Harsh shadow across patial face

[codenamecody]

I was given this picture and the person second to lefts face has a shadow on it, I have tried to fix it but he always ends up looking Scary
here is a link:
http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...t=IMG_1657.jpg
I am pretty new to photo editing, so I would greatly appreciate your input!
Thanks

[Swampy]

Add a 50% gray layer above the original. Set the blend mode on this layer to Overlay. With a soft white brush at about 10% opacity, brush his face until you lighten it to your taste.

[Wolfman]

Shadow/Highlight works well also.

[codenamecody]

swampy, what do you mean by 50% gray layer? also I am working with PS 7.01 so I dont think it has the highlight feature =(.

[philbach]

Well what Swampy meant is pretty much what she said. Create a new layer above the background layer and use overlay blending mode. In photoshop use the edit fill menu and select 50% gray. Painting that layer with black will make the background layer darker and painting the gray layer with white will lighten up the background layer. Try it out.

In fact you don't even have to fill the layer with gray. With the layer set to overlay, painting that layer with a brush darker than gray will make the lower layer darker.

I felt that for this photo I got better results using the Image Adjustments/Shadow Highlights. To bring out the shadows and lower the highlights. Next I used Image Adjustments/Variations to tone down the yellow some.

[Swampy]

The shadow highlight adjustment will do the job, but I don't think it is available in PS 7

[albatrosss]

Added dodge and burn on faces and body

[Gary Richardson]

Originally Posted by Swampy

The shadow highlight adjustment will do the job, but I don't think it is available in Photoshop 7

It isn't.

I use PS7.

Easy way to get 50% grey in an Overlay layer.

Go to Layer palette, click white triangle (arrow) on the tab.
Click New layer (New layer window will open)
Set Mode to Overlay.
Check the "Fill with Overlay Neutral color (50% grey)" box
Click OK.

You'll now have a new layer set to Overlay mode and filled with 50% grey above the existing layer.

[mquest]

All the above stuff is good, but i thought i could give you another tip.

• Layer->New Adjustment Layer>Curves (or Levels)
• Pull some levers and such to brighten the whole picture. Press OK.
• In the Layers palette you will see a layer with an adjustment box, and a white box.
• Select the white box and invert it (command+i,or ctrl+i). This will hide the effect of your adjustment.
• Choose the brush tool, with a white foreground color.
• Start painting over the part of his face you want to brighten. (you can change opacity on the brush to make the change smother, and you can switch the paint color to black if you want to paint the change away.
• If the change is to bright/dark of wrong in any way, double click the adjustment box in the layer to pull some more levers.

Its a trail and error method, but you can always change where and how much you want to edit the image.

Now i didnt know how much you knew of the above mentioned functions in Photoshop. If i was to closely, sorry. But if it is new to you, it is a door to a very powerful part of Photoshop, layer-masks!

[Ziaphra]

A couple of adjustment layers, masking and lowering the saturation...

[grannysdc]

Levels..
Then Swampys method
adjustment layers using masks for highlights and shadows
levels, curves, sharpen