Beach Doozy....

[chrisburke]

so i just did a photoshoot at the beach with my family and i need some help... it started to rain, and it appears as though my lens got foggy or something during the shoot.... does anyone have the PS skills (or do they exist) where you can clear up this image???
(full resolution)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2404/2511644281_e3ce1796e0_o.png



(smaller file for sample)

if anyone can, that would be such an awesome help... if you can edit out the pooch that would be super too... this is a mega picture for my family, because we never get to see each other.. this was the first time I've seen my sister in over 2 years.. and who knows when we will all be together again.

thanks a lot for any help

 

[Arch]

wow.. what a mess!

The lens did fog up by the looks of it, and also had a few drops in places.. like one over the lady in the centres face....

I gave it a go... didn't spend as long as i could have on the dog area, but i did ALOT to the rest of the image, so much in fact that it would be too difficult to list. I could have spent longer on it... but i do work very fast anyway and any more time would have just been spent refining the main changes i made.

So the main problems i fixed were, (aside from the mist), the blue cast, contrast, the dogs behind, detail replacement, colour enhancement and overall balence.

I hope it may be of some use for you...

 

[chrisburke]

WOW, you did a great job!!! thank you so much... can you tell me how you got rid of the fogged up lens????

 

[Arch]

Yea, as i mentioned Chris i did so many steps (kind of automatically, as using PS is my job) that i couldn't accurately repeat everything i did, but i can say basically how its done.

What you need to try and do overall to an image such as this is to replace the lost contrast which the fogging took away.
This is done by firstly using levels and curves adjustment layers, then working in selected areas with curves and using layer masks to blend the contrast with the rest of the image to try and balence it back out.
I also used duplicate layers with the layer style set to (i think) soft light.

The rest of the detial and shadow balence was done using dodge and burn in selected areas, mainly the two face in the middle and the guy at the back whoes faces where very obscured.

I then changed the colour balence using a curves adjustment, and took out the Cyan cast with hue/sat.

That cleared up the fog... the other issues where of course the dog which i could have done better but is kinda ok... but unfortunatley i couldn't add the feet back in that where cropped in the shoot ><... nevermind tho i understand that a reasonably clear family portrait is all that matters if its the only thing you have!

If you like you can pm me your email and i will send you the full size file.

 

[chrisburke]

so it sounds like you can whip through that pretty quick.... feel free to say no to this request... when i showed my parents the picture, my mum didn't like the look on her face... I've got another picture picture of the same thing, but with a much better look on my mum's face... is it possible for you to work your magic on it??

(link to high res)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2395/2516208846_b47b71f1e6_o.jpg

(small image)