How would you do this?

[PatrickB]

Hi all,

I've been working on some pictures with very heavy shadows lately and wondered how you people would work on such pictures.

The shadows obviously darken the eyes too much. Plus the makeup is not visible enough (bady bady for customer, she wants it to be the most interesting part of the picture). I use to do this with either curves layers and masks or an overlay painted in with a soft brush but think there are faster methods to lighten up those areas.

What do you think?

Patrick

[Ken Fournelle]

my rendition:

[lamedos]

Hi Patrick

This is NOT ideal or finished, but it IS quick.

Ctrl + Alt + ~ copy the resulting selection and paste into a new layer, blend mode - multiply.

Go back to original layer, Ctrl + Alt + ~ inverse selection, copy, paste intp new layer, blend mode - screen.

Gives a start at least and takes about 45 seconds. You can play around with opacity etc.

Hope it helps

Roy

[Kraellin]

hehe, always more than one way to do things around here.

i tried two methods, both fairly simple. the first, on the left, is:

duplicate original layer.
lighten new layer however you want. really bring it up, but not quite washing it out.
make another duplicate layer of original layer and move this new one on top of the washed out layer.
shut off the original layer.
take eraser on very low opacity and start wiping around the eyes to bring out the layer underneath, the washed out layer. this brings out the lightness.

*********************

the second method is also pretty simple.

make duplicate layer of original.
call up illumination/lights tool
take two points and put them one over each eye.
adjust size to just over and around the eyes.
adjust brightness to not be really overbearing, but certainly making a change in brightness.
on 2nd layer, lower opacity of layer so brighter eyes show, but arent dominant.
with a very light opacity, clone out any irregularities in mismatch of layer effects.

Craig

[Flora]

... and yet another way ....

1. As to not change anything else, I loosely selected the eyes,
   
   
2. Ctrl+J copied my selection to its own Layer,
   
   
3. Ctrl+I inverted it and changed its Blending to Soft Light.
   
   At this point the shadows have practically disappeared but her eyes look kind of 'flat'...
   
   Still working on the selection Layer:
   
   
4. Ctrl+U > Hue&Saturation ... decrease the saturation to get the colour back,
   
   
5. Increase Lightness if necessary ... (better but still not 100%)
   
   
6. Gaussian Blur to strongly blur the selection Layer .... (10-20 Pixels Radius) ... This will decrease the effect of the correction slightly giving it a more natural look and slightly sharpen the selection in one go ...

[realaqu]

My version

realaqu

[PatrickB]

Flora,

I could bite my ass for not thinking about a simple inverse...

I enhanced your way a little bit:

Loosely selected eyes: I did this with the quick mask mode and feathered, works faster for me.

After all the other steps I went over the left eye with a 10% eraser to blur the lighting effect, this makes it more realistic. I'll show the result when done, but Floras has really been the fastest way yet I guess.

Want to marry me?

[PatrickB]

Heyooooooooo,

I was browsing some websites for some fun and education and found a GREAT solution for this without having to bother about masking and stuff.

In CS, there is an option Image/Adjustments/Highlights and Shadows. Works fabulous. Of course it ain't as precise as doing it manually, but for a quick enhancement it's just great! Look at the result

[Klaatu Baradda]

Fake Fill Flash
...and yet ANOTHER method...

Although this is very similar to Craig's method, the approach is non-destructive. Similar to "Painting with Digital Light" (a.k.a., the Dragan method), the results of this technique are very similar to using a fill-flash or reflector that paints the light exactly where you need it.

1) Cmd/cntrl+j to copy the Background layer.
2) Set to Screen
3) Hold down the Opt/Alt key while clicking on the Layer Mask icon to create a filled (Hide All) layer mask.
4) Use a white, low opacity, soft brush on the mask to paint away the shadows.

Alternatively, this methods works well with Flora's Invert method (love that!) and isolates the shadow correction to just where you want it. Just add a mask and paint away.