Senior class pictures

[litz]

I am new and would like to say "hi" to everyone that enjoys digital photography and retouching. I love to work at this hobby,but,I have run into a problem that I know nothing about. My daugther had someone take her senior pictures that did'nt have a clue about proper exposure. Her flesh tones are washed out and I don't know how to get them to look normal. I have tried to burn the tones in with Photoshop Cs4;but, they start to turn grey. I asked her if I could retake some pictures; no dice. I have attached a picture for everyone to asses and give my some ideas. Thank you litz.

[Der_W]

First I'd work in LAB mode, because its the easiest to get rid of blown out areas.
Then I'd try a combination of Shadows/Highlights, a new layer in "Color"-mode for the areas that are completely white and finally a new curves adj. layer to bump up the contrast in the a- and b-channels.

You could as well replace the background. I didn't for this demonstration (obviously :-)).

[beefy24]

Had a bit play around with shadows/highlights and came up with this try.

[litz]

I also tried the shadows/highlights;but, as with the picture,when I used shadows/highlights I got the gray of the area in the upper left corner as well. I will try the method by Der W later today. thank you for the replys so far.

[lynn55]

I add new background, reduce noise, Blend layer: Multiply and use color level.

Thank you

[Cupcake]

Here is another idea!

[Nasturtium]

we're discussing blown out areas here;

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/pho...-help-pls.html

While it was easy enough to fix the tonality, there were color casts all over the place; magenta on her nose, yellow on her skin, whites of the eyes- making retouching there tricky. I think an artistic option would be a good way to salvage the shot.

What actual color was her T-shirt?

[litz]

I like all your ideas I tried changing the colors to a warmer tone and that helped and then burned in some color;but, I get the colors around the edges that I can't get rid off.
I like what cupcake did: how did you do that I took photoshop cs4 in college and my instructor olny touched on that effect. I am very much a novice and have playing around with photoshop for years on my own. So, I very much enjoy the input I can get.

[Nan]

I had some time to play today so here's what I came up with. New background, several selective levels layers, and painting skin and hair in a few different blend modes.
Nan

[litz]

Originally Posted by Nan

I had some time to play today so here's what I came up with. New background, several selective levels layers, and painting skin and hair in a few different blend modes.
Nan

What selective levels did you use?

[Nan]

I meant that I made selections around areas like the blown out parts of her cheeks, another selection around the rest of her face and another around her hair. With each selection, I made a levels adjustment to just that part. Darkening or lightening until it looked better. I think I did a last levels layer for the entire photo at the end.
Nan

[0lBaldy]

Rotated/Cropped
Cloned in some shirt
cut out
Selected hair and a bit of face to get rid of yellow cast using Hue/Saturation
Painted some dark areas with skin color on a lightened, lowered opacity layer
did some selective sharpening
Darkened teeth a bit and removed some yellow
Simple gradient background added using colors from picture