Anyone wanna help me get rid of shadows?

[danielwd]

Okay, totall newbie here. I am taking sports pictures for some extra money on the side, and today the sun was lower than in the summer when I do pics. I have shadows of the athletes ON THE GROUND BEHIND THEM on just about all my pics. How do I make them disappear?

I have photoshop elements 3.0. I'd appreciate any help anyone could give, and please keep in mind that I am a newbie with photoshop, but I am learning as I go.

I tried to attach a pic, but I think the file was too large.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[aartist]

Attachment has to be less than 100k.
Normally saving photo for webpage will work.
Or reduce quality of jpeg when saving.

Once you post an attachment you will get many responses.

[danielwd]

Originally Posted by aartist

Attachment has to be less than 100k.
Normally saving photo for webpage will work.
Or reduce quality of jpeg when saving.

Once you post an attachment you will get many responses.

Okay - thanks. Now that I did it, the photo looks really, really grainy, but I'm sure its because it cut the amount of info.

So can anybody help me with step-by-step instructions. I will send you a check for a million dollars.

In order to get the money, I need the shadow gone.

(There is no guarantee that the check will clear)

[danielwd]

I actually had tried that, but when I clone I use the rectangular marquee tool and copy using control c and then control v I think to paste. But its always in blocks and it cuts off part of her leg or shoe. It is a pain trying to line up the boxes.

Surely there is a much easier way to use the "clone" feature?

Thanks in advance!

[holgaman]

My question would be 'why do do want to get rid of the shadow behind her?' The light is obviously coming from the side according to the light on her face (which look good here). Although aartist did a great job removing the shadow as you asked, it looks fake, like she was placed into a different background than where she was photographed (no bad to you aartist, really) The lack of a natural shadow is way more distracting than the shadow itself. If it really bothers you for some reason, the next time you could use a bit of fill flash from the camera to lighten the shadow on the ground and and also the shadows on subject's face, or select the shadow area and lighten it a bit.

[danielwd]

First off, thanks for the feedback. Somtimes I feel on a isolated island with this photography stuff. I am NOT a photographer, but I bought a handy little Sony, that when I took pics at home, I became tempted to use on a broader scale. I am a coach and know lots of sports teams that use photographers, so I struck up some deals and am producing better pics at cheaper prices than what they were receiving before.

The camera took a long time for me to figure out, and I only have a very basic understanding of it. All I know is to keep it on aperature mode, choose an appropriate iso and E.V. value given the amount of light, and shoot away. However, on this particular occasion the sun was much lower than I had ever experienced, so shadows were being created by me, my tripod, and when I moved at an angle to get my shadow out of the way, shadows were then cast on the ground behind them.

I dont think the shadows look very professional, however if the athletes look like are floating on a cloud of grass, then I am not sure what I'll do. In fact, if you can tell at all that the image has been edited, I may choose to go with the shadow. I just dont think it looks very professional.

So, just what is the easiest (and fastest) way to use the "clone tool" to get rid of this shadow? I have like 20 cheerleader and a handful of golfers to get pics printed off for. I am looking for an easy but workable method.

Thanks again for all the help!

[holgaman]

Originally Posted by aartist

Good point holgaman but I think danielwd feels the shadow detracts from the girl.
She has other photos too, that I'm sure all have the same problem. You could always
leave a lighter shadow if need be.

I agree, I think the best thing to do here would be to lighten the shadow so it's not so heavy and doesn't pull too much attention from the subject's face. I know how to do that in PS but I'm not familiar with Elements so I really couldn't be too helpful with the tools there. Anybody more familiar with Elements?

[Algarve Images]

Hi danielwd,
nothing wrong with that shadow whatsoever.. as Holgaman suggests just lighten it a little to take the edge of it, stuff like this is best solved when taking the shot either using fill-flash and or a diffusion reflector overhead and have her face the sun, you have to way things up and predict what is do-able without looking fake in photoshop afterwards,
rgards,
Gary..

[rsvrdogg86]

Originally Posted by Algarve Images

Hi danielwd,
nothing wrong with that shadow whatsoever.. as Holgaman suggests just lighten it a little to take the edge of it, stuff like this is best solved when taking the shot either using fill-flash and or a diffusion reflector overhead and have her face the sun, you have to way things up and predict what is do-able without looking fake in photoshop afterwards,
rgards,
Gary..

completely agree with the simplest, most rational solution. just a quick lighten to take the attention away from the shadow, and then maybe add a slight photo filter to take away the cyan color cast on her shoe. If you absolutely wanted to take out the shadow I would experiment with the patch tool rather than clone.

[unimatrix001]

I did as you did with using marquee tool. Selected the area on the upper right side feathered the selection by 10, pasted it to a new layer, moved over the shadow area, added a layer mask and masked out the shadow.

[Juergen D]

Lightning up the shadow(s) is the way to go. This is done with a 50% gray layer set to Soft Light.

Juergen

[danielwd]

Wow. Now I am not sure what to do seeing as y'all have helped out so much! I like both pics from Juergen and unimatrix.

So should I half the million dollar payment between the both of you?

[Algarve Images]

Really good work Juergen, great result,
Gary..

[rustystar]

I would go with Juergen's image. Unimatrix image now looks very fake. The shadows should not be removed entirely.

Cheers,
Fadhli

[lynn55]

Originally Posted by Juergen D

Lightning up the shadow(s) is the way to go. This is done with a 50% gray layer set to Soft Light.

Juergen

Thank you for great tutorial. You are doing good job.

I like natural shadow.

I took screenshot of workflow on photoshop elements 7 this.

[danielwd]

I hate to do this, showing off my ignorance. But could anyone give a more detailed, almost step-by-step instructional on how to lighten the shadow like y'all are doing? It looks great, but I am a total klutz when it comes to photoshop - it took me weeks to figure out how to make really nice borders I am happy with (granted I learned all by myself). I have Elements 3, but I am sure the steps would be somewhat similar.

The editing looks great!

[Homera1]

1) Create new layer
2) on new layer clone a large patch of grass from the right side (you will have to build it up) over the shadow area on the left. Go over the foot and the legs with your cloning and over the edges of the shadow (it will be removed later)
3) put a layer mask over the the new layer and then using black mask off all the parts that overlap, like the legs and foot etc.
4)Set the blend mode for this new layer to be Lighten
5) Adjust the opacity of the new layer to suit (I went for 70%)
6) finally do a shadow/highlight adjustment on the base picture to pull up the shadows a bit. I used a medium Amount (50%) with a low tonal width (20%) didn;t touch the radius.

Bingo.

[Southbay]

I dunno, guys. Me, I'm always looking for the quick trick that gets it done. Maybe tart it up with a curves layer to finish.

[danielwd]

Originally Posted by Homera1

1) Create new layer
2) on new layer clone a large patch of grass from the right side (you will have to build it up) over the shadow area on the left. Go over the foot and the legs with your cloning and over the edges of the shadow (it will be removed later)
3) put a layer mask over the the new layer and then using black mask off all the parts that overlap, like the legs and foot etc.
4)Set the blend mode for this new layer to be Lighten
5) Adjust the opacity of the new layer to suit (I went for 70%)
6) finally do a shadow/highlight adjustment on the base picture to pull up the shadows a bit. I used a medium Amount (50%) with a low tonal width (20%) didn;t touch the radius.

Bingo.

Thank you so much for this - you are a life-saver. It would have taken me forever to figure out how to do this!

[danielwd]

Originally Posted by Homera1

1) Create new layer
2) on new layer clone a large patch of grass from the right side (you will have to build it up) over the shadow area on the left. Go over the foot and the legs with your cloning and over the edges of the shadow (it will be removed later)
3) put a layer mask over the the new layer and then using black mask off all the parts that overlap, like the legs and foot etc.
4)Set the blend mode for this new layer to be Lighten
5) Adjust the opacity of the new layer to suit (I went for 70%)
6) finally do a shadow/highlight adjustment on the base picture to pull up the shadows a bit. I used a medium Amount (50%) with a low tonal width (20%) didn;t touch the radius.

Bingo.

Okay, ran into a problem here. When I am using black to "mask off all the parts that overlap - like the legs and foot", there is a bit of black outline left around her legs and foot. I've tried to do it as neatly as possible, but its like a black shadow that is very small, yet visible. I guess it is a left over part of the background pic trying to peak through.

How do I get rid of this left-over? Is there a feathering tool or something?

Other than that the process is working fine and I really like the look of the lighter shadows.

[danielwd]

Originally Posted by Juergen D

Lightning up the shadow(s) is the way to go. This is done with a 50% gray layer set to Soft Light.

Juergen

Can anyone give me the step-by-step directions on how to complete this task?

It seems alot easier to do than the other method I just started a new thread on and it seems like it creates good results.

Thanks!

[Juergen D]

danielwd,
Open a new, blank layer above the Background layer. Set it to Soft Light. Then fill with 50% gray (>Edit >Fill Layer..). Select a soft round brush and set it to 20 - 25% opacity, white.
Paint on that layer over the shadows until they are light enough. Check your progress occasionally by toggling the visibility of the 50% gray layer.
I actually also lightened the left side (looking at it) of her face.
Next I opened a Hue/Sat Adjustment layer, masked to only expose the lightened grass area, and corrected the color of that patch.

Juergen

[Gary]

Maybe after an evening game where the shadows fit in a bit better?

Cheers.