Suggestions for getting rid of blow out area?

[gbbiv]

I really like this pic for some reason although others have said they don't. After looking at it for bit I decided that it might be the distracting blown out area in the upper left. How would you suggest handling this?

Thanks so much!

http://photos.created2worship.com/Ga...5294715-ws.jpg

[Janet Petty]

If it were me... and the light source (obviously the huge blow out area) turned out to be gigantic, I'd just make it smaller in size so it doesn't dominate the otherwise excellent photo.

But then that's just my suggestion. It will be interesting to follow this thread and see what those with a lot more experience than me have to say.

[Duv]

Not a bad idea Janet. I was thinking about eliminating the highlite altogether, but it would be at odds with the lighting on her face. How do we present a smaller light source that is believable but doesn't draw our attention away from the face? Just a general question.

Cheers
Dave

[Mosha]

Just a thought. I can imagine a "vitral", I think you call them stained glass or cut glass window only clear and opaque, kind of a Tiffany window (I hope you understand what I am saying) That way you can reduce the glare and add a touch of decoration.
What do you think.
Mosha

[Janet Petty]

The stained glass effect would be ok, except that it would add color to her face. How about softening it as if a sheer curtain from a window had been hung? I've been working on some wedding photos for a client and it is amazing how much that netting stuff on her veil softens light. Hmmm, will have to give this some ponder time. In any case, good luck. This photo is too good to just toss.

[redmaccat]

Hope you don't mind, but I thought I'd have a go. See what you think.

I cut her out and added a soft patterened background, then used the Render/Lighting Effects/Soft Spotlight filter on the background.

It's a start anyway.

[gbbiv]

Thanks for all the responses... These ideas are right in line with what I was looking for. Something to minimize the light or eliminate it(pretending the light source was coming from somewhere out of frame). I was trying to manipulate the existing pic rather than cut her out of it but what redmaccat did seems to work.

Thanks very much.

I still wonder if there is a technique to get rid of the light, maybe an inverse overlay set to multiply or something... the issue is that the light fades and everything I tried to do left a weird halo at the edges, if I leave anything I was thinking more like redmaccat did up in the corner.

[DannyRaphael]

Here's another take... kind of neutralize the blowout area by taking parts of the image, stretching them with the free transform tool and using layer masks to (hopefully) piece them together so it looks natural. It also tells you how impossible it would be for me to craft a stained glass effect that looked decent, even though I liked that idea a lot.

While conceptually retaining a virtual light source makes sense, IMO it is likely that most viewers (non-photographers) would never ask, "Hey! What happened to the light source?" All they would see is the stunning bride against a nice, fuzzy, undistracting background.

~Danny~

[Flora]

Beautiful picture of a beautiful bride!!!

Combining Janet and Duv's suggestions and trying to remain as close as possible to the original, I just darkened and reduced the 'blown out spot' came up with this..

[gbbiv]

Both of those are right where I was hoping to end up. I think I understand Danny's response but I'll have to try it when I get home... looks pretty good at this size. (Danny if I can't figure exactly what you did could you email me the psd so I can check out the layers you used?)

Now for Flora's idea, how did you darken that area? Did you mask off everything else and use curves or apply a dodging technique? Or blend a color layer???

She is a beautiful bride, there are a bunch of other shots at http://bc.created2worship.com

Thanks for all the Help!!!

This is a great forum, I'll have to try to spend some more time here.

[DannyRaphael]

Flora: Yours is a lovely solution. You never cease to amaze and inspire me. Really.

- - - - -

re: Danny if I can't figure exactly what you did could you email me the psd so I can check out the layers you used?

Absolutely. Come to think of it why don't you e-mail me no matter what. A layered image example will give you a real good idea of how to do it... then you can try it on your own.

Warning: The layered file is gonna come in about 10 MB. Can you accept e-mail attachments that large?

~Danny~

[Flora]

Hi,

gbbiv,

what follows might seem a nightmarish procedure...but it's actually quite simple (very ripetitive) and relatively fast ... (honest injun!)

Ready for it?

• Used color Picker to select colour from a darker area close to the blown out spot.
• Magic Wand to select the blown out spot.
• Strongly feathered the selection (10 pixels).
• With the selection active, created a new empty Layer.
• Filled selection with the sampled colour.
• Added some noise and slightly blurred the new Layer to better blend it in with the rest.
• Duplicated the Layer, desaturated it (Ctrl+Shift+U) and changed its blending to 'Overlay' to brighten it up a bit.
• Merged visible (you can find the TIP on how to here).
• Duplicated the Merged Layer and blurred it very strongly (Radius = 10-20 pixels, or until the darkened/covered blown out spot blended nicely with the background.
• Applied a Hide All (black) Layer Mask to the blurred Layer and, with a fuzzy white brush (adjust Opacity as necessary) painted over the blown out spot.
• Merged visible.
• Duplicated the Merged Layer and applied Filter>Other>Minimum (Radius = 8 pixels) to further darken the contours of the blown out spot.
• Applied a Hide All (black) Layer Mask to the blurred Layer and, with a fuzzy white brush (adjust Opacity as necessary) painted over the blown out spot.
• Merged visible.
• Ctrl+Left Click on the last created Layer Mask to select its brightness.
• With the selection active, activated (click on) the last merged Layer and (Ctrl+J) copied the selection on its own Layer. Desaturated it (Ctrl+Shift+U) and changed its blending to Color Burn (Opacity 50-60%).
• Duplicated this last Layer and changed its Blending to Multiply.
• Merged visible.
• Ctrl+Left Click on the Multiply Layer to select the blown out corner again.
• With the selection active, activated the last merged Layer and (Ctrl+J) copied the selection on its own Layer.
• Changed its blending to Soft Light and, finally (I swear!!!), added some noise to it until it really looked like part of the original background.

Danny,

..thank you so much for your kindness!!!

[gbbiv]

Thanks so much for that detail explaination, I am heading out the door now but will hopefully get a chance to try it tonight or tomorrow.