Correcting Uneven Exposure

[lqdwax]

Hello, First I would like to say that this site is great and so r the people. I have just joined recently but have been lurking for a while. and it seems I can always find the answers to my question without having to bother the people who work so hard to help newbies like me. but this time I am stumped so here goes.
I have these pictures, and they seem to be unevenly exposed. I am using Photoshop 6.0 and have tried different things but can not seem to get the exposure EVEN throught the entire photo which i think is what i really want.(I could Be wrong u experts let me know if I want something different)I have attached the photos below in very low quality if they do not show up well, please let me know and I will upload larger files.THANK YOU in advance for all the help

[Kraellin]

welcome lqdwax!

flora has a good way of doing these, but i forget where it is. i think there is one she did in this forum, but not sure which one. there might also be a tut in the tut forum. have a look around and if you cant find it, i, or someone else is sure to give it a shot.

Craig

[Gary Richardson]

Hi lqdwax,

had a quick go with your second image.

Selected RH half of your image using rectangular selection tool, copied and pasted to new layer. Adjusted levels to make darker, applied graduated mask to mask central area and darken just RHS.

Repeated for left half of image.

Applied levels adj layer to whole image. (Took down some of the blown out whites).

Curves adj layer to lighten LH figure.

merged layers, then applied USM to sharpen and up contrast a little.

Could do with local adj on remaining blown whites, but will leave this to you.

Hope this helps, gary.

[lqdwax]

kraelin thanks for the look and thought I went through some of flora's recent posts and got some good idea's i will try later THANX

[lqdwax]

Hey thanks a lot gary for having a go with my pictures I really appreciate the help. I will try your tips later and let u know how it went. but just wanted to drop a line to say thanks.

[jenjen]

I tried your picture out just for about 5 minutes, in between chasing my daughter around. I downloaded the free month trial for PScs2 to correct it. 1. But I selected the man on the let and used levels for him to brighten him up.

2.Then for the rest of the picture I used the shadow/highlight feature.

3.After that I didn't like how the man on the right face so I selected that and i used levels to brighten that up some.

4.Then i used the smart sharpen to sharpen it up some.

I usually use PS 6.0 and i think with that i would select each area that i didn't like after i used levels for overall picture. and use levels to brighten or darken that area, and mask out the edges of that. I hope I helped some.

[Panpan]

I copied the background layer and added a radial-gradient layer mask, white in the middle, and set the blend mode to screen.

There was still some vigneting, so I copied my screen-mode layer. Setting the opacity to 70% got rid of the last unequalities.

The rest is adjusting levels and contrast, taking care not to blow the shirt or block the eye sockets.

Pierre

[jenjen]

Good job Gary and PanPan! What version of PS are you using?

[Panpan]

Originally Posted by jenjen

Good job Gary and PanPan! What version of PS are you using?

Good job yourself, Jennifer.

I'm using CS2.

Pierre

[Kraellin]

nicely done, gary, jenjen, panpan.

the others worked on the 2nd one so i thought i'd give the first one a shot. this one is badly washed out at the top and bottom. i had to rebuild some of it with clone, but i that towards the end.

to start i added a contrast/lightness adjustment layer, one for curves and one for levels. i tweaked each of those for the overall and then used the 'edit selection' feature in psp 9 to build a mask/selection area across the middle. i used a gradient brush along the bottom of the treeline and built upwards on a gradient. this was also set on a fairly low opacity and with a 15 feather. i didnt want a harsh mark between the selection area and non-selected area. when i had the selection i used a contrast/lightness to lighten this area and give it some more contrast.

killed the selection and worked a LOT with the various global layers to even things up a bit more. i also used the lightness/darkness brush/tool to bring up a few dark areas.

and frankly, after that, i lose track. i made a LOT of adjustments here and there to try to get some detail in the top and bottom and even up the light/dark balance and bring out more detail.

and like i said earlier, there just wasnt any detail left in the very top and bottom so i cloned some in.

i did one last global contrast/lightness and that was pretty much it.

now, i wouldnt expect anyone to follow my rather haphazard 'instructions' there very closely. the idea was to even up the edges with the middle as far as brightness. that was the biggest part. the secondary part was to bring out some more detail if possible.

i'm fairly sure someone else could do a better job, but this at least gives you a way to start.

Craig

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Jennifer,

I use PS7. Would like to have the Shadows/Highlight filter, you've done a good job with it.

Craig,

Nice one, didn't try that one myself as it was too badly posterised and pixellated to get any meaningful result. You've brought out more detail than I would have thought (must be the new PSP9), nicely done.

[Kraellin]

thanks gary.

i'm not sure i really like it yet. like you say, it's a bit posterized still and needs to be evened up. i may re-do it, but wanted to get it on here to see if i could lend some help first. i think some selective blurring in different areas might help.

and yes, psp 9 definitely makes part of this easier. the custom making of selections was always an item on my wish list.

Craig

[jenjen]

Ok i'll try it too. This is very addicting when you see an unfinished picture!
On this picture i basically just first did a color balance to take out the blue. Then i did an curves adj. I selected his head and copied that to a seperate layer and did a seperate levels Adj layer. I then did a smart filter but masked out the rest of the image so only the trees got it. Then of course Floras Dark edge plug-in .

[Dreamypix]

Okay, here's what I tried for pic 1 and it seemed to work really well for being really simple. I used a method I use on faded photos (sometimes it works well other times, eh...)

Open photo-
Duplicate background layer
Change Layer mode to Multiply
Now here's the key part- Take the lasso tool and feather it at about 50, now make your box around where the lighter areas are, but not too close-see diagram.
Delete the selected area, leaving the middle lighter and a dark frame around the edges.
Change opacity of layer to blend into the bottom layer. Repeat as needed.

I noticed that when doing this that yellow splotches started appearing so I decided to desaturate it, much easier than dealing with the yellow. I then again did the mulitply trick only this time I made my selection smaller, coming down around his glasses. The left side was alot darker so I used a gradiant mask to balance the eveness as well.

If you liked the blue tint to the photo, to add it back (I think I learned this one from Flora?) Ctrl+alt+~, press Ctrl+J, now on the new layer Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation- be sure to checkmark the colorize box and slide your way to a cool hue.

I hope this helps, I tend to just blather on not making much sense to myself so I can just imagine what I sound like to other people...

~Amber~

[Kraellin]

nice jenjen, but why the dark edge?

dreamy, in your description, what does the 'hit delete' do there? and nice job, btw.

Craig