How to get rid of bad shadow on face?

[Erhaa]

I'm stuck and really don't know how to make something out of that bad-ass shadow next to her mouth

How would you get rid of it?

Brush? Clone? Replace with a texture?

[albatrosss]

Try shadow highlights and then adjust from there if necessary

[Erhaa]

but then I get a very blurry, saturated and sort of green skin

[0lBaldy]

How about an old school quick fix, solution... select, feather, paint light flesh tone selected from cheek with soft brush on a lighten layer at about 25%... combine then do your fixes

[albatrosss]

Here's what I got. Don't see any green skin on my monitor.

[Erhaa]

Nice job guys

I'll see what I can do, thanks!

[JohnF]

An old trick worth having up your sleeve is this:
1) Make a new layer
2) Fill it with 50% grey. The image disappears.
3)Change the blend mode of this layer to Overlay. The image is visible again.
4) Paint on the new layer with white and the image gets lighter, paint with black and it gets darker.

This is a very flexible method because if you make a mistake it is easy to correct it by painting with the other colour or with 50% grey if you want to go back to the beginning.

A variation I used on your image was to blend the Red channel from the background in to the 50% grey layer in lighten mode and then painted out the areas I didn't want to change with 50% grey. This gave m a seamless correction but is perhaps a bit more involved than it needs to be in this case. The point is the technique is one worth knowing.

JohnF

[Erhaa]

thanks JohnF, for your helpful tips...although I don't seem to follow you in this part:

Originally Posted by JohnF

A variation I used on your image was to blend the Red channel from the background in to the 50% grey layer in lighten mode and then painted out the areas I didn't want to change with 50% grey. This gave m a seamless correction but is perhaps a bit more involved than it needs to be in this case. The point is the technique is one worth knowing.

[chillin]

Originally Posted by JohnF

A variation I used on your image was to blend the Red channel from the background in to the 50% grey layer in lighten mode and then painted out the areas I didn't want to change with 50% grey. This gave m a seamless correction but is perhaps a bit more involved than it needs to be in this case. The point is the technique is one worth knowing.

JohnF

The screen mode worked better for me.

[JohnF]

Originally Posted by Erhaa

thanks JohnF, for your helpful tips...although I don't seem to follow you in this part:

I have been away or would have replied sooner. The steps were these:

1. Make a new layer and fill with 50% grey. Set the blending mode to Overlay.

2. With this layer active, go to <Image>Apply Image>. In the upper box make sure the source is the image you want to modify, the Layer is the background layer, and select Red from the channels pallete. In the lower box change the blending mode to Lighten.

3. Now click OK and the Red channel replaces the 50% grey, but only where the red channel is lighter than 50% grey, i.e. the lips, the shadow under the chin and various other places.

4. Using a soft brush with a foreground colour of 50% grey paint over the areas you dont want to get lighter, but not the area under the chin. As the layer is still in Overlay mode this restores the image to the Background appearances except the shadow, which is now lightened.

It sounds a bit complex but only takes a minute or so once you know how to make channel blends and understand the Apply Image tool. The advantage is that channels can quite often make tricky selections relatively easy and you don't run the risk of making a mistake with a selection tool or paintbrush.

JohnF

[JohnF]

Originally Posted by chillin

The screen mode worked better for me.

I agree. Screen mode does lighten the shadow more. I was happy with lighten and didn't try other blends. Perhaps I should have, it is always worth experimenting.



JohnF