Can this facial glare/over exposure be fixed?

[sp_ranch]

Any help with this photo would be great-

face glare photo

[Syd]

Yes, it can be fixed, however, it is not going to be easy. The highlights are completely blown which means there is no information to be retrieved. Those overexposed areas are just 'digital blank voids'. So the only way to fix the image is paint in the information. How well it turns out depends on how talented you are with the clone tool.

The best of the three channels was the Blue Channel which I copied and pasted into a layer above the original and changed the blend mode to Luminosity. This lightened her jeans, darkened the trees and revealed a bit more of her face.

Next I selected the shadow side of her face, copied it to a new layer, flipped it horizontally, stretched and pulled it a little with Free Transform and finally lowered the opacity to about 40%. I then created a new blank layer and filled in the gaps with a the clone tool. This was a ten minute job and I didn't even attempt to address all of the overexposed areas. I just wanted to point you in the right direction. With a bit more work and some cropping it could turn out quite well.

Sincerely Syd

[solitear]

Hi sp_ranch...

I completely agree about the pale face ...... I just cloned over it then used smudge tool......

oxoxox
Beth

[solitear]

I'm sorry...... heheh ...... it's late and I'm on medication for pneumonia ..... really all I did here was paint on a blank layer over her face in overlay mode, blurred a little, then darkened it.... cleaned up the "overspray" then duped this layer and changed blend mode to Soft Light.....

For her hair I just copied and pasted her hair from the other side..... not too great but I just couldn't find anything else to work with....

Beth

[Daviskw]

I took some skin from a forearm...stretched over and painted in. Then copied hair from otherside.

Butch

[Flora]

Hi sp_ranch,

welcome to RP!!

I agree with Syd about the blown highlights in this picture..

The ways I usually follow in these cases are what everybody has already said:

* Blank layers set to Darken, Overlay, Soft Light, Color where I paint over the blown areas.

* Copy, paste, adapt from a 'good' areas..

To refine the corrections I also use Clone Tool or Heal Brush set to Lighten, Darken or Colour (starting with low Opacity to 'build up' ).

The one thing I always try to avoid is the 'flatness' which can result by darkening blown areas with no information whatsoever ...(you might end up with a darker 'blob' ...) So, even if I can't correct the problem as I'd like, I always try to keep some shadows/highlights 'play/feeling' to get a more natural 3D illusion in the corrected areas ...

Great job everybody!

[solitear]

Hi Flora,

PUurrrrrrrrfect......... her hair color is right on the left, ha........ and her forehead still has it's contours while the blown areas are taken care of ......

Also, I attempted to distract from the blown highlights by leaving the trees on the left darkened as a result of the Soft Light layer but, doggone it, yours was so beautifully done as to not need that....... but I'm glad ...... it's work like yours that keeps me wanting to learn more!!

oxoxo
Beth