Just curious....
Is there a way to reduce/remove background shadows in a shot like this one?
girl I was in a tight spot here. About 5 minutes to get a bunch of shots at the end of the communion. No way to move her away from the background more (the altar) because of so many other families wanting the same space for photos.
The mom is happy with the shots, but I was wondering if I could make them even better.
Thanks!
i think it would be very tough. but you could paint in the background color over the shadow. it wouldnt be as photorealistic but still might look ok ..
Do you want to know how to fix it for next time? Or how to fix it in Photoshop? Knock the girl out in PS and put her on a flatter background? Or burn the rest of the bg behind her so it's dark like the shadow? Could try creating a selection with just the shadow and taking the blacks out - may wash it out though.
I have an idea, requires makeing at least three layer. the first layer is the girl and the sceen to the right. Keep that on top, teh next is to take the left hand side alter and cut it out from the shadowed area. next take that cut out section and flip it a>
you mean the shadow from flash?
It is not difficult, simply use lasso too on shadow and than you can do lot manupliation , like using clone tool and simply cloning leaf, flower BG on shadow or simple deleting whole BG, lost of choices
Do you want to know how to fix it for next time? Or how to fix it in Photoshop? Knock the girl out in PS and put her on a flatter background? Or burn the rest of the bg behind her so it's dark like the shadow? Could try creating a selection with just the shadow and taking the blacks out - may wash it out though.
M
In Photoshop. I think I know what to do next time, but input on this is always welcome too.
Burning sounds good .. I'll try that.
I have an idea, requires makeing at least three layer. the first layer is the girl and the sceen to the right. Keep that on top, teh next is to take the left hand side alter and cut it out from the shadowed area. next take that cut out section and flip it a>
If you're using Photoshop CS you could start with the shadow/highlight tool - it can suck a surprising amount of information out of the original file. At the very least it'd give you a clearer outline of the face if you wanted to go on to use the lasso cloning tool etc.
you mean the shadow from flash?
It is not difficult, simply use lasso too on shadow and than you can do lot manupliation , like using clone tool and simply cloning leaf, flower BG on shadow or simple deleting whole BG, lost of choices
Thought of this, but have to admit I didn't try it because I was hoping there was a way to reduce the shadow itself..
Okay.. I'll try everything posted here...
If you're using Photoshop CS you could start with the shadow/highlight tool - it can suck a surprising amount of information out of the original file. At the very least it'd give you a clearer outline of the face if you wanted to go on to use the lasso cloning tool etc.
No - it's new to CS. If you can email the raw over broadband to someone with CS it may well be worth it. Unfortunately it'd be more than my inbox allows and I'm on a dial-up.
It doesn't do anything that 7 can't do by selecting the shadow yourself and upping the brightness/contrast, but in CS is guesses (pretty well) at which parts of the photograph are in shadow automatically and boosts just those areas. Big time saver.
The darkened area appears to be a shadow from the camera's flash. The 'magic wand' tool can be used to select just the shadow using a tolerance of 5.
Hold down the shift key and use the magic wand to add more area to the selection as necessary ('alternate' key to subtract area). Then 'smooth' the selection and feather slightly.
When you are satisfied with the selection, use the 'levels' adjust manually to lighten the area selected. There will still be some edges to be dealt with using the 'clone' and 'healing' tools.
A tedious process at best,but the photo is salvageable!
