missing a step

[carrbowl]

I'm missing something in this step and can't get it. Took this photo in the pool and want to bring the faces out some more. So I know you make a new layer with curves. Control F will give the point I want to adjust, so I adjust from that point to make lighter (in my case). Control I takes me back to the black mask, but when I try to paint in the white or lighter mask in the faces I get the round circle with the line thru it and this response "could not use the history brush because the history state does not contain a corresponding layer." The same for the art brush, but it will work for the eraser tool. So what am I missing??

[SaSha]

First i need to be told what the history brush does, I have never used it.

I was able to recreate what you are getting and it seems that the history brushed cannot be used on a mask, When you CTRL-I you are inverting the mask to black which then you can use the regular brush tool for masking the faces to the lighter adjustment layer. Just be sure you brush with white, or something close to mask the faces.

[canoflan]

Renae,

I am not sure how familiar you are with channels, however, since the pool water is so much different than the subjects, I would think you could make a heck of a mask from an inverted blue channel inserted into a blank layer, then set to luminosity. The blue channel should be lighter than the subjects for the water, and darker for the subjects due to their being dark already; so when you invert it, it should be darker for the water and lighter for the subjects and will increase the exposure for the subjects only and darken the water a bit. Then you can use the blend-if sliders to adjust as necessary the inverted blue channel's layer to taste; even using opacity as well.

I learned most my channels techniquest from Dan Margulis.

Let me know if you want me to try anything and see what happens at home tonight.
Pat

[merock]

First off, I would say that in the future you would want to try to shoot something like this properly so you won't have to mess with all that stuff in post. This could have been easily done by bring in a slight fill flash (off of a bounce card for best results) to fill in all of those shadows and "raccoon eyes"
But since that's not the case in this situation, I think you are on the right track to getting it done in post. I think the problem is that you are trying to use the history brush instead of the regular brush. Try hitting the letter B to get the regular brush and paint on the layer mask with white. You can also try changing the opacity of the brush for subtle changes in the layer mask.
And if none of this works, you can always try doing a search for layer masks as I am sure that this topic has been discussed before.....

[riteflyt]

I think you are making this a lot more difficult than it really is...



I spent about 2 mins working on this, no layers, I just used levels, dodge, burn and vivid light with the brush tool.

I know its not perfect, but a lot better than it was given all I had was a small Jpeg to work with.

[luis_relampago]

Renae,

I only did a curves adjustment layer and then mask out whatever I didn't need to be brighter, and here is a less then minute PP.

[carrbowl]

Redmouse helped make my brain turn into the "on" postion, I wasn't using the "brush" I was using history and art, but not the "brush"....some days.........thanks Jordan

[SaSha]

It happens

[Donb10]

I didn't know how bright you wanted the faces to be. The first one took about 10 seconds with an action called Luminosity Dynamics. To get the second picture, I duplicated the layer and adjusted the opacity to about 65%.
I made the action from a tutorial by Katrin Eismann found in her book "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching". Page 62. It's really a simple process. The action selects the luminosity of the photo, creates an Alpha channel, applies it to it's own layer, inverses the selection, and then changes the blending mode to "screen".

[canoflan]

deleted