Flash shot of group fades to dark. How to improve?

[willdoak]

I've been asked to help out with the attached image and several like it. (I think from now on I'll help out as the photographer!) It was taken with a compact digital camera, flash on, with predictable bad results. People in the foreground are somewhat underexposed, while everything beyond is REALLY underexposed. Any suggestions on how to approach this with Elements or Photoshop CS3 would be greatly appreciated!

Will

[Dave.Cox]

I would start by adding a levels adjustment layer, and pulling the sliders to the left.

[Kevin Connery]

Originally Posted by willdoak

Any suggestions on how to approach this with Elements or Photoshop CS3 would be greatly appreciated!

I added a single Curves adjustment layer as shown, with the blending mode set to Screen. That brought up a lot of the shadow detail without blowing out the highlights. (Obviously more work could be done; this is simply a 'proof-of-concept')

[willdoak]

Thanks. I'll give that a shot.

[hawkeye60]

You may want to use a gradient mask with curves adjustment so you don't overlighten the foreground.

[lokki]

For this one, I duplicated the background layer, set it to Screen, then added a curves layer also set to screen. I then used Hawkeye60's suggestion for adding a black-to-white gradient in the curves mask (black at the bottom).

However, this really begins to show the artifacts in the shadows.

[Daviskw]

Hi there

The trouble will be the jpeg blocks and noise in the shadows... I just used a simple Brightness/contrast adjustment layer... two of them then used a gradient on the mask.

Butch

[lokki]

And so we continue skinning the cat...

Great job, Butch!

[Daviskw]

lol.. we are bored tonight...bet we could figure a few more ways to do it if we tried

[willdoak]

Don't stop now! It's a great education. ;-)

Will

[GregKnapp]

As stated before as the shadows deepen the detail gets lost in artifacts but here is my go at it with Paint shop pro 11...

Topaz DeJPG, Duped layer, screen, flatten, curves, topaz clean, custom smudge brushes at variable opacities.

web sized:
http://gkp.smugmug.com/photos/267348720_8YnLc-L.jpg

Full sized:
http://gkp.smugmug.com/photos/267348720_8YnLc-O.jpg


-Greg

[weshoot]

Or, I assume CS3 is like CS2, you could go the menu:
Image> Adjustments> Shadow/Highlights and see how that works moving the sliders where you need them. You might try Levels after that. The big problem will be noise and artifacting. You can go to http://www.imagenomic.com/ . They have a freeware filter that works on jpegs that possibly can help with the noise. Good luck.

Gary