post processing help

[Xavi]

Hello everyone! I was hoping to get some post processing help on this picture I took earlier today of some of my classmates. I made the mistake of shooting directly into the sun and unfortunately overexposed the background. I've been trying to mess with it for about an hour now but I can't seem to blue up the sky in subtle natural way. Everything I've tried just ends up looking tacky... Perhaps some of you PP gurus will have some better luck with it. I'd like to keep the color version but if its impossible to fix I was thinking of just leaving it black and white to mask the blown out sky. Any help is greatly appreciated!

F/7.1 Exp 1/160sec ISO 100 Ap Mode.

best regards

Javier

Here is the picture in color:

and the same one I made B&W and cropped a bit

 

[frommrstomommy]

for the original in color I feel like its a lost cause.. or definitely beyond my abilities to correct. I don't see how what has been washed out can be brought "back to life" without HOURS of work - and even then I just can't see it.

I did mess with your black and white one though, and to be honest I think I prefer the black and white either way.

 

[creisinger]

Stick with the sepia/bw one.

The color version is trashed - the over exposed parts of the sky don't contain any color information anymore, there is simply nothing to restore.

Inserting a sky from another image into this one won't work well either as the trees in the background are also blown out.

If someone was to replace the sky properly he/she would have to remove everything from the shoulders upwards in order to remotely get realistic borders between foreground and sky.

When you have lighting conditions like these you need to find an area where you have more diffused light - in this situation maybe in the shade of the tree.

Sepia turned out pretty good actually. Like it.

 

[frommrstomommy]

Oh, I should probably explain what I did in case you like it.. lol

in CS2 - levels, curves and some sharpening.

 

[sA x sKy]

5 minutes of work. I tried to make it as subtle as possible.

 

[creisinger]

Well done!

 

[Proteus617]

I cropped and converted to greyscale just to make things easy, but you could do the same in color. Created a correction layer (copy of the original), then a mask. Used an edgefider on the mask, erased the people and painted in everything else. Then blurred the mask so there are no hard edges between areas with different contrast. Once that's done, you can adjust the subjects and background individually. You could go further and create another layer mask for the sky. Just to illustrate (it could be much more neatly done)...original cropped and converted to greyscale:

With the correction mask, only background affected. the weird halos are from me being sloppy with the brush:

 

[frommrstomommy]

5 minutes of work. I tried to make it as subtle as possible.

Mind sharing what you did in short? I couldn't make a thing happen, not quickly anyhow..

 

[sA x sKy]

5 minutes of work. I tried to make it as subtle as possible.

Mind sharing what you did in short? I couldn't make a thing happen, not quickly anyhow..

Sure, why not. I used a plugin from Nik Software called Color Efex which has all these options to enhance color in an image. Respectively, Silver Efex Pro is the plugin which allows to convert to and enhances shade or "black and white" of an image.

For this image, I used the "Neutral Density Grad" filter in Color Efex and adjusted the settings to make it look realistic enough.

 

[Xavi]

frommrstomommy and Proteus617 thank you so much for the B&W renditions and the explanations you provided. They both look great in my eyes. Now I can't seem to decide between the color or B&W because I like them both now. Thank you both for your time.

Creisinger: Thank you for your input as well. i really thought the color version was hopeless too until I saw sA X Sky's version. I really like what the other members did with the black and white version though so I'm keeping that one too. Thanks again

sA X sky: Wow that looks great. Im so glad the color version was salvaged with the post work you did. Thank you for your time and explanation. I'm still learning how to post process pictures and the help the community provided will really help my work mature. Thanks again

Javier

 

[Layspeed]

Javier, great photo. Perhaps ask your classmates which one they prefer and give them what they want. Some might like the color, where others prefer the B&W. But least you have options now. :thumbup: Unless you weren't planning on giving them a copy, nevermind.

 

[lvcrtrs]

I like the OP B&W effort.

 

[annapierce]

Definitely prefer your black and white.

 

[tdiprincess]

I think frommrstomommy's BW is crisper and clearer. You can really pick out the details in the classmates faces.

 

[Jacki]

I think frommrstomommy's BW is crisper and clearer. You can really pick out the details in the classmates faces.

It's crisper, but it's so crisp that if you look at everyone's pant legs, they are all blended together. For B&W I like the OP's version better, for sure.