Help! Those with PP skills I need your help! Please

[OnAWhim]

I'm not sure where to put this help request.
However I'm really lousy at Post Processing (yes time I took a course!) - I took this photo of a friend who wanted it enlarged. Personally I'm not happy with the shot and especially in an enlargement there is too much shadow around the eyes and with the harsh contrast from the sun, her skin appears quite blotchy (where the small shadows in her skin appear).
I'm putting this out to anyone who might be able to help me.

I've got the full sized pic on flickr if anyone would take the time to have a look and edit or give advice on how to improve the poor quality shot.

Thanks in advance!!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3564/...6c61be12_b.jpg

[divejunky]

I'n not too good at post either, but i have managed to smooth her skin out for you, couldn't do too much with the shadows around her eyes without it looking a bit weird . i'm sure there's someone here that could do a better job for you. but here's my attempt.

[OnAWhim]

Thanks what you have done is awesome! (I really need to get into PP training!!)

[kencaleno]

My take: and what I did in photoshop:

-To smooth skin in portraits

Ctrl+J
Click on quick mask
Brush tool 35 soft
Press ”D” Paint face except for eyes, eyebrows and nostrils, and lips
(If you go over the edges, press X and erase, then x again to continue…)
Press “Q
Select “inverse”
Select> feather 10 pixels
Filters> Blur> Gaussian Blur 3 pixels
Filter> Noise> Add noise 2.5%
“uniformed” and “monochrome” checked
Flatten/save

Regards, Ken

[Roset]

Hi there
I am totally a learner, but I did read this tip a while ago and it came to mind. I dont think it will get rid of the shadows but mabey it might make them lighter. Then again it might not work at all, but I thought I would chuck it in.
Heres the link
http://thepioneerwoman.com/photograp...-step-by-step/

[ocnsprt]

SO I played with the shot, which I really like by the way, but do think it needed some help.... in camera id say shoot with a difuser above her to block the harsh sun and stop her from squinting, which both are very hard things to pp. I did soften and brighten up the shadows so hopefully you like what I did and if you want to know what the steps are i took let me know because its very extensive and if your not interested im not gonna write like three paragraphs (: anyways here she is

[candleman]

my word.. i think it actually got worse in one of these.


once you get panda eyes, theres no way to fix it naturally.
you could try HDR it to bring out the shadows (presuming you shot raw)

you need a reflector and do it right the first time, especially with regard to the shadows.

[windrider86]

Thought I might give this a shot. Not perfect but you'll get the idea. I could have pushed this further but I didnt - used the clone tool set to lighten and carefully cloned around the eye area. Used the skim smoothing tool and then next used the time machine tool. Yup I chose the easy way out. I beleive it was set on somewhere around 1960. I chose this to subdue the colors/ Each effect is always done on a new layer in case something doesnt fit quite right it can be erased or masked out

[jiminyClickit]

OnAWhim, Welcome

And thanks for a challenge, and the reward of working with such a lovely face. It does get a little involved, and if you want to try it in PP, I could guide you, and then you will end up making quite a few choices of your own along the way.

One choice will involve either keeping or blurring the shadows of eyebrows and eyelashes. I thought they were a unique part of this shot (how many eyebrow shadows have you seen?).

I went straight for appeal and naturalness. Not worrying about the shadows (which are natural, just a little sharp and too dark), I lightened them overall, while darkening the sunlit bright spots of the face itself.

Selecting the edges of the sharp shadows, I blurred them until they seemed to draw less attention. Adding a dark vignette to the background served the same purpose. Lightening the eyes shows them to be important to the overall look, and worth showing in detail.



Closeup: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3451/...f0d719ac_o.jpg

Composition, focus on eyes, and subject are terrific. Hope you save this one. Next time, a simple head-tilt backward or forward can make all the difference.

[peeperita]

you are so hard on yourself.....it's not a poor quality image, there's plenty to work with here......



basically, i did what those before me did.....concentrated on the deep shadows across her lovely face..correcting it with layers of blurred white set to soft light mode...i too, added a vignette made with a feathered selection of the background set to multiply as a blending mode...the highlights in her face were a little bright for me so i took a selection of those highlights.....made a blank layer......and painting in this with a little bit darker selection of color from her face.....i blurred this slightly and set it to a reduced opacity in the normal mode.....

peeper