help with shadow

[mimiya]

I posted this in another area...but it probably needs to be in this forum instead.

Can someone help me with this photo? I obviously have a problem with my flash. I didn't use a bracket or diffuser-stupid-anyways, is there a way to salvage this?

[sjm]

not a guru here, but this is my fix. I selected the dark area with about a 45 pixel feather then applied curves. I did the same with bride, but darkened it a bit.

[T Paul]

Here are a couple of links that may help you out...

Correcting Areas of Under or Over Exposure

Correcting Exposure and Color

How to Quickly Correct a Washed Out Photo in Photoshop

FIXING WASHED-OUT IMAGES

Painting with light!

Using Adjustment Layers to Alter a Photo

[sdubose99]

My try with three adjustment layers in various blend modes -- multiply to darken her, screen mode to lighten him... I can send you the .psd file if you like -- it's a 4MB file size.

Scott

[T Paul]

Here is a quick attempt.

1. Lasso and duplicate bride. Set mode to multiply and adjust as needed.
2. Lasso and duplicate groom. Set mode to screen and adjust as needed.
3. Flatten image and did a slight colors adjustment to remove a slight color cast.
4. Adjust/color range/shadows. Made a curves adjustment layer and softened the shadows to bring out more detail.

For finer detail and color adjustment you will need to create a few more layers to bring out more detail and reduce the shadows.

[mimiya]

O.K., you guys are amazing!! I've only had time to try one suggestion so far. Here is my before and after. I Selected each area (dark, light) separately feathered the pixels at 30, made copies via background, then worked with the curves on each and this is my result. I'm pretty happy with it although I am going to try all the methods suggested. What do you think?

[Blacknight]

I thought that a gradient overlay on a layer copy would work (from black to white, left to right, mode on gradient window set to overlay). That and Curves gave me this in about 5 minutes. I'm sure there are other ways as well, but this is fairly quick and easy.

[sdubose99]

I thought about this some more and:

- adjusted her skin tones
- blurred the background
- lightened the dark area in the middle so you can now see the outline of her hair

Scott

[KenB]

Here's my try, First I duplicated the background layer and applied a brightness/contrast layer, adjusted the sliders until the groom came out of the shadows to my liking, then I used a gradiant on a layer mask to return the bride to normal. Next to give the bride more normal looking skin tones I used NIK Pen Palette and painted her face with the warm filter and applied a splash of color on her cheek. I did also blur the background a little.


Ken

[mimiya]

ok, so how do I adjust/warm the skin tone on the bride??

[KenB]

Originally posted by mimiya
ok, so how do I adjust/warm the skin tone on the bride??

I used NIK Pen Palette to warm her skin tones without that this is probably what I would do.

Duplicate the background layer and add a selective color adjustment layer, with a layer mask.
In the selective color dialog box, choose reds and adjust the sliders, looking at only the bride, don't worry about changing other areas as you can get rid of unwanted effects using the layer mask. Looks to me like most likely you'll want to increase the yellows quite a bit. Any areas that you want to return to their previous state, just click on the layer mask and paint with either black or white to remove or add back the effect.


Ken

[roger_ele]

Everyone has done a great job, but my taste isn't to view the shadow as a problem, but to darken the other side to balance and give the impression that it was an affect done on purpose, I think he looks wonderful, here are my steps

-duplicate layer in multiply mode, mask out areas i wanted lighter
-duplicate multiplied layer
-flattened
-cloned skin on her face in color mode from better skin portion
-used blur tool in color mode on her face until color smoother
-Color adjustment layer to finish her skin, masked to just her skin

That's it - very pretty - they will love it

Roger

[KenB]

Great idea roger_ele, wish Id'a thought of that.


Ken

[mimiya]

oohhhhh....I like this too, Roger. I'll have to try this also, I think they'd like the result alot!

[sdubose99]

Good idea Roger, here's my interpretation...

Scott

[jeaniesa]

Scott,

I really like your final version. The vignette is perfect. The only slight change I would make is to select the area of the man's face which you lightened and add a bit of contrast. It looks a bit flat and desaturated in your version. But, it's a fairly easy fix by adding a bit of contrast just to that area.

Jeanie

[jeaniesa]

Oops - hit "submit" rather than "browse". Here's an example of what I mean.

Jeanie

[mimiya]

Well, here's my final attempt at it. I selected the groom and then the bride in different layers and worked on the multiply and screen. Then I worked on contrast and actually took some skin tone from another photo of the bride and feathered it onto her face where it was blownout. Then I did an oval selection and feathered it 80pixels to get the vignette. I'm pretty happy with the results and learned a lot along the way. I kept all the notes for future use!! Thanks!

[roger_ele]

mimiya, you are coming along, but it might be a little blue or cyan and it looks a little light and low in contrast. As a guidline do density (how light or dark it is and contast controls first), then adjust saturation and color balance last because they will be easier to see.

To set your highlight and shadow in levels (either directly or with an adjustment layer), grab the lefthand arrow under the "mountain range" and move it to the right where the mountain starts (you just made your darkest point in the photo black), move the right hand arrow to the left until it just touches the very beginning of the mountain (you just made your lightest tone white), now grab the middle and move it to the right to darken the image.

Problems are much easier to see when contrast and density are set first. I think the front of his face looks odd compared to the side of his face. Don't give up - you are on the hump in the learning curve. I have attached your photo after the levels adjustment.

Roger

[mimiya]

roger_ele, thank you so much for your patience! That was dumb on my part, I usually always check the levels right off. I got so carried away with all my new information I forgot! Is this better...

[roger_ele]

mimiya - better, I still think you have it too light, as it darkens the unevenness of the colors becomes more apparent in the skin tones. I would start over and work on the bride only - I really think that he looks good other than the global corrections.

Please flag me if I am being too pushy - we all do these things in our own way with our own visions of what we want it to look like.

Regards, Roger