Need help with shadows

[CincoJoe]

What if anything can I do to reduce the shadows across the face of my wife and son in this photo? I have been playing with it in photoshop some but I'm not having much luck. I guess the general rule is to face the sun? But I just couldn't bring myself to face the little guy directly into the sun.

[JohnT]

As much I don't like using artificial lighting outdoors (I'm a big proponent of "available light" photography), I think in this case fill-flash would have been a good thing.

[Patti Edens]

I played with it a little and will post if you want, but I didn't want to post it without your permission.
Patti

[CincoJoe]

Ahhhh, fill flash.....darn it, didn't think of that. Thanks!

[CincoJoe]

Originally Posted by Patti Edens

I played with it a little and will post if you want, but I didn't want to post it without your permission.
Patti

please do

[Patti Edens]

Originally Posted by CincoJoe

please do

This is what I came up with. Not that good, but maybe a little better.



I used CS2 and the technique outlined below, but unfortunately I can't remember where I got it to give credit. It sounds complicated, but it is really quite easy and gives better results than just using Shadow Highlight for me.

1. Process your image twice - once to preserve the dark areas and one for the light areas. You will have two images now, one that is darker and one that is lighter.

2. Paste the darker image on top of the lighter one as follows:
2a. While the darker image is open, select all with Control A and then copy it with Control C.
2b. Then, close the darker image.
2c. Select the lighter image and click Control V.

3. Add a layer mask as follows by: While the top layer is active, click the second icon on the lower left of the layers palette. You'll see the white rectangle next to the image in the top layer of the layers palette.

4. Click on the bottom layer and hit Control A and Control C to copy it.

5. Hold the ALT key and click on the white mask rectangle on the top layer palette. The whole image should turn white.

6. Now click Contol V to paste the bottom layer into the mask. You should see a black and white image.

7. With the B&W image mask displayed, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Put in a radius of about 40. Click OK.

8. Click on the background (lower) layer and you should be done. But you might want to select the bottom layer and add an appropriate curve to brighten up the darker areas before you flatten.

Patti

[Trey Neal]

I took two approaches to help this images shadows.

In the first image I used PS CS2's Shadow/Highlight tool for a quick and dirty recovery. Setting were Amount:15 Tonal width: 40 Radius:15. I always do this in a separate layer so that I have better control of where the adjustments are made.

In the second image I used a dodging technique that I've found to be much better than the native tools in PS.
1. Once again using layers only this time I created a new layer from the Layer palette's flyout menu (required method as you need access to the New Layer dialog). In that dialog set the Mode to Overlay then right below it choose "Fill with Overlay-neutral color (50% gray)". Be aware that this choice is usually grayed out unless the Mode is set to Overlay. This creates a layer that is filled with 50% gray which PS ignores when the Mode is set to Overlay.

2. Using the brush tool set to a medium sized brush with the tool's opacity set to about 30%, set the foreground color to white (press the letter D and then X and your foreground will be white) you can then begin to paint on the layer you just created.

You will see the effect as the soft lighting is being painted onto the shadowed parts of your image. The effect builds so if you haven't dodged enough, just go back over it with your brush and it will lighten further.


The nice thing about this is that if you need to burn some parts of the image all you need to do is press the letter X and the foreground turns to black and you can then darken areas of the image that need burning. This approach doesn't 'bruise' the pixels and since you are working in a layer you aren't affecting the original pixels at all

[CincoJoe]

Thanks for all the input and help. I like the 2nd one Trey, I think the dodging tool is the way to go. Thanks again everyone!

[Trey Neal]

Originally Posted by CincoJoe

Thanks for all the input and help. I like the 2nd one Trey, I think the dodging tool is the way to go. Thanks again everyone!

Glad that I could help. I recommend creating an action to do the layer creation part as it just speeds up the process of that step.

[Reuel]

As an alternative to fill flash, you can have an assistant hold a big sheet of white foam-core board to reflect soft sunlight into the faces.

But in this case it looks like you were a long ways away from an assistant with foam-core.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Reason that a portable light disc is worth keeping in the car
http://www.photoflex.com/photoflex/index.html
A light disk, a clamp or 2 and a foldable stand can be turned into a portable assistant-as long as the wind isn't too high. Use the disc to throw light in from the sun to fill in the shadows. (Can also be used as a wind block if you are trying to do closeups of flowers).

[gpbusa316]

Thought I would give it a try as well, since it gives me the opportunity to play with CS2...

My version is mostly with the shadow/highlight tool, and trying some more generous settings than those mentioned by Trey. Getting the shadows to look good is fairly easy using this tool in CS2, but the highlights can be more problematic. After that, it was a little tweak to the black point in levels, a slight contrast boost and then a bump to saturation.

I tried the layer/mask technique mentioned above and copied it as an action to play around with in the future... but without knowing your starting points (for the lighter/darker images), it didn't look as good to me when I tried it.

[Norm]

Trey, I like your second photo, but I also like the way Patti's made the blue bonnets pop. A fill flash would have help with face shadow, but IMO the blue bonnets are major part of the photo and b/c of the highlite on the face, it might not be possible to bring up the entire photo w/o blowing out the face, therfore the background needs some PP IMHO.

gpbusa316, I like that. The saturation & contrast boost helped the background.