow areas?

Second question 'Selective Colors' what colours did you adjust and by what sort of amounts? Again would you apply this across the whole picture or just the skin tones?

Sorry if I seem a bit dumb but this is a steep learning curve!

[Gary Richardson]

Hi John,

What I did was duplicate the original, desaturate the copy, invert it, set the blend mode to Soft Light, and reduce opacity to about 60%.

All available in PSE.

Further fine tuning could be done using curves.

[henchard]

Originally Posted by Gary Richardson

Hi John,

What I did was duplicate the original, desaturate the copy, invert it, set the blend mode to Soft Light, and reduce opacity to about 60%.

All available in PSE.

Further fine tuning could be done using curves.

As my Dad used to say 'There's more than one way of killing a pig'. Many thanks for the help.