Bad Lighting: Wedding Horror

[Shutterbugladee]

Hi! I am new to this site and I am begging for help! So please bear with me and advise me all you want on the best way for me to upload images and use this forum. I photographed a wedding yesterday and my lighting was TERRIBLE..I would like to upload a few photos and have someone advise me on how to use Photoshop (7.0) in correcting these photos.

Thanks!!

[Cameraken]

Hi Shutterbugladee. Welcome to RP

Is this good enough?

Ken

[Shutterbugladee]

WOW! You are quick!!!! I am a little worried about the skin tone color on the photo? Dont knock yourself out though....just looking for some tips on how to make adjustments in photoshop to lighten the shadow and background but keeping the skintones and dress in tack......this might be an impossible task huh??

Thanks again!

Tam

[michaelbeard]

All the detail is their.

I used Image-adjust-higlight and shadow that brings up all the detail, then a bit of jiggling with the red level should do the trick.

[michaelbeard]

Take the red down and there you are

[Duv]

Hi Tam. Welcome also!!
I tried not to do too much. Found white and grey points and balanced. Wasn't sure of any black point so left alone. Created a Shadow Mask, changed to Screen at 62% opacity. Selected shadows on arms and lightened.

Cheers
Dave

[leuallen]

Dup image, set blending mode to screen. Reduce dup opacity to taste for general luminosity balance - bringing up background and brides face to normal level. I used about 70%

Layer mask dup layer - show all (white mask). Paint with black brush (large, soft, ~10%) on mask to darken areas which are too light, ie. the brides dress and left corners of background. Try to balance the lighting. The light is strongest at the left.

Selective Color. First Whites. Select a bright white area of dress with eyedropper and save a sample for the Info palett. Balance the Red and Blue to match the Green. Use the Info numbers for the sample and make them the same.

Now Neutrals. Sample a mid grey of the dress and balance that so that the RGB are approximately the same.

Larry

[Cameraken]

Tam
You are quite right my last post was a bit quick but it was 9.30 and I did not want to miss last orders at the pub.

I have now done the skin tone as well and now the background also looks better by reducing the cyan.

But to be quite honest I would not worry too much about the background unless this bride has complained. I like Duv’s and Larry’s post the best because they have corrected the skin without lightening the background too much.

Michaelbeard. Welcome to RP also. But you are using CS and Tam and I do not have this feature in PS7.


Dave what program do you use to get the curser on your screen shot?


Ken

[maureeno]

I used a free Xero "seasons" filtre for this to bring out the green and red. BYW, it doesn't look nearly as good on here as it does on my programme, for some reason.

[Duv]

Ken, I use Snag It. All in all I think it was an unfortunate background for the bride. It's pretty busy and perhaps the only way to make the bride "pop" is to darken the background even more. Haven't tried it but just a thought.

Dave

[Kraellin]

duv,

i borrowed your rendition. i just couldnt really see trying to improve on the job you'd already done. but i wanted to try something with this.

masked the bride and flowers with 'edit selection'. inverted. ran a contrast/brightness to darken.

ran an average blur on background in selection (mask)

inverted back. sharpened all on bride and flowers.

cleaned up lines around bride and dress.

slight smudge/push on bride's face and other skin areas to reduce .jpg and other artifacts.

done.

Craig

[Duv]

I like the concept Craig. I also thought the bouquet was too far out from the body making it look a wee bit awkward.

cheers
dave

[Kraellin]

thanks duv. it was your basic work. i just touched up the background a bit.

Craig

[Shutterbugladee]

OMG.....Everyone has done a WONDERFUL job working on this photo!!!!! Now how much do I owe each of you????

[Kraellin]

make a donation to the site and we'll call it even (seriously!)

and you're welcome

Craig