[devonskye]

Is there any way to tone down the white shirt and baby doll dress in this picture? What about the sun in the second picture? I have tried several of the tutorials in PS with masks etc. but cannot seem to get the results I want. Maybe it can't be done, but thought I would ask. It seems that anything is possible in Photoshop, right?

[img]http://webpages.charter.net/jtsands/PS%20help%20inquiry.html[/img]

Thanks in advance,

[webmaster]

Hi and welcome to DEVPPL.

I don't have much time to take a look at it more deeply, but here's a few tips on what you can do.

Press CTRL+L and press auto. If it doesn't get petter, click on the black arrow and drag it to the right.

Another way it to make a new layer, take a black pencil and draw black on top of the shirt, then change the opacity to like 5-10% or something like that.

[Wozzer]

Unfortunatly the shirt is so white, Auto Levels has a impossible task of toning down the white and bringing any shadows out. Every method I try just results in a slightly grey shirt which looks worse in my opinion.

I did this 20min job on your lens flare pic... there wasn't an exact procedure i used, just a combination of layers / clone tool / burn tool / spoonge tool / transform and auto levels-photo filter etc.
The purple spot on the glass (centre pic) is still bothering me but meh` 20mins!

[Medley]

Lab mode can improve the color in blown-out highlights, but unfortunately it cannot recover any of the lost detail. Notice that the highlight in the childs face has been markedly improved, but the shirt and doll still look "wrong".



Original image, for comparison:


Hope this helps.

-Medley.

[devonskye]

That's unbelievable what you did with the parade pic. Thanks. I know you can't explain exaclty what you did in a couple of sentences, but could you give me an idea how you were able to replace the window where the sun overlaps the building? I noticed you mentioned using the clone tool, but it doesn't seem like there is enough building in that area to clone over there. I'm a novice at Photoshop, but I love playing around with it. If I had an idea on which way you went, I would love to mess around with this until I at least get close. How many layers did you use here? Do you remember?

I came up with similar results on the shirt as well. The only way to tone it down is to make it more grey. 5-6% transparancy on a new layer for the shirt and clothes brings it down some, but it still just doesn't look right. Seems like we're going to lose this one. Not that I had to have this pic, I just wanted to figure out how to fix any pictures in the future that may be similar.

Thanks for all your help.

[devonskye]

Webmaster,

Thanks for the suggestions. I had already tried both of those techniques but it seems that the picture of my daughter is just unsalvagable. No biggie on this pic, but i'm trying to figure out a technique of fixing similar pics.

p.s. how do we get set up with the ability to html? I was hoping to hyperlink to my pics, but ended up having to past a link. If you can set that up for me it would be appreciated.

Thanks again,
This is an amazing board you have here.

devonskye

[Wozzer]

Lets give this a shot......

I duplicated the whole layer (two pics, one on top of the other), then I used Image>Adjustments>Auto Levels on the top layer. Then I erased everything on the top layer except the darkened right-hand corner with a soft brush, leaving the original bottom layer to show through with the darkened corner piece on top and then flattened it down (Layer>Flatten)

Fixed the window (middle top) with the bit of light in it using the clone tool. Then made a rectangular selection in that area of about five window panels. Made a new layer from that selection using CTRL+J and then duplicated a few copies of that layer to use elsewhere. I then transformed and moved each one Edit>Transform>Scale and Perspective, until they best fitted over the really bright section upper right. (This can be a bit tricky, but just get used to how the various `transform` elements work, ie: scale/perspective/distort etc Use another pic and have a mess around with it)

Oh and I did the same thing to the top of the building (upper left) and transformed it to fit on the right hand side.. Scale and Perspective again! This can all look a bit `jigsaw'ish` but the clone and heal tool fix all this.

I then went crazy with the clone tool and the healing brush tool, fixing anything that needed it with a small round brush, be it the windows or the stone surroundings.

I then moved onto the burn and sponge tool to darken certain areas and the sponge to remove some colour in various places, and I guess that was about it!


Haha, that's very rough.... best can do, but these techniques can be used over and over again till it looks right..... then I removed the date!




It just takes a little time knowing what the tools can do and what to use them for.... after that it's just down to your imagination.

Goodluck, PM me or post something if you have any questions, I don't mind one bit.


PS: If... "how do we get set up with the ability to html? I was hoping to hyperlink to my pics, but ended up having to past a link." ....means `how do you post pic?` Then I use `photobucket` to host my pictures then copy and paste the `IMG code` it gives you into the thread.

[devonskye]

I think that will be plenty to get me started. Thanks for all the detail. I'll let you know what happens.

ds