overexposed background

[harrysixtie7]

The picture below was taken underneath a gazebo, and the background behind is terribly distracting. Not the best photo of the day, but one of the few that had the whole group together, so I kind of need it for the collection. I don't know the easiest way to fix it, I tried to select the background alone in photoshop, but it proved tedious. Is there an easy way?

[Japaslavian]

There's isn't a whole lot you can do to "fix" it.
When something is over-exposed, there is no information there to get back.
I suppose you could replace the entire background, but that would take a lot of effort.

[kencaleno]

faces/people are underexposed, too


what you should have done:

- camera in A/AV mode

- Go within 2 feet from a person's face to get a meter reading

- make a note of shutter speed aperture combination

- camera where you want to make image from-shooting mode manual

- set exposure combination you got from meter reading

- make your shot


regards, Ken

[harrysixtie7]

Originally Posted by kencaleno

faces/people are underexposed, too


what you should have done:

- camera in A/AV mode

- Go within 2 feet from a person's face to get a meter reading

- make a note of shutter speed aperture combination

- camera where you want to make image from-shooting mode manual

- set exposure combination you got from meter reading

- make your shot


regards, Ken

Thanks Ken,

I do understand how to meter the faces. Not sure what A/AV mode is (I shoot Nikon). The other photos in the set had proper exposure in the face and the background as well. With this one my flash didnt bounce off the ceiling how I expected it to. Mainly I want to get the image to a point where it can be printed, bringing the extreme brightness down.

[fletch]

Did you shoot in RAW? if so you can use fill light and recovery to dampen down the over exposure and increase the exposure in the shadows.

If not how about cropping to panoramic format?

[harrysixtie7]

Originally Posted by fletch

Did you shoot in RAW? if so you can use fill light and recovery to dampen down the over exposure and increase the exposure in the shadows.

If not how about cropping to panoramic format?

Yes it was shot in RAW. I use aperture and have CS3, what will I need to do to apply fill light and recover just those areas. I know the entire photo can be altered, but it seems this one might benefit from attention to each area indiviually.

[fletch]

Originally Posted by harrysixtie7

Yes it was shot in RAW. I use aperture and have CS3, what will I need to do to apply fill light and recover just those areas. I know the entire photo can be altered, but it seems this one might benefit from attention to each area indiviually.

You don't need to aply fill light an recovery to selected areas as they only work or certain areas of brightness. Fill light increases the exposure of only the shadows, recovery only affects the highlights.