Help - Photo with bad light

[Terri French]

Bud
I am trying to do the tutorial for backlit photos in your link.

I am stumped when it comes to step 7. I don't know how to get to the fill dialog box. I am using photoshop 7.

Thank your for any help

Terri

 

[Bud/B]

Terri,

It's under the Edit menu.

Check yoiur email.

Bud
A few photos: http://www.pbase.com/bud_b
Read the DP FAQ: http://www.cs.duke.edu/~parr/photography/faq.html

 

[relate22]

PhotoImpact 8 has a specific filter for just this problem. You just choose the filter and use a slider for the amount of lightening you want. It works very well and infact PhotoImpact 8 is a great program for us graphically challenged.
You can download a free 30 day trial from here. http://ulead.com/pi/runme.htm
--
http://www.pbase.com/relate2

 

[Wade Coleman]

I also tried to follow the tute in the following link

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=5447444

Step 8 says "see how much lighter it is" and when I do step 7, I get a result that is darker and dull. What could I be doing wrong?

regarding the following steps:
9) If need be, erase any affected areas that dont need to be lighten.

10) If need be dupe the layer to increase the effect of the fill-flash and experiment with the layers opacity to fine-tune the effect to your liking.

what proceedure to erase "history brush"? and any detail on #10 would be helpful - opacity on which layer...?

Thanks again for the patience and help...I know I need to get a book and spend some time, but this pic needs to go to someone tomorrow.

Wade

 

[Wade Coleman]

I also tried to follow the tute in the following link

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=5447444

Step 8 says "see how much lighter it is" and when I do step 7, I
get a result that is darker and dull. What could I be doing wrong?

I just found this clarification in the original thread:

Heres the tute for backlite photos.

1) Dupe the original
2) Select Image> Mode> Grayscale to convert the duplicate file to
grayscale.

3) Select Filter> Blur> Glausian blur and use 3-6 pixels. Use lower
blur for pics under 5mb and higher for larger files.

4) Invert the tonal values withIimage> Invert to create a neg
image..This neg image will be used to mask the digital fill-flash.

5) Return to the orig. color image and choose Select> Load
selection. Check that your black and white image is selected in the
document pull down menu.

6) Select Layer> New> Layer via copy to create a new layer based on
the active selection.

7) Use the Fill diabox to fill the new layer. For content, Select

50% gray, change mode to.... (Color dodge),,,,, Mode and check perserve transparency

to tell photoshop to ignor all clear areas of the new layer.

Catmandu said, "Step 7 was color dodge mode I keep getting that wrong..Till I retry it out"

This was the reason I was getting a darker image after step 7, I have it now to step 8, I will play with it some more to see if I can figure out what is meant by steps 9 and 10.

 

[Bud/B]

Wade,

Step 7 in the tutorial contains an error. It directs the user to set the blend mode to "color" where it should read "color dodge". This is corrected in a follow-up post by cadmandew in that same thread.

Step 9 refers to using the eraser tool on hte fill flash layer. I prefer to use layer masks for showing/hiding the effects of adjustment layers as I find them much more forgiving.

You will need (in all probability) to adjust the opacity of the fill flash layer to optimize its effect. Step 10 refers to adjusting the opacity of the duplicated fill flash layer and assumes that if the original fill flash layer was not sufficient to achieve the desired result at 100% opacity then one would duplicate the layer and reduce its opacity to suit.

Here's a link to the full size edit:
http://www.pbase.com/image/20438502/original

Check your email.

Bud
A few photos: http://www.pbase.com/bud_b
Read the DP FAQ: http://www.cs.duke.edu/~parr/photography/faq.html

 

[feivel]

Can this photo be salvaged? I am very new to PS 7. I would like
to lighten selectively without losing too much detail.

I have some others like it so listing whatever steps you might take
would be helpful. (Note: the man's shirt is light pink not white)

Thanks from another newbie.



Full size image link below:

http://home.comcast.net/~whcivth/wsb/media/243394/site1.JPG

the people ended up a little pale but i still like it

feivel

 

[Wade Coleman]

Thank You all for the responses. I have learned a lot and I can see there is A LOT MORE to learn.

I post these with much trepidation because I am a total rookie with PS7, but here goes.

No matter what, it is better than just moving the curves line or choosing brighter in my ACDSee mini editor.

I also downloaded the neat image demo and tried that out, what a great program.

Original Image



What I tried before you all educated me - just using curves



My current best effort - Used cadmandew fill flash tutorial, Bud/B contrast mask then neat image



cadmandew fill flash tutorial: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=5447444 , read the whole thread because step 7 was corrected to be "color dodge" mode.

Thank you all again for the help. I can see this could be addictive.

Wade

 

[Wade Coleman]

Can this photo be salvaged? I am very new to PS 7. I would like
to lighten selectively without losing too much detail.

I have some others like it so listing whatever steps you might take
would be helpful. (Note: the man's shirt is light pink not white)

Thanks from another newbie.



Full size image link below:

http://home.comcast.net/~whcivth/wsb/media/243394/site1.JPG

the people ended up a little pale but i still like it

feivel

Very nice job, I like the sky too.

Now I have to learn a whole new technique , how did you do the sky?

Wade

 

[feivel]

Very nice job, I like the sky too.

Now I have to learn a whole new technique , how did you do the sky?

Wade

many many ways
here is one
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=5634747

another
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=5872570

feivel

 

[Wade Coleman]

This is my "final" version, or at least final for now :-> . My earlier effort number 14 or 15 was still too dark, but that was due to my setting on the fill layer.

Thanks again for everyones help. I know this is old news for many of you but it is very valuable for those of us new to PS and digital photography.

Thanks to everyone who posted their quick examples, it is good to see different techniques and results.

This is a tutorial with a PS action that does basically what the cadmandew tutorial outlined. Thanks to Leo for the link to this tutorial and action.
http://www.michielsen.info/photoshop/brightenup

Leo's post
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=5882880

Original image



Fill Flash action with Neat Image Filter and some dodge tool around faces