Darned shadows! Please help....

[pepperspray]

Hi, there.

I have a picture of a cute couple, taken when they were high school sweethearts, and now after all these years they have reunited and would like a cleaned up copy of the photo.

Unfortunately, the pic was taken with unsightly shadows, and despite my best efforts, I'm just not winning. Everything I have tried just comes out looking pretty awful.

I've searched here for advice on removing shadows, and over the last few days I've worked with all the tips and tricks I could find here. (Flora's results in a wedding photo thread were simply stunning, but I just can't seem to replicate what she'd done with this image! The frustration is driving me to drink, I swear!)


Anyway, I would greatly appreciate any advice you may have for me with regard to this photograph. Or is it too hopeless, and I should just go buy a bottle of gin?


Thank you!

[Daviskw]

Hello Pepperspray

I just duplicated the background then used Shadow/highlights to reduce some of the shadows.

Then a hue/saturation adjustment layer to play with the color. Then I used a noise filter and to end sharpened the faces a little.

Butch

[pepperspray]

Hi, Butch.

Thank you for your reply. I'll play around with your suggestions to see what I can do.

In your example, there's still quite a lot of shadow (perhaps there is no getting rid of it, alas) but the faces are much improved over what I've been trying to do.

Thank you.

[Swampy]

I played with this a little.

Three HSL adjustment layers to reduce the shadows all set toLuminacity blend mode.. Masked so the adjustment only affected the face areas. Then a color fill layer (using the same masking area as the HSLs) with a slight gausian blur.

Not much time to devote to this, but maybe this will help. I didn't work on any other areas other than the faces and I wasn't shooting for any sharpening etc. Just tried to remove the shadows.

[pepperspray]

Hi, Swampy.

Thanks for your help.


One thing I don't really understand is the colour fill. What does a colour fill do?

I'll work your suggestions into my files, too.


Later on, I'll upload what I've done using everyone's suggestions, and then perhaps you can guide me on what I've done right and what I've done wrong, if you have time.


Thanks, again!

[Daviskw]

Hi there

I gave it another go but with just more of the same.

[pavel123]

Shadow/Highlight (doesn't do much in this case), color corrections. Painted some face areas, used an overlay grey layer to lighten a few spots (this actually must be done on a high res pic). Darkened background.

Pavel

[Swampy]

Originally Posted by pepperspray

One thing I don't really understand is the colour fill. What does a colour fill do?

A color fill lay is just a layer filled with a solid color (usually set to Overlay blend mode) that tends to "cast" a tint or shade to the underlying layer. You can use it with a mask (so that only certain areas are affected) or not.

In this case I used a skin tone color and the mask is applying it just the face areas. The HSL adjustment layers removed much of the color in those areas so the color fill "filled" them back in.

[LonK]

I briefly just painted light on a grey overlay layer on their faces, but with a bit more effort, I'm sure a more satisfactory result could be obtained.

[Flora]

Does the young man in the picture have a moustache or is it only shadow???

[pepperspray]

Hi, Flora

Sorry for the delayed reply; it's been a busy weekend!

The young man does not have a moustache - it's very dark shadow.

[pepperspray]

Thanks for the great replies, everyone!

One thing I did try with part of the young lady's face was to carefully select an area of shadow, feather the selection by 5 pixels, copy to a new layer, and set the blending mode to screen. I then added a clipped colour balance adjustment layer, followed by a hue/sat one. I merged the adjustment layers with the shadow layer and then blended it with her face using the healing brush.

That worked well on some areas and terribly on others.

Finding what works where sure does take a hella long time!

[pepperspray]

Okay, I've combined some of your suggestions and played with some ideas of my own, to try to get the best blend of techniques in an effort to make this image as perfect as I can get it.

At the moment, I'm not too worried about the white pants, as I'll try Flora's shadows-on-wedding-dresses tips, but I'll do that later. First up is the skin shadows.

I've selected the shadows from the red channel, and made a mask from that - tidied up to focus on the shadows I want fixed - and then played around with an exposure adjustment of the shadows, including tweaking the gamma a bit. Then used the eraser set at a low opacity to blend any ugly hard edges.

Used a color fill to try to bring back lost skin colour, and then played with various layer and fill opacities to try to get the best blend without bringing back too much of the shadow I'm trying to get rid of.

But I just can't quite make it work as it all looks so unnatural.


Anyone got any advice based on the attached file? I'm going to work on this pic until it's perfect for printing, if it kills me!

[Ziaphra]

Personally I don't think the answer lies in removing them totally...but rather to blend them lighter so they don't detract from their features. Lightening, colour correcting the shadows, a bit of cloning and smudging to blend them in more naturally.

http://img226.imageshack.us/my.php?image=image16jb7.jpg

[Flora]

Hi,

... this is surely a tricky one....

The shadow on the young man's upper lip is so strong that I had mistakenly taken it for moustache ....

I've been working on and off on this picture but was never satisfied with the result... removing the shadow without having the contour of his upper lip disappear (changing his identity) is very difficult... I think Ziaphra is right

Originally Posted by Ziaphra

I don't think the answer lies in removing them totally...but rather to blend them lighter

Anyway even if not satisfied at all, here is what I got ... If I have the time, I'll give it another go following Ziaphra's tip...

[pepperspray]

Aye, it's a tricky one, indeed!


But your tips are helping out enormously, so thank you so very, very much!


I'll continue to play around with this, as there is no fixed deadline. Hopefully, I'll have a finished image to post by the end of the weekend, though.


So, thanks again! Your kindness in offering tips and tricks is greatly appreciated.

[pepperspray]

Edit: I did post a pic of progress, but I've changed my mind about: I decided I didn't like what I did so much after all.

Back to the drawing board!

[pepperspray]

Okay, this is a bit better, but still not very natural looking. I guess I'll have to compromise on the natural thing a bit if I'm to *win*.


What do you guys think? Ease up on what I've done a bit, stop right there, or valiantly march on in the same direction?

[pepperspray]

I thought I'd just pop in and let you know that I tinkered away with this some more as and when I found time, and I've settled on the attached as the final result.

I couldn't have done it without y'alls generous tips and tricks! Thanks a gazillion!

[Gary Richardson]

Hi pepperspray,

Nice work with a difficult subject. A pity the shadow area round the man's mouth.

Because of that I had a little play.

Created new layer. Used Clone tool set to about 5% opacity, unchecked Aligned, then sampled from the light areas on his cheek.

Now I lightened the shadows by cloning over them. (Can't completely lose them without losing underlying image). If you overdo it (easily done), just lower the opacity of the clone layer to adjust.

[pepperspray]

Thanks, Gary!

I never once thought to reduce the opacity of the clone stamp, so thanks for the extra tip!

I really tried hard on the poor guy's upper lip, but found that I lost too much of his mouth. Reducing the opacity will help with that, so cheers.

I also bought a Wacom tablet a couple of days ago, so I know that will help, also. It's a wee bit tricky to get used to at first, but now that I'm starting to get the hang of it, I know I'll be able to improve on my efforts to date.


Thanks again, and have a great weekend!

[Gary Richardson]

You're welcome, have fun with your new tablet, once you've got used to it you'll never look at a mouse again (at least not for photo work).

Have a good weekend yourself.

[Juergen D]

This one looked quite challenging to me. Thought I'd try. Most of the time I'm pretty successful to lighten things up using Screen layer mode. That's what I did here. Actually used three Screen layers, merged them and used the resulting real light layer for all shadows. Of course, there where a few further adjustments, such as sharpening, contrast enhancement, color correction.

One reason why I'm posting this is, that I also wanted to figure out how the attachment would work. I think I got it.

Juergen

[edgework]

Truth is, this is a color correction problem. You have skin tone that is in the sun, which is the desired tone, and you have skin tone in shadow that you wish to match to the sunny tones. The problem is, how to mask off the areas that you wish to change.

I'm just showing the process using his face. It's possible that multiple areas might need to be addressed, at least dealing with his skin and hers, as they are not the same hue.

A couple of color samplers makes it a snap to see how far you need to go. Sampling the left side of his face (his right) I used the tones that seemed to be median range, neither natural shadows nor sun-blasted. I sampled above and below the shadow line and got this:

Above: R156, G109, B93
Below: R62, G49, B65

I set a curve adjustment layer, and for each channel, I set a midpoint, and entered the above numbers in the input and output boxes. For example, in the red channel, I entered 62 in the input box and 156 in the output. Fill the mask with black and then use the same technique that you would use for a Dodge/Burn layer: small strokes, low opacity, building the effect as you go, painting white into the mask wherever you wish to diminish a shadow. I used a 10 pixel brush initially, then increased to 40 pixels to lighten the overall area.

The beauty of using curves like this is that you're not just attacking a single color, you're adjusting an entire range. Unless the shift is truly extreme, the curves distribute the alteration over the light and dark areas appropriately. You just need to trust your eyes.

I've included before, after, and the mask used.

http://edgework.tripod.com/samples/shadows.jpg

[pepperspray]

Originally Posted by Juergen D

This one looked quite challenging to me. Thought I'd try. Most of the time I'm pretty successful to lighten things up using Screen layer mode. That's what I did here. Actually used three Screen layers, merged them and used the resulting real light layer for all shadows. Of course, there where a few further adjustments, such as sharpening, contrast enhancement, color correction.

One reason why I'm posting this is, that I also wanted to figure out how the attachment would work. I think I got it.

Juergen

Hey, thanks for giving it a go. And looks like you got the attachments thing working alright, too.

Looks good.


Oh hey, Juergen! Welcome to RetouchPro, by the way.

[pepperspray]

Hi edgework,

I've only just started to really play with curves, as they kinda frighten me a bit. Sometimes I mess around with them and get great results, and sometimes...well....not so good.

I've read about 'doing it by the numbers', but haven't actually used it yet, as I've only seen it in reference and not as instruction. So, thanks, I think I'm understanding it a bit more and will give it a go on other images.

Cheers!

[Juergen D]

Originally Posted by pepperspray

Hey, thanks for giving it a go. And looks like you got the attachments thing working alright, too.

Looks good.

Thank you, pepperspray, I appreciate it.
I actually reworked the image some more and here is the (hopefully ) last version.

Juergen

[PhotoFun]

Flora,

The improved image are so impressive. You not only removed shodow but also enhanced the overall contrast and tone. Can you explain the steps how you got this result ?

Thanks,