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Photo Fixing Help

#1 diannecp

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Posted 16 September 2012 - 03:54 PM

I want to do something with the attached photo but the extreme splash of light across the dresses bugs the fire out of me. I have no idea what to do to help minimize it. (Sadly, I'm not that much into photography). Any suggestions on where to start? I messed with some of the image options in Photoshop CS5 but nothing really made a big difference.

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#2 KayMitch

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Posted 16 September 2012 - 08:08 PM

Wish I could help Dianne but I'm sure someone will be along soon. Good Luck. Kay

#3 PBarnes

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Posted 16 September 2012 - 09:54 PM

In Photoshop Elements there is a Dodge and Burn tool. The Burn tool will darken an area. If you have that in CS, you'd want to start with a realitively large, soft edge brush and see if you can't over the light areas, hopefully revealing a bit more of the detail. The other thing would be to play with the Lighting levels.

Overall, I don't think it's a bad photo. I'm no pro, so hopefully someone else with CS will stop by to help.

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#4 AggieB

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Posted 17 September 2012 - 08:04 AM

You can try doing a rough selection around the dresses & darken just that - see if there is anything in there. Otherwise, as Pat said - it really doesn't look that bad for a vintage photo.

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#5 elibar

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Posted 17 September 2012 - 09:42 AM

I would suggest that you duplicate the photo to a layer right over the original. Use your levels tool to reduce the brightness of photo on top. Then erase away the parts you don't want (areas that got too dark), revealing the original photo beneath. Either use your eraser tool with a soft edge, or a soft edge round brush on a layer mask applied to the top photo if your software has layer masks (with a layer mask you can go back and forth between reveal and hide). Does that make sense? I find that a lot easier than using the dodge/burn tool.

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#6 LaLo1103

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Posted 17 September 2012 - 02:25 PM

I was basically going to say what Elisha said - I like the masking technique because you can control where it's applied more easily. I'd also try adjusting with Curves to see if you can recover more of the highlights. If you get really frustrated, let me know. I can always take a stab at it for you!