Wedding picture retouch

[Tanya]

lol

hey this is me havin a quicky for you...
umm..lmao if u ever need to screw up some photos, you know who to come to

[fairyjo]

Now is the time to call this thread over. Unfortunately with no outcome and no final result to present to the married couple, they cannot wait anymore. I can only regret Atom's decision to give up but will not comment it.

Anyway, I know the community here is very helpful and willing to help and try. If I ever have another challenge for you, I'll post it. I love this place where everyone is so nice and will continue to read the forums regularly, and participate whenever I have something to say.

Many, many thanks to all of you and especially to Atom for trying so hard.

With kind regards,
Joanie

[Tanya]

k lol, well im just sorry i didnt know better photo edeting skills else i would have helped more

[Atom]

Originally Posted by fairyjo

Now is the time to call this thread over. Unfortunately with no outcome and no final result to present to the married couple, they cannot wait anymore. I can only regret Atom's decision to give up but will not comment it.

Anyway, I know the community here is very helpful and willing to help and try. If I ever have another challenge for you, I'll post it. I love this place where everyone is so nice and will continue to read the forums regularly, and participate whenever I have something to say.

Many, many thanks to all of you and especially to Atom for trying so hard.

With kind regards,
Joanie

Well, it's taken me a half hour to post this reply, as my ISP's service has slowed to a crawl. Anyway .. you're welcome, Joanie.

Is it ok that I am using this pic to create my tutorial? When finished I will post it only in this forum.

[fairyjo]

Originally Posted by Atom

Is it ok that I am using this pic to create my tutorial? When finished I will post it only in this forum.

Sure, please go ahead and post this tutorial.

It would be so much easier if I could do it by myself. I guess that after not using Photoshop for over 3 years, everything I knew is more or less forgotten and I think I never tried something like this before anyway.

Thanks in advance for the tutorial...

[NeoWeapon]

what were you looking for exactly on the retouch? an more dreamy, airbrushed feeling? clean skin? good quality? could of helped if i known earlier =/

[DaveyBoy]

She just wants the image to have a consistent exposure throughout, notice the bottom half is darker? She wants it all level.

[Atom]

Originally Posted by fairyjo

Sure, please go ahead and post this tutorial.

It would be so much easier if I could do it by myself. I guess that after not using Photoshop for over 3 years, everything I knew is more or less forgotten and I think I never tried something like this before anyway.

Thanks in advance for the tutorial...

Ok great. Will do.

If anyone knows of a quick way to repair this pic, please share. Thank you.

[ssamm]

I don't have photoshop on my laptop but my guess would be that you need to creat another layer with the correct exposure on the botton. At that point you then need to go to history brush and carefully blend the two images because the top will be overexposed.

If you still see something then it might be useful to convert the image to black and white or sepia........if possible of course.

[NeoWeapon]

if its dark at the bottom, and you want to just darken the bottom area, you can just gradient a lighter color to briten it up, or use the Curve in adjustments.

[Forsh]

In case the couple is still seeking the image, I've attached my best effort. If the photographer didn't use a flash this would be very easy to retouch, look at the nice smooth skin tones on her arms now, compared to the flash on her face.

[Atom]

Originally Posted by Forsh

In case the couple is still seeking the image, I've attached my best effort. If the photographer didn't use a flash this would be very easy to retouch, look at the nice smooth skin tones on her arms now, compared to the flash on her face.

That's pretty good. How did you do that?

[Forsh]

Hrrrm, didn't really take note of any steps. Generally, I have a certain set of tools I use for image retouching in Photoshop if you'd like to know my methods.

[Atom]

Originally Posted by Forsh

Hrrrm, didn't really take note of any steps. Generally, I have a certain set of tools I use for image retouching in Photoshop if you'd like to know my methods.

Yes, I would. Your attempt came out quite well I think. One thing that I would do is reduce the saturation of the flesh tones and adjust their tint.

[Forsh]

Ok, when I get home I will throw together a little write up. On the flesh tones, I work with these photographers who love to add tons of brilliance/warmth to their images so I just have a habit of doing that. >.<

Stay tuned...

[Atom]

Originally Posted by Forsh

Ok, when I get home I will throw together a little write up. ...

Kool!

[Forsh]

Sorry it took so long to get back to your answer, been very busy at work in preparation for the holidays. Let me preface this by saying that my image has its flaws, as can be seen in the final product, but I think that the approach worked well considering that it was a quick retouch job.

Workflow tips

Work at 100% magnification
Click your magnifying glass and then in your menu select actual pixels. That's the quick way to get to 100%. When you work at 100%, generally anything you can see here will show in the final print, so it is definately best to so most of your work here, zooming out only to get an overall feel for the image.

Use the Space Bar to walk over the image
If you would like to make quick work of an image, use your thumb to activate the hand where you can quickly click and drag to walk yourself over an image. Scroll bars are a pain in the butt, don't use them.


Tools

Highlights & Shadows
This is probably the most underrated tool in Photoshop, and if CS only had this tool as an upgrade from Photoshop 7, it would be a strong enough reason to upgrade in my opinion. Especially for black and white work, which is how I treated the underexposed bottom of this image. Most of this image was saved by layer composites using this tool.

-Duplicate layer
-Run H&S
-Erase top half

Keep doing this till you're satifsied with the results. There's no magic one click approach, you have to keep an eye on the results as you go and make adjustments.

Dodge & Burn
Dodge and burn the photo like someone in the darkroom would, to adjust exposure. Remember, this is Photoshop. If you're not dodging and burning photos, you're not using the powerful tools that photographers have been using to adjust image exposure for decades. (Think Ansel Adams)

Clone
Detail is often lost in the darks of an underexposed image, as was the case of the gentleman's black vest. There was no detail left in that vest to recover this part of the image. Given that the texture is consistent, and still exists in the lighter part of the vest, this can be cloned back in rather quickly. Depending on the size of the final print, you may wish to give additional time to cloning.

Neat Image
I actually have a nicer version of this image where the skin tones are all smoothed out using neat image, which is an awesome noise reduction program. I added grain back to this image so that it looks more like the original, but not as blotchy as the original.

Smart Sharpen
Learn it, use it, love it. Gives the final output some pop.

Hope that helps some. Like I said, my results were not 100% perfect, but I am satisfied with the results given the short time put in. Also, the end result, since the exposure is now somewhat even, would make an excellent Black & White.

Cheers.

[Atom]

This is really excellent. Thank you very much for this tutorial.

[ssamm]

yeah man, thanks for the tips

[Forsh]

Photoshop is a pain in the butt to get started using, but like anything else in an artist's hands, it's just a tool.