Image Help - - HELP With Sky

nebgranny · #1 09-26-2005, 10:10 AM

I took a family picture yesterday and it turned out well except for the brightness of the sky in places. This is the spot the family wanted it taken so did it for them. I am not a photographer, I just bought a new digital and was at a small wedding and took it for them. They have.....are you ready for this....15 children! I would appreciale some help . I will post the top portion of the picture that needs help. Thanks Neb

With 15 kids who can afford too many family pictures taken? I had hoped this would turn out well for them so I can print out a nice 8x10 for them and their parents.

Panpan · #2 09-26-2005, 11:36 AM

I masked out the sky and replaced it with one from a Google image search of "blue sky". I made it very light to justify the flaring.

Pierre

nebgranny · #3 09-26-2005, 01:46 PM

panpan, I guess I should post more of the picture because it is not the sky that troubles me it is what the sky does to the picture, makes it light , let me post some more of the picture so you all can see what it looks like an dif we can do something with it to fix it. Thanks Neb

Ken Fournelle · #4 09-26-2005, 02:11 PM

post the entire image

nebgranny · #5 09-26-2005, 02:31 PM

Can not do that Ken, do not have their permission to do so and do not think I can get it. Sorry. I wish I could. Neb

Kraellin · #6 09-26-2005, 03:21 PM

pierre's suggestion is a good one, but like you said, you've got the cast of light brimming over into the whole. first thing i'd do is crop out the sky. there's too much there anyways.

next, run a curves adjustment layer and a levels adjustment layer and bring down the brights overall. if it still needs more work, set a mask on the bright spots and bring them down more.

Craig

goose443 · #7 09-26-2005, 03:41 PM

Hi Neb,

I tried duplicating to another layer and masking out from about the middle of the heads on up with a shallow gradient. I then took and wrote curves for the background (upper part of the photo) on the L channel in LAB to darken the trees and create a little more contrast. After that I did the same thing to the lower portion of the picture but adjusted the curves on the L channel to target the people in the photo and make them pop a little. I then went back and smoothed out the transitions in the masking so as to make them less noticable. I really didn't spend more that two minutes on the whole thing so with a little more time I'm sure you could improve on my results. I also didn't do any other correction. I hope this helps.

goose443 · #8 09-26-2005, 03:52 PM

Here is a second pass at it trying to bring out more detail in the trees and adding a little more saturation to the colors.

Swampy · #9 09-26-2005, 04:56 PM

I ran PS's Shadow Highlight to reduce the flare, set a curve adj. layer to sharpen, selected the sky and two shade of blue for a render clouds filter.

goose443 · #10 09-26-2005, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kraellin

first thing i'd do is crop out the sky. there's too much there anyways.

Neb,
With respect to Kraellin's suggestion, I would recommend taking the whole picture into account before deciding how best to crop it. Though it may seem like too much sky to us, we are only looking at a portion of the photograph and it's really not possible to determine effective composition without seeing the whole photograph.

Panpan · #11 09-26-2005, 06:04 PM

I reasoned that flaring is light "spilling" to the darker areas. So I selected progressively smaller rectangles, adjusting the lower end of the histogram darker. I then ran shadow/highlights, mostly to adjust midtone contrast.

Pierre

leuallen · #12 09-26-2005, 06:44 PM

Nebgranny,

As a first step you could try some USM. Amout about 30 and radius 250, threshold 0. This is good for cutting haze and works somewhat in this flare condition. For haze reduction the usual amount is 5 to 20 ish something, with mid values usually adequate.

After that I would investigate other techniques such as masking. But this should get you on the right track as it is quick and easy.

Larry

nebgranny · #13 09-26-2005, 11:21 PM

Thanks to all for the help. I got busy tonight with grand kids...love them..So will try the posted information in the morning. leuallen, please tell me what that function is and where it is please. Thanks again

!! Neb

leuallen · #14 09-27-2005, 09:49 AM

Nebgranny,

In Photoshop is is under Filters->Sharpen->Unsharp Mask.

Larry

nebgranny · #15 09-27-2005, 10:28 AM

Hi panpan , Going to try your method next.

I reasoned that flaring is light "spilling" to the darker areas. So I selected progressively smaller rectangles, adjusting the lower end of the histogram darker.

Have never done this , can you tell me how this is done. R U using the selections tool ? and how does the histogram work? Thanks Neb

I then ran shadow/highlights, mostly to adjust midtone contrast.