Photoshop Lighting Help

[crashcart]

I cannot get the lighting up the alleyway dim enough to where it doesn't ruin this shot. I can't seem to figure it our in Photoshop, and I was wondering if any one had any ideas as to how I could get this to work, or if this is too blown out to salvage.

Thanks in advance

 

[Josh220]

This was the best I could do because it was shot in really bad lighting. Maybe if you had turned more and only got the brick wall behind her...

 

[Sherman Banks]

You won't be able to salvage anything because there isn't any detail there anymore. When you blow out an area on an exposure, you lose every bit of detail in that area so you can't recover it. Besides, bringing the exposure down in that area will make the whole shot look underexposed since your subject and her settings are pretty dark to begin with. I would try to reshoot during a time when the lighting in the background will be softer, and add some fill flash to bring up your exposure around the subject.

 

[Josh220]

You won't be able to salvage anything because there isn't any detail there anymore. When you blow out an area on an exposure, you lose every bit of detail in that area so you can't recover it. Besides, bringing the exposure down in that area will make the whole shot look underexposed since your subject and her settings are pretty dark to begin with. I would try to reshoot during a time when the lighting in the background will be softer, and add some fill flash to bring up your exposure around the subject.

Depends on the picture. If it's a similar situation to the background of this one, then yes. But otherwise this depends on whether you shoot in RAW or JPEG. If you shoot RAW, you can recover blown highlights. In JPEG, you cannot.

 

[mikemicki]

Here are two quick edits. I just removed the blown out background area with another city scene.

I played around with the image a little more.

 

[Sherman Banks]

Depends on the picture. If it's a similar situation to the background of this one, then yes. But otherwise this depends on whether you shoot in RAW or JPEG. If you shoot RAW, you can recover blown highlights. In JPEG, you cannot.

It definitely does depend on the picture and the amount of overexposure. But shooting RAW has it's limitations too. Here is a photo, purposefully overexposed to blow most of it out, and shot RAW.

Here is the recovery from turning the exposure all the way down in Adobe Camera Raw. It did recover a bit of the image, even more than I thought it would, but there is still a lot missing.

If you're in lighting situations like this and you don't have the option to shoot later, bracket your shot with 2-3 exposures @ a stop or two depending on how harsh the lighting is. Then you can go into photoshop later and mask, HDR, or whatever it is you want to do to combine the exposures for a better exposed final product.

 

[crashcart]

Thanks, everyone. Mikemicki, that was pretty awesome what you did there. I really appreciate all I'm learning from you guys/gals.

 

[Andrew Sun]

Would have been an alright shot if she was in focus (or if the whole shot was in more focus). Her gear and expression is done pretty well.

 

[blue9993]

I cannot get the lighting up the alleyway dim enough to where it doesn't ruin this shot. I can't seem to figure it our in Photoshop, and I was wondering if any one had any ideas as to how I could get this to work, or if this is too blown out to salvage.

Thanks in advance

I tried to edit your photo.. What do you think about this?
http://blue9993.hostrator.com/alley1.jpg

 

[crashcart]

I tried to edit your photo.. What do you think about this?
http://blue9993.hostrator.com/alley1.jpg

Sorry I didn't respond sooner; I was out of town. That's pretty nice work. Thanks for the effort you put in!