Help improving old photo

[Sonic82]

Hi all, I have a photo that is important to me, it is one of my brother (facing us) who passed away and a friend (standing up). The friends head is washed out and hard to see. I tried improving it with basic software (Photoscape) and can't seem to improve the image much. I was wondering if someone could give it a try. The friend has shoulder length hair and is facing away which is hard to see. The problem is if you lighten it...the sun over the hood of the bus is too bright. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[480sparky38 37]

Learn how do adjust curves, not brightness.

 

[KmH]

Or learn how to do local selections and use local adjustment, blending modes, dodging, etc. instead of doing global adjustments.

Quick and dirty - I selected the doorway, except for the already bright parts like the window and his jeans. With the selection active I copied the layer and set the blending mode to 'Screen'. I then copied that layer and it's blending mode 2 more times.

 

[Edsport]

Used lightroom's fill tool and a bit of dodging in photoshop...

 

[Sonic82]

Wow...you folks are great. Much, much better than I could do. Thank you very much!!!