Are there ways to make this photos better in Photoshop elements 10?

[Tatiana_]

What would you do? How to correct very bring skin and colors?
Thank you!

 

[KmH]

For the man and child, next time you could use some fill light from a reflector or a flash.
You could also shoot at a better time of day when the light is less harsh and coming from a more pleasing and useful direction.

 

[Tatiana_]

It was a trip to the Botanical Garden. It just happened to be mid day. I was wondering if I could fix it somehow as is.

 

[Vautrin]

Sure you can make it better, but I think what KmH is getting at is if you have the choice of getting it right in camera or doing a few hours of photoshop, get it right in camera.

Not sure how you'd do it in elements, but in photoshop you can burn and dodge like with film. I'd dodge the eyes and try to make the shadows less harsh, and the people less raccoon like.

There are other ways to go about it as well. Adjust shadows in the image. Create a mask. Etc. Etc.

Unfortunately with really dark shadows you'll hit a wall in that if the shadows are too dark, there may not be a lot of information to recover.

 

[Light Guru]

Sure you can make it better, but I think what KmH is getting at is if you have the choice of getting it right in camera or doing a few hours of photoshop, get it right in camera.

Yup two minutes of work before pressing the shutter button can save hours and hours of work later on. Even something as simple as moving them a few feet and turning them around may have completely resolved the harsh shadows or at least minimized it.

 

[bianni]

The best way really is to get it right in camera so there would be minimal adjustments.
But regarding your image, duplicate the layer and use shadows and higlights to lighten the shadows and with layer mask brush out everything except the raccoon eyes and shadows.

 

[Tatiana_]

Thank you!