Brigthness/Vibrance and Lighting

[Q84]

Hi All,

My first post hoping I've come to the right place and you guys can help..

I need to brighten up a set of images, to be honest not sure if brighten up is the exact word as its a bit dull, I guess it is more to do with the lighting or add some form of lighting to the images. The image in question is Orig.jpeg and need it to have the effect seen on the Final.jpeg and Final2.jpeg as examples.

From playing about with a couple of tools such as brightness and vibrance, it seems to brighten it a lot or not bright enough, and then in some cases it goes to orangey with a tan look….. I just can't find the exact thing that is required.

I have tried googling up tutorials but not sure what the outcome I am looking for is actually called, I tried brightness etc but it brings up lots of other tutorials that do not exactly show what it is that I require.

I have tried all soughs of plugins also, just not getting there.. The facial touching up of blemishes etc is not a problem.. it's the lighting I am having an issue with.

My two shots at it are MyTry1.jpeg and MyTry2.jpeg. I had someone else try and they came really close with OtherTry.jpeg, well better then my tries, but still missing that something.

So 2 questions I have is

1. What is is that I am missing or need to do, tool needs to be used or the technique to get the orig to have the same effect as Final.jpeg

2. Also what am i doing wrong or what did the person that done OtherTry.jpeg do, as it is much better then mine

Hope the above made sense, if not do ask away and i'll do my best to explain.

Thanks.

 

[ibclare]

What you are looking to achieve is a currently popular effect. As has been pointed out to others, it helps if the original photo is of high quality. That said, I would begin by bringing yours into what would be considered better imagery, post processing.

In the original jpeg, you have trouble with the contrast, not the lighting or brightness. You can deal with the pale, porcelain quality of the model next (that is my approach anyway). The details, inherent in jpegs, are fuzzy. You need to sharpen the image. Focus on the face, the eyes in particular. If you have a relatively recent version of PS, there are a few alternatives. You can open a jpeg in camera raw, easy access from Bridge, and work with exposure, contrast, vibrance, etc., and there is a separate section devoted just to sharpening. You may want to look for a tutorial on this subject first.

If you make your model layer into a smart object, when you apply a sharpening filter (suggest smart sharpen or unsharp, not high pass at this time), You can then go into the layer mask on the filter and soften details you don't want sharp, skin on the face, etc.).

If you don't use camera raw, then you may want to use levels, exposure, or curves to add the needed lighting/contrast effects that are currently missing. Other try gets this correction done for the most part, though I don't get the halo on the left leg, but doesn't reach the porcelain effect you want.

I am going to go back and find that thread in which there is much discussion about creating the look you want.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[ibclare]

Here is the thread. The poster says it is not the "porcelain effect," but I use that word because it has porcelain qualities. What you might actually want to google. At any reate, it's a good discussion.

http://www.photoshopgurus.com/forum/new-member-introductions/36343-drawing-like-backgrounds.html