Techniques to remove shadow?

[photodabbler]

Hi all!

A while ago we snapped a photo of our 1st born holding our 2nd born the first time they met. Very cute picture, but there is a square block of shadow that makes it unfit to be blown up.

What techniques could I use to fix this image?

I have photoshop CS4 and photoshop elements 8. I spent a few hours on Saturday working with it and have had some luck, but nothing great. The hardest part seems to be the edge of the shadow because it isn't a fine line. The bulk of the shadow looks much better when I increase brightness then lower saturation, although it does turn out a bit grainy.

This is a link to the picture.
http://imgur.com/e0pRa

What approach would be the most effective to making that shadow less noticable?

Thanks.
Brian

[mistermonday]

Brian, welcome to RetouchPro!
The shadow is pretty harsh and the that side of the image is underexposed. For an effective elimination I would recommemd adding a dodge and burn layer above the background and dodge the left side of the image. Then add a Hue/Sat adj layer to adjust the shift in saturation. You will require a Selective Color adj layer to remove the yellow cast which will present itself after dodging. You should also run a noise filter to get rid of the noise resulting form the underexposure. You also need to brighten up the background and possible adjust the skin tone.
If you spend some time on the dodging layer you can neutralize the shadow very evenly. I just did a quick 5 min dodge on the sample attached, so it is not very uniform but just to show you the path I would follow.
Regards, Murray

[Gary]

Originally Posted by photodabbler

Hi all!

A while ago we snapped a photo of our 1st born holding our 2nd born the first time they met. Very cute picture, but there is a square block of shadow that makes it unfit to be blown up.
What techniques could I use to fix this image?
What approach would be the most effective to making that shadow less noticable?
Thanks.
Brian

I used the blue channel to select the shadowed area, feathered the selection and saved it to an alpha channel. Now, with this selection active, I used Image/Apply Image to apply the R,G & B channels in various blend modes to lighten, add contrast, color, etc. Each time, I applied the effect to a duplicate layer and used a white brush and a hide-all mask to selectively apply. Fine-tuning was done with curves adjustments, skin smoothing and Chip's Paint-with-Light action at Action Central.

http://www.pbase.com/image/124184513

Cheers.

(Babine)

[photodabbler]

Hello Babine (or Gary, not sure!). I was trying to follow your steps and got stuck pretty quick. I've got the blue channel in a new layer, but I don't see how you use it to select the shadow.

Do you just use the square selection tool with a 10px feather? If so, how does having the blue channel help with that?

Thanks for the help.

[photodabbler]

Hi Murray thanks for the welcome! I have a few questions about your approach.

When you talk about adding layers, are you implying that the way you control them is by using a brush to manually paint the mask? Or do you try and do a rectangle select with feather?

I tried using the rectangle select with a 10px feather then using the paint bucket to fill white in the selection. I used this approach with a linear dodge layer at 100% and a saturation layer at -50. Here is the result: http://imgur.com/IwFmj

As you can see, this method does terribly on the edges of the shadow. Please advise.

[mistermonday]

Brian, please see the two screenshots attached.
Sometimes with these types of images (Shadows, light leaks, partially covered lenses) making a selection of the dark areas and adjusting the lightness works, more more often than not the dark area / shadow is not uniform. When you have the problem on a portrait of people you usually need to make the lighting pretty even and the only way to have maximum control is often to dodge or burn.
Screenshot 1 shows the basic beginning. You add a Curve adj layer over your background and drag the center way up to brighten the entire image. Then while still on that curve layer hit Ctrl I to invert the mask (make it black). This completely hides the curve's effect and you see your original image.
Using a soft white paint brush (0 hardness) with low opacity (about 20%) and a flow of 15% you can now paint on the dark areas of the image. In doing so you apply the curve which gradually brightens the dark areas and you do so until they match the lighter ones. You can adjust the opacity and flow to give you very very fine control. If you over do it, just hit the X key to switch the brush from white to black to paint over where you painted with white. You can perfectly match the dark to the light areas - its just a matter of taking the time to paint on the mask. Screenshot 2 is a blow up of the curve's layer mask as I did a quick paint job.
A Hue/Sat adj layer with Sat set to -100% and placed above the Curve Adj layer will allow you to visualize your work more easily as it will eliminate any color shifts that may trick your eyes.
There are a ton of tutorials at RetouchPro and on the internet on Dodging and Burning if you would like to learn more.
In the case of your particular image, after you finish the dodge layer you will notice the colors are more saturated where you brightened. You can fix that in 1 min by adding a Hue/Sat adj layer, copying you dodge layer mask to that Hue/Sat adj layer and reducing the saturation.
You should be able to get an image which is of good print quality.
Regards, Murray

[Gary]

Originally Posted by photodabbler

Hello Babine (or Gary, not sure!). I was trying to follow your steps and got stuck pretty quick. I've got the blue channel in a new layer, but I don't see how you use it to select the shadow.

Do you just use the square selection tool with a 10px feather? If so, how does having the blue channel help with that?

Thanks for the help.

That's one way that will work and you can play with the feathering. Another is via use of Quick Mask mode. Simply paint over the dark area in the blue channel, feather that and exit quick mask. You will now have a 'marching ant' selection that you can save to an alpha channel.
From your example, it appears that the selection was a bit too large or the feathering was too much. Try this: once you have made the selection and saved it to an alpha channel, go back to RGB, activate the selection and copy it to a new layer. Now apply the changes to this layer. That way, the opacity and blend modes can be controlled as well as the size via masking to remove any over-effect.

[chillin]

I used a number of curves.

[photodabbler]

Murray, thanks for the great explanation. I was able to follow along and get decent results. Would you please explain how I would perform this step you wrote: "You will require a Selective Color adj layer to remove the yellow cast which will present itself after dodging"?

I tried adding a Selective Color adjustment layer but it looks like I then need to choose a color from a drop down box to determine which channel(?) my adjustments effect. I tried a number of them while dragging the yellow slider left but I was not able to successfully reduce the yellow in the image.

[photodabbler]

@chillin, that looks great. Looks like it took you some time. If I wanted a PSD file of your work, is that something you accept payment for? Or maybe that's not kosher, I'm new here...

[mistermonday]

Brian, to get rid of the yellow, add a Selective Color Adjustment layer on top of your dodge layer. Alt+Click on your dodge layer's Layer Mask and drag the mask on top of the white layer mask that appears on your Selective Color adj layer. The dialog box will ask you if you want to replace the ,ask - say yes. By placing your dodge mask on the Selective Color Adj you will restrict the changes to the areas you dodged. Now select the Yellow Channel from the pull down menu and drag the yellow slider to the left until the dodged areas return to normal.
The result should be color correct but you will likely find that the dodged areas will have an increase in Saturation. To fix it, just add a Hue/Sat adj layer. Do the same thing as with the Selective Color layer and replace the mask with the Dodge mask. Then reduce the saturation.
Chillin has done a super job as usual. Some people prefer to isolate small areas that need to be fixed and they use a different curve on each. I find a single dodge layer worked best for me on your image. However I did not spend the 1/2 hour needed to do a good job on it.
Regards, Murray

[photodabbler]

Murray, thank you so much for your help on this. Your thorough explanations have been excellent teaching tools. I really appreciate it.

[Flora]

Hi everybody!

Photodabbler,
congratulations for your new baby!!!

Your 1st born is just too sweet .... and what we say over here is that if your babies are all so beautiful you should make at least ten!!!!!

For your picture I used: Shadows/Highlights, Levels, Curves, Color Balance, Hue&Saturation and Vibrance Adjustment Layers plus several "Blank/Empty Layers set to" as described in this Tutorial

Let me know if you'd like more details...

[eddylonly]

that's goob job but I can do it more difucult pictures I have 10 year of experiences contac with me if you want some question eddylonly@yahoo.com

[eddylonly]

here is my example to take out a shadow eddylonly@yahoo.com

[Cupcake]

Here is the web picture.

I'll send you the full file.