Favorite Picture

K
Posted By
kwallamonger
May 3, 2005
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396
Replies
16
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I took this years ago wwhile in Quebec on vacation. It has always been a favorite..there’s something about the cashier’s look. I’m looking for some suggestions to help me fix it. I haven’t really been able to do much (I’m still a PSE beginner) witht the lighting. When I try to lighten the foreground the ceiling is washing out. I’m sure some of you must know a way to fix it. I’d also be interested in any other suggestions for overall improvement. Thanks.

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1jhCM9d8lVbETFOOiPmuJg FcGLoFi>
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CW
Colin_Walls
May 3, 2005
OK. Took a very quick shot at it:
< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1HZOa0TjrZRUPVp5arztxh jvnEcFWm1>
R
Roy
May 3, 2005
wrote in message
I took this years ago wwhile in Quebec on vacation. It has always been a favorite..there’s something about the cashier’s look. I’m looking for some suggestions to help me fix it. I haven’t really been able to do much (I’m still a PSE beginner) witht the lighting. When I try to lighten the foreground the ceiling is washing out. I’m sure some of you must know a way to fix it. I’d also be interested in any other suggestions for overall improvement. Thanks.

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1jhCM9d8lVbETFOOiPmuJg FcGLoFi>

Your main subjects ( Cashier and Customer) only occupy about half of the image area. Crop it down, and then the ceiling brightness won’t matter. Try lightening the faces, then select the unwanted bright highlights and darken them down. It will be improved, but you should have used a spot of fill flash at the time of taking.

Roy G
KL
Kenneth_Liffmann
May 3, 2005
Kwallamonger,
I suggest that you separate foreground and ceiling and work in layers. Here is the drill:
1. Select an area with one of the lasso tools, feathering 5-15px. Do this to involve the ceiling
2. Create levels adjustment layer #1
3. Press CRTL + right icon in levels adjustment layer #1
4. Select original image
5. Go to Select>Inverse
6. Create levels adjustment layer #2
7. Now can adjust each layer independently by double clicking the icon on the left to access the levels control of each respective layer
Hope that this helps. Feel free to repost if you need additional help. Ken
R
RobertHJones
May 3, 2005
You didn’t mention which version of PSE you have.

If you have PSE 3.0, the new shadow/highlight adjustment will work wonders. It will open up the shadows and allow you to independently darken the highlight areas. You can also adjust the midrange contrast with it.

After you make the shadow/highlights adjustment to suit your tastes, use the levels adjustment to expand the dynamic range (move the sliders to the ends of the histogram).

The photo has a color cast due to the shop lighting. I’d apply a hue/saturation adjustment layer. Select yellows from the dropdown selection and start by adjusting the hue by about -10 and the saturation by about -50. Adjust as needed.
JH
Jim_Hess
May 3, 2005
One of the problems with the lights is that there is a little bit of camera movement that seems to amplify the glare from the overheads. Another challenge is the fact that you were shooting in fluorescent lighting and you were shooting into the light. Having said that, I think it is a charming glimpse at real life. Here is what I was able to do with it.

< http://groups.msn.com/JimHessPhotos/sample.msnw?action=ShowP hoto&PhotoID=147>
CW
Colin_Walls
May 3, 2005
Actually there is a very simple technique to deal with this kind of thing: cropping. I think this improves th eimage a lot – I then applied some Shadows&Highlights:
< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1KWHVhoJrAr0qLoHkoiq9S 28SYxmk>
JF
Jodi_Frye
May 3, 2005
Kwallamonger,
I posted my results on your other site
JH
Jim_Hess
May 3, 2005
Yes, cropping out the lights is a solution. But, personally, I think it has more of a Norman Rockwell flavor to it when the lights are included.

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1gDPrfaT8AWA7qiN5WDn9j 4824T9f0>
CW
Colin_Walls
May 3, 2005
Yet another interpretation:
< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=13s1RQ87ZZjPAuyPWFVOY3 DhIMfKj> Monochrome seems to suit it and enables easier control of levels – I also added a graduated filter.
PA
Patti Anderson
May 3, 2005
I posted my results on your other site

What other site, Jodie?

Patti
RR
Raymond Robillard
May 3, 2005
Patti,

It’s here :

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2 909

Ray
PA
Patti Anderson
May 3, 2005
Here’s my attempt:
< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1s56l7YfX7ebZPy4A24fXS 4q50PB41>

1. First I removed the purplish tinge on the cashier’s cheek. I used the Selection brush with a soft brush. Copied the selection to a new layer and then used Soft Light blend mode, with opacity lowered to about 30%. Then I used a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer grouped with the above cheek layer, checked Colorize and played with the Saturation and Hue sliders until the purple disappeared. Also lowered opacity of this Hue/Sat layer to about 60%.

2. Merged layers.

3. Used Levels to brighten the photo.

4. Used Color Cast to remove greenish-yellow tint.

5. To de-emphasize the lights and focus on the cashier, I added a radial gradient (white to black) with Multiply blend mode.

Patti
MS
Mark_Sand
May 3, 2005
This is what I did with PSE2:

1. Created a Levels adjustment layer. I read somewhere that a good practice is to move the Input Levels black slider to the right until it lines up with the start of the sharp rise of the histogram. Similarly for the white slider, moving it to the left. The black slider had value 18, the white slider 238. Then I moved the middle (grey) slider to 2.70.

2. Created a Hue/Saturation layer to get rid of the yellow cast: set the Edit box to Yellows, Hue to -10, Saturation to -60.

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1QVaEa6sPGKyt2rf6yBKbe xHt2BKex>

Mark
WE
Wendy_E_Williams
May 3, 2005
I posted on the other site too 🙂

Wendy
BG
Byron Gale
May 3, 2005
Here’s my attempt…
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1jgCbK3cOSeFiottojeBEJ ebQfTm1

I applied a contrast mask (copy BG layer, remove color, invert) with a Gaussian blur of about 40.

Then, I threw a rough selection around the foreground portion of the image, approx. the lower 50%, with a 25px feather. I then applied a Levels layer, and brought the black and white input levels to about 20 and 240, respectively.

The bluish tint on her face was a bit puzzling, but then I realized that there is a CRT monitor facing her (its beige back is to the camera in the lower left), and this is the likely source of the colored light – so I left it in.
AK
A_Kirk
May 4, 2005
You guys are amazing.

I think I’ll just send my stuff to you, and get it adjusted for FREE!

Al

:<)

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