Best attempt to save a terrible shot

[ocnsprt]

I went out with a friend to take pictures for her man and was so unhappy that this shot didnt turn out in any position because of the sun, and she looked really awkward, but I liked the look she had so I di my best to fix it.... is it ok? Does the softness ruin the shot?Before......

After......



So to start I cropped in the shot to get rid of the distracting lens flares on the right, then desaturated the whole shot. I added contrast at +25 and brought in some of the details of her hair using the brush set on darken. I used the dodge tool to bring highlights back into her hair set on highlight at 25%. Then using a new background layer, I used the filter dust/scratches and the gausian blur filter set at 3, then added noise at 1. Using the brush tool cet to clear at 100% opacity, i removed the layer on all the areas but her skin to bring back the details, then using the brush tool again, zoomed in way to close, set the brush to 1px, and colored her eyes and eyelashes in since they were totally lost with the lack of focus and the lighting. Also I added to her eyebrow using the same technique. Then I increased the size of the brush and selected a soft round brush in the options, lightened the opacity to 12% and gave her cheek structure by adding a faux blush under the bone, then thinned her jawline slightly to make it more feminine. Flattened the image and this is what I came out with. Any ideas on improvements??? feel free to edit and repost

[kencaleno]

my take-cropped, cloned bushes to top left,extended dynamic range,and a slight sharpen

[ocnsprt]

That looks good, thank you, what did you do to bring the detail to the blown out side of her face???? I spent twenty minutes doing it manually with a paint brush, is there a better way???

[AnneWynne]

Nice save. Only comment I have is that the eyes, particularly the right eye, seem too dark, to the point it gives her an asymetrical look.

My 2 cents.
Anne

[RoyL]

The worked image looks fine to me. I like the softness. There is one problem with it and that is light. When editing shots you need to be aware of where the light is falling from. In this shot it just happens to come from the area at the back, so what you have done makes it look false. You would be better off bringing it in within normal white limits, 254.254.254, so it can print correctly, or do as kencaleno has done and clone out the bad spot so it does not look obvious.

Here is another version, cropped, and adjusted exposure with Camera Raw...



I din't worry about cloning the bright area, just brought it within limits.

[Flesheater]

I like it in Black and white.

I think the way you fixed it is great.
very well done.

[windrider86]

I just wanted to say, I like what you did and even more so that you took us, step by step on how you did it

[kencaleno]

Originally Posted by ocnsprt

That looks good, thank you, what did you do to bring the detail to the blown out side of her face???? I spent twenty minutes doing it manually with a paint brush, is there a better way???

I used an action I made in photoshop, here it is,broken down into parts:

1. Ctrl+J
2. filter> other> high pass 1.7 pixels
3. Change blend mode to "hard light"
4. Ctrl+Shift+N
5. Edit> Fill - black 100%
6. Click on eraser tool-set brush size 300
7. Click once in centre of blacked-out image
8. change blend mode to "soft light" Adjust opacity to suit
9. Flatten and save

Regards, Ken

[ocnsprt]

Originally Posted by windrider86

I just wanted to say, I like what you did and even more so that you took us, step by step on how you did it

Thanks a bunch for your responces, I am learning so it helps to write step by step what I am doing, its ingraining the steps in my head (:

[BabetteKD]

I love your cropped B&W version. Makes that pose look much better as well. ☺