instructions for photoshop editing

[edbayani]

I MADE A MISTAKE IN POSTING . THIS IS FOR rward78 i'm using cs2. open the image, go to image, choose adjustments, shadows/highlights, set the shadows amount to 80. the highlight, 0. this will lighten it immediately. but will not affect the light portions so much. (if you are already familiar with quickmask, use this.) press letter Q to enter quick mask or double click the quickmask icon just below the foreground/background squares. these are rectangles with white and gray circles. click the right icon with the dark circle. and a dialog options box will appear. check the selected areas and set opacity to 50%, click ok. choose the brush tool, opacity set to 100%, soft, and size, smaller than the face. foreground color should be black. brush on the face, neck and chest. if you overpaint, just pres x to make the foreground color to white and brush the overpainted areas. white erases the color and black produces color. after painting the area, press Q again to exit quickmask and the color becomes a selection. you can hide the selection lines by pressing ctrl H but this is still selected. you can now adjust by using levels until you think the face, neck and chest is the correct brightness. deselect by pressing ctrl. D. you can fine tune by using the dodge tool using a soft brush the same size as the quickmask brush. set the opacity to 10%. the secret of photoshop is knowledge of correct selection because you can do everything with the selected area, by levels, change color, sharpen, adjust contrast, saturate or desaturate, blur and so on.
you can now address the shirt because it has a slightly gray shade to the right. you can brush this with the sponge tool, set to saturate and opacity at 10%. with a soft brush, brush the areas with gray and this will remove the grays that give a perception of dark area. the next adjustment is the cement railing which is dark you can use the lasso tool and while pressing alt, select the railings where it is dark. then press q and this will change to color red and with a very soft brush diameter should be wider than the railing and set it to white to erase the sharp area at the left. press Q again to exit and adjust again with levels. this needs practice and getting used to quickmask. hope you can follow these instructions. pm me of the results of your editing.
good luck