Help with Shadows

[TennRose]

I am new to retouching and am using both Photoshop CS and gimp. I took this photo and really like it but need to know if there is a way to remove the shadows from the Dad's face? Thanks for any help!

[John Wheeler]

Hi TennRose and welcome to the forums.

A common approach would be to create a duplicate layer (or stamped layer) and use the dodge tool to lighten an area or dodge burn to darken. You need to set the tools for soft edge and low opacity to get good results with multiple brush passes to build up the change you want (IMHO) Those tools will keep the texture while making those changes. Once you have the luminosity in good shape, if the color is a bit off, you can sample a good color to set your foreground swatch and use a brush tool in color mode to change the color yet keep the luminosity level/texture. Hope that gets you started and other forum members may have other/better advice.

[0lBaldy]

TenRose, Welcome to RetouchPRO
Hope you enjoy your stay here and make lots of friends.
Poke around, have fun!

Have you tried fixing the shadow with the Shadow/Highlight filter in Photoshop cs located @ Image --> Adjustments --> Shadow/Highlight. As explained here

If you use Photoshop you can post fairly large pictures which are under 100k using the 'save for web' function in Photoshop as described here:
Size, Quality and/or Format your Attached Images.. (Click here)

A higher resolution and larger size picture would allow members to work on your picture and show samples and work flows of what steps they would take to enhance your WIP (Work In Progress)

If you want to post a larger resolution that is over 100K then you can host your image elsewhere and attach a link in the thread, but also please attach an under 100K version (so the thread remains useful in the future, regardless of external links).

Other Hosts if you do not have your own site:
ImageVenue.com (3Meg max, free) pixentral.com (2Meg max, free) photobucket.com (1 Meg max free, 5 Meg PRO) mediafire.com (100 Meg per file, free) post a link in the thread to the site that is hosting the larger image. (link to the highest resolution.. or the largest size you can upload)

[Tony W]

Dodge and Burn or Shadow & Highlight as suggested should work well. But it would be very helpful if you could post a much larger image as OlBaldy suggested - at this size cannot see too much of a problem