Before & After #1

[Brett Gear]

I've been doing some work recently changing some photos around. Please let me know what you think, and what I could of done to improve on it.

For this picture, my client wanted me to remove the blaring sun spots from the photograph, touch up a couple of things, and remove the people from the background.

Thank you

[Steve]

You removed some of the background clutter although you missed a spot on the grass line at the right. A black smudge.
With that said the faces on the two people are more evenly lighted in the original.

[Brett Gear]

Thank you for the critique. I figure the spot in the grass looked good, but now with it pointed out, it's blinding me!

For the two people... I thought it ended up coming nice in the second one. His forehead was a little brighter, but still looked fine (and natural), however, he wanted that sun spot gone. What could I do to improve on this though?

Thank you

[Steve]

What you did to reduce the bright spot on his forehead looks fine but generally the lighting on both of the subjects looks more even to me in the before shot.
Look at the womans face.
In the after image the lighting seems harsher.

[Brett Gear]

I see what you are saying. For lighting, what do you generally like to use?

[Gaussian]

Thanks for sharing your work!

I see what you are saying. For lighting, what do you generally like to use?

Dodge and Burn tools are the most commonly used.

Curves Adjustment Layer with mask also works very well and has the added benefit of being non-destructive.

[Steve]

I like Gaussian's 2nd suggestion.

What I usually do is lighten the whole image until the the faces or the dark area in an image are bright enough. I like curves, but use whatever you're comfortable with.

Don't worry that the rest of the image is too bright, just ignore that for now.

Now create an inverted mask by holding down the Alt key while clicking on the Add Layer Mask icon on the bottom of the layers pallet.
Now the image looks like it did before you brightened it.

Press (D) to set the default colors, choose the Brush (B) tool, set the color to white, and paint the dark areas of the faces.
Make sure you're working in the mask.

You may want to lower the opacity setting on the brush and build up slowly when you get near the brighter areas.

If you make a mistake and lighten something too much type the (X) key to change the brush color to black.

Black hides, white reveals when using a mask.

[iDad]

"type the (X) key to change the brush color to black." .......... new one for me Steve.....Sweet!! I'm sure I'll use that a lot!

[Steve]

I find it very useful when working on a mask.
I was just wondering how may shortcuts there are in PS, a couple of hundred at least.

[iDad]

lots I know that I just can't rember 25 nevermind 100s lol