Toning down sunny faces

[Bob Walden]

Hi all!

Need some help. Client gave me a picture where the faces in the back row were side lit with too much sun. Any suggestion for toning down? I know there was a thread on a similar problem but could not find it with a search.

Thanks!! Bob

[Bob Walden]

Opps!! Forgot the picture. Sorry.

[Jakaleena]

Here's a couple of threads I found that might help. See if there's anything there you can use...

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1453

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1251

[Jakaleena]

Hey Bob,

I played with it for a bit and here's what I came up with.


1. Duplicated the layer

2. Copied the green channel to the layer mask and did a Threshold adjustment until just the highlights were visible

3. Blurred the mask slightly to eliminate hard edges

4. Adjusted the levels on the original layer until the image evened out

[Mike Needham]

Nice end result Jak - not to twist your arm but perhaps a tutorial no matter how simple may be an added bonus keeps all the useful info at peoples fingertips then.

I have had this problem before and was never sure of a good workaround - thanks.

[Bob Walden]

Thanks Jakaleena!

I should have just addressed the ? to you. Great results which I'll try and dupe tonite. Also, that was the thread I was looking for. Knew I had seen it. What did you use for search? I tried everything I could think of.

Bob

[Jakaleena]

Glad that helped, Bob.

As for finding it...

I just went to the Help Requested forum and looked through every title on every page until I recognized the title on the threads I was looking for.

[chiquitita]

The problem is for pictures like that is that in the places where the photo is completely blown out to white, it can only be made darker - or grey. For the white pixels, you can't bring back any detail because there isn't any there to begin with. The most you will be able to do is "paint" it back in as you think it should look. making the white areas darker on a large photo will give it a bizzare "solar" type look. Some of the detail that isn't white can be brought out with darkening but beyond that it is personal preference whether you want to try and paint it in, leave it white or go for that solar look.

[Jakaleena]

That's true, you can't bring out detail that's not there. But the principle here is similar to making a contrast mask in the darkroom the old fashioned way. It's not so much for gaining detail that's not there, but to lessen the range between the light and dark areas so things don't look so blown out. Smoothing and blending a little afterwards as a finishing touch is kind of a given if it's a bit ragged looking...

[chiquitita]

Even smoothing and blending can't fix it in a large photo (much more detailed than the one posted) unless you paint the areas back in. It looks okay in small areas, but larger, you are going to see the flatness of it.

[Bob Walden]

Thanks to everyone for the help. The client understands that detail is lacking in that area. She was just hoping to even it out a bit. Wont be a large print, maybe 8r at largest so it should be ok.

Thanks again!!

Bob