Help with light from behind on photo

[pamb1968]

Hi there,

I am looking to darken the two in the pic and put sunlight coming from behind. My friends photographer cancelled the night before - leaving them without anyone, so I offered to try my best to give them some sort of wedding pictures. I have a new appreciation for wedding photographers now, but I would like to give them some pics of the wedding day.

Any help on photo retouching or artistic retouching would be greatly appreciated.

http://i823.photobucket.com/albums/z...8/_MG_9893.jpg
Thank you

[0lBaldy]

Nice shot!

I was gonna try for a back light but with the bright highlights and direction of the shadows I just couldn't get it to look right, sooo, I just did a crop, softened the harsh shadow lines and softened the highlights some, sharpened the couple a tad, and let the background go soft

A slightly higher resolution is here

~~ Original ~~ Crop ~~

[4personnen]

just tried something, with lens blur and specular lights (and a depth mask) on the background...
Made that in 1/2 an hour so the masks are crappy.
Added some rays of sun behind and in front of the couple, + some enlightenment in the hair
I find that a little kitsch, but that a wedding anyway :-)

[unimatrix001]

I made a quick mask of the foreground, duplicated the background layer twice, added mask to top layer, set the middle layer to screen blending mode.

[pamb1968]

Thank you - those look great! What is the best route to soften the harsh shadows? Brightness/contrast? Or more through a mask?

Also, for the rays of light? I tried playing with a lens flar, but I didn't get that effect? Is it more a grayscale mask? I was working with a grayscale - should I try the paint with light for that great lighting?

My photoshop course isn't for a couple of months..

[0lBaldy]

Is this the kind of rays you want?

I used #1 on this sample

#1 Mystical Lighting

#2 Complete enhancement instructions w/lighting method

[pamb1968]

Yes, I really like that look. I was thinking if possible to have the rays coming in behind the couple..

thank you for the link to that tutorial.. I will read up on the lighting effects.

[tom60634]

The expressions on the bride and groom are quite nice. They both seem to be equally anticipating a pleasant kiss. Keeping that in mind, I would concentrate on the models rather than special effects.

I would eliminate the overall yellow cast, set a proper white point. Opening up the shadows a bit should help distance the couple a bit from the background.
Last but not least the groom's five o'clock shadow should be reduced a bit.

The photo is a nice capture of special day. Congrats on that !!