getting rid of shadows

[pride&joy]

What a fantastic site...I think I have learned more in the last 2 days reading through the threads than I have in the last year reading books on photoshop.


One problem I do have is I want to work on a photograph of my pregnant wife but I have a shadow running right throught the middle of it from the window frame.How do I get rid of the shadow or atleast tone it down?


Thanks for the help.

Shaun.

[CJ Swartz]

Welcome, Shaun!

It would be helpful if you could post the image, or at least part of it -- your wife may not want her image plastered on the web, but you could crop it to show some of the normal image and then the problem shadow area.

When just a portion of an image needs to be changed, you can select that portion (with quick mask, marquee tool, pen tool, or your other tool of choice) and then work on that area. There is always more than one way to make an adjustment, but here's one or two suggestions.

If only a minor adjustment is needed, you can try a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to see if you can match the tones adjoining the shadowed area. Probably works only if it's a minor shadowing.

To replace the shadowed area, you can clone over the area, (working on another layer over a copy of the original image -- so that you can make a mistake without losing your important image) using the sections next to the shadowed area to sample from to re-create her skintones, clothing -- whatever is missing under the shadow. What version of PShop do you use? If you have the new V7, then you can try the healing brush.

If you know how to check your individual channels for variations in damage, you might find one channel that requires less work than the others, but a shadow probably will show in each of the RGB channels.

[pride&joy]

Thanks for your reply CJ,


It would have made sense to post the image!!!
so here it is.

I scanned it low res just so I could try different things before I worked it properly so hopefully it comes out OK for you to see.

I want to tone down the harsh shadows across her chest and belly.

Any ideas on what I can do about her frown....apart from "don't put your clothes there,put them away".,or "finish a project before you start another one",

I am using PS 5.5 but hope to upgrade soon.


Thanks again,

Shaun.

[Stephen M]

Shaun - I would not try to alter it in that fashion, it's a great shot as is! <g>

You may even want to try enhancing shadows and extending them, rather than attempting to get rid of them.

Perhaps some selective soft focus or blur or other artistic additions, but I would have to say that you have captured a very nice natural image that needs little work looking at the thumb you posted.

Attached is a quick edit or two with the 'Luce' lighting plug in with colour and gray and some masking of light in the gray version (Luce is mentioned in one or two posts at this site) and a version that I burned and curved and noised up.

I would save your restoration efforts for images that need it, it is good to see the work done up front rather in post production as you have done with a great photo.

Stephen Marsh.