Post Processing - Lighting Question

[qdial]

Does anyone have any idea how to bring the kid out more in this shot? I've tried to redo the lighting but no matter what I do, it doesnt get any better than this. Is there any trick to bringing out one object without messing up the balance of the entire image?

I looked up and saw him on stage and didnt have time to setup my flash to get it! Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks!!

[Daniel Bates]

Assuming you're using some version of Photoshop... try creating a duplicate layer, reworking the levels or curves on that layer, and then masking it so that only the face is affected.

[firebuffgal]

If you are using Photoshop, duplicate the layer and set the Layer Setting to Screen and leave Opacity at 100%. You may need to do this again and can adjust the opacity layer if needed. You can play with the curves and levels and what not on these layers or the original layer. To keep the background the same, create a mask on the new layers.

[Duffy Pratt]

I'm not at my home computer, so I can't demonstrate. But here is what I would try.

I would make a copy of the file, open it, then I would assign profile -- Color Match. If this got me in the ballpark, I would work with it. If not, then I would assign a different false profile with an even lower gamma. The idea here is to lighten the entire picture, until you get the musician where you wanted him.

Then I would convert the copy to the same color space as the original. Then I would move the copy into the original file as a layer. Then I would make a new layer mask and probably use the red channel of the original for the mask, with a curve applied to lighten the light areas and darken the dark areas.

That's at least a starting point. Some people have good results by simply lightening the picture on a layer and painting over the face as Daniel recommends. Whenever I try that I muck it up and its too easy to see the transition areas. What I'm suggesting is a variation of the HDR technique that people use to expand the tonal range of RAW files. You can do something very similar with false profiles in Photoshop. (A false profile simply tells PS to interpret the RGB data in a different way.)

Duffy