Strong Shadows in Wedding Pix

[dbelmo]

Hello all....Naturally these pix were taken in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hopefully they can be saved. The shadow/highlights are so awful and I can't seem to help the matters. Any tips/tricks/workflow would be soooo greatly appreciated. Thanks to all who reply.

http://www2.cecomet.net/ronbon/ronbon/retouch1.JPG
http://www2.cecomet.net/ronbon/ronbon/retouch2.JPG

[Loverly]

For some reason the photos are not showing up.

Loverly

[dbelmo]

hopefully these will do it

http://www2.cecomet.net/ronbon/ronbon/retouch1.jpg
http://www2.cecomet.net/ronbon/ronbon/retouch2.jpg

[kvryland]

Well, I did a little playing around with picture #2. The shadow on the grooms face made it very difficult. I lightened it as much as possible, but any more than what I did was starting to give his face a yellow cast.

I also changed the background.

[Cassidy]

I agree the groom's face is the hardest aspect. I used a quick mask to mask dark areas and then feathered it by 4 pixels before I created a new layer and used it in screen mode, I duplicated this many times, each time erasing areas I was happy with. This is just a quickie, but you should be able to get the idea. At 2.30am in the morning I really should be in bed. The second image, I used two omni spot lights and also cloned over the highlights of the groom's face (pardon the overspray on the ear). On the other image, I started playing around with a transplant face for the bride, but that's a little more time intensive. I realise the whites are probably a little overblown but this is for concept mainly

[dbelmo]

Ken....That came out better than expected. What extraction method are you using to get that background in?

[kvryland]

I used Corel PhotoPaint to mask off the bride and groom, along with the greenery at their feet. PhotoPaint has some nice features. After masking, I had PhotoPaint "smooth" the mask to give it a more natural appearance. When I pasted the bride and groom over the background, I also feathered that layer by a couple of pixels.

I also looked around and found a nice garden background with the sun shining in from approximately the same direction as the original photo.

[Kraellin]

well, since everyone else took the other picture, i went with this one.

masked off the over-bright areas with a show all.
ran the fast fix plugin on the masked parts to lower the brightness and give a touch of contrast.
did some minor clone and smudge to fix some similar very small areas that the mask/fast fix didnt catch.

done.

Craig

[Loverly]

Here is my quick atempt. I didn't want to take the time to put in another background.

I added some LOVE as only a Loverly can do

Loverly

[Kraellin]

loverly,

maybe i've blown out my gamma on the monitor again, but i dont think so this time. it looks way too bright, especially the girl.

Craig

[Dreamypix]

Here's what I got using Photoshop 7. On Retouch1 I replaced the brides eyes with the 2nd photo. (This was alot harder than I anticipated!) After that I corrected the slight overexposure by using a merged layer and changed it to Multiply mode and lowered the opacity to 50%. Fiddled with the Hue and Saturation to correct Grooms Sunburn(not that you can tell!), Dyed Brides roots, added some makeup, Lightened the shadows under the grooms eyes by making a selection around his eyes, copy and paste into it's own layer then change mode to Screen. Then use a "hide-all" or black mask to slowly paint away the shadow with a soft white brush at a low opacity. I also used the liquify feature to open his eyes up to lessen the squinty look. I removed the glare on the grooms head using the healing brush (on a seperate Background duplicate layer), then lowered the opacity of that layer to give it a more natural look. I whitened the brides teeth and also helped even out her skin tone by using a Merged all layer/duplicate background layer set to Multiply with a hide all mask, then painted in with a-you guessed it-soft white brush at a low opacity. This evened out her skin tone nicely and I used the same layer to darken her flowers and the top of her dress, the grooms tie and parts of his suit. After I was done I played around with Sepia tones, dreamy qualitys, and hand tinted look.

The dreamy quality was the easiest! On a duplicate layer of the flattened original layer, under filter>blur.gaussian- set at a 3% (it's just needs to be alittle blurry) Now set layer mode to Lighten- Viola! Dreamy effect. If you want the eyes to be sharper then use a layer mask and paint the sharpness back in.

Any Q's just ask, I had to write this pretty fast so it may not make sense!

~Amber~

[Ken Fournelle]

Here are my steps in retouching this print:
1.Duplicated the Background Layer
2.Applied CS2's Shadow and Highlight feature. It opened up the man's
jacket a bit. and I applied highlight correction to the bride's dress and
flesh tones. I then made a layer mask on this layer and painted back
some of the image on the groom
3.I made an Empty Layer and used the Healing Brush to remove the
squinty wrinkles on the brow of the Bride.
4.I then made a Merge Visible Layer and applied the Liquify Filter and opened up both the Bride and Groom's eyes. I also corrected the down-turned corners of the Bride's mouth giving her a better smile
5.I made another Empty Layer and used the Healing Patch to remove the
sweaty highlight on the Groom's forehead
6. I made another Emtpy Layer and set the blending mode to Soft Light
and with a 10-20% soft black brush worked on the face shadows and
eye area.

[creeduk]

I would not have the color on his lips it does not look right. maybe just bring ou the color in the flowers in her hands and his lapel.

[Kraellin]

amber,

brilliant stroke in replacing the eyes. nicely done (and i'm sure a bit of a trick). very well done!

Craig

[Shalford]

Changed her eyes.
Gradient masked right side - levels change.
Ditto left side.
Straightened his collar a bit.
Thought I'd let them walk on water.

[Dreamypix]

Thanks for the compliment Craig! The eyes took the longest to fix because of the different perspectives/size, and I just have a hard time with it-period!

Creeduk- Now that I look back at the tinted ones, I agree with you. He does look funny! Thanks for the new perspective. I have never really tinted before so I am not sure what to tint!

~Amber~

[dbelmo]

Amber....The eyes turned out perfect with no squint what-so-ever. I tried the sepia effect but did not quite want it for this particular couple. Thanks for your workflow in describing. The color correction is right on also

[dbelmo]

I greatly appreciate the efforts made to help me on these pix. I have been trying everything to correct the shadows/highlights but either made to dark or lighter in areas unwanted. I am going to try to manipulate the eyes a little more on the squints and possibly remove some more of the darkness on the grooms shoulder. The foreheads really came out nice on all replies. Please feel free to train me even more on these pix!!

[Loverly]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

loverly,

maybe i've blown out my gamma on the monitor again, but i dont think so this time. it looks way to bright, especially the girl.

Craig

I'm on a lap top so sometimes there is a bit of a difference with desktop monitors and mine.

Loverly

[Cassidy]

Dreamypix, looks great.

[Dreamypix]

Thanks Cass!

[Duv]

Amber, you just keep on postin! We can all learn a ton o' stuff frum u!

Dave

[Kraellin]

I'm on a lap top so sometimes there is a bit of a difference with desktop monitors and mine.

ah, ok.

Craig

[Nanls]

Shadows are terible. Used the eyedpropper to sample a lighter part of his face and then selected the darker parts added a new layer and filled at 40% added noise to simulate skin, took the opacity down. Added a layer mask, multiply and then used a soft brush at a lower oppacity to paint on the lightparts of arms of the bride. Used the healing tool to blend in the light spots and shawdow on his face... cut them into a better backgound avialable at morguefiles.com. Would need more time to finish..

[Panpan]

Here is my try at this one. I used the woman's face from the second image. I worked on lightening and softening the shadows and enhanced the bouquet.

Pierre

[Caitlin]

Well I thought I would have a go at this one too, although there have already been so many good solutions offered.

Like Amber, I copied the eyes of the bride from the second image, matched colour, pasted and transformed to fit the face. I'm still not completely happy with the eyeline though. I then selected, and duplicated the bride and set to multiply (at about 50% opacity) to reduce the overexposure, darken and increase detail. Finally I tried to open the groom's eyes up a little by copying each eye, and using transform. Oh - and I tried (rather roughly) to remove the cement barrier.

[dbelmo]

That is nice.....I see what you mean of the eye line vs. the original. Hey....it was an awful picture, what can I say!!!

[Cassidy]

Whilst there are some absolutely wonderful reconstructions here, one of the problems for the bride I'd think, would be overall this photo is not as flattering as it could be. This is why I have stolen her face from the other photo as it looks far more flattering and softer.

[Caitlin]

(Though Cassidy just beat me to it) I've pasted the bride's torso onto my last version. Of course the problem encountered here is the sun is coming from the opposite direct onto the bride and grooms face...

[dbelmo]

These are definitely NOT flattering originals at all...that is truly why I am here and rather embarassed even posting these but......know that one of you will pull through and teach me a great way.
Caitlin....I really am liking this last post only because the shadow is now covering the distortion of the face replacement as before it looked a little odd but still nicely done. I am sure that the client would not see it fit but, this last one is much more appealing.