Lightening Up Shadows/Dark Spots

[Cinnamn112]

Is it possible? The left side of the picture is shadowy/dark while the right is nicely-lit. I tried using the "Curves" feature which lightened the left size nicely, but it also lightened the right side tremendously to make it practically white.

The regular-sized picture is here: Jen, Nicole, Amanda, Patrick

I also attached a thumbnail; it was the only size I could get under 100 MB. Can someone describe a simple technique?

[CathyH]

hi
Copy layer, then on the top layer, I used the Image/ Asjustments/ shadow/highlights, shadows set 75%.
then I used a mask and blended the to layers.
The dark shadow area was kind of grainy so I used a slight noise reduction on it.
Copied this layer and set i to screen mode, then another mask.

I hope this helps

[Dave.Cox]

Nice job Cathy.

I took a slightly different approach. I created a new layer, and used the gradient to create a mask, masking out the right side of the photo. I then added a levels adjustement layer, and adjusted the RGB levels to lighten up the dark area. As you mentioned, this left the adjusted area a bit too grainy. I created a merged layer, and used reduce noise to clean up the grainy look. I then applied the same mask to the left side of the photo, so the corrections only applied to the adjusted area. I then went ahead and masked some of the wall, and the shirt, to leave them a bit darker.

Oh, and I went ahead and remove the red eyes.

[albatrosss]

I used a different approach. I made a duplicate of the photo and using levels I brightened the left side. I then used a mask painting in the left side. I then adjusted it for hue and saturation.

[chillin]

I used channels adjustment & did only the far left girl’s face.
After these adjustments I had to eliminate noise & equalize the tone using match color with another part of the photo.

[Gary Richardson]

This is about as good as I could get it.

A lot of hand retouching in this, so not easy to describe.

Still not really happy with the result but it'd take more time than I've got available to sort things properly.

[Cinnamn112]

Thanks for all the ideas, everyone, I'll try to fool around with it and see what I can come up with.

[Daviskw]

Hi there

I used a feathered selection to lighten the left side... then made a selection of good and bad skin then used the match color routine to get the skin tones close.

Then I little cloning of the wall behind them... darn wish I had seen the link to the full size pic...lol that will teach me

Butch