Is this fixable?

[mknabster]

I took this at my Halloween party last night w/ my friends w/ my Canon G6 w/ the wide-angle lense, and the lense blocked out the flash. I had forgotten that it would do that. I know that i have to get rid of the red-eye, but is there any way in Elements that I can brighten the large dark spot in this picture?

Here's the link: http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1xbLF5uZU0KXV68bpoekIzFOEhQYco1

[CarolLHB]

Hi MK,

I fooled around with this-a levels adjustment layer on the whole picture, then a levels adjustment layer on a selection I drew around the dark spot and feathered.

I know this may not be the best way and I'm sure others will pick up on the thread and offer more help.

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1CvOW0vr5y6LGO7MemdwfsYpoyhq

:)

[Wendy]

Hi there ...

Try this:

Use the lasso to make a selection of the dark area ...
Select>Feather>I used 100
Enhance>Adjust lighting>Levels
Move the right hand slide to just underneath the main hump of the histogram (not the thing line ... go beyond that)
Now click on the white eyegropper (still in levels) and click on the right hand side wall but stay within the selection. Now accept that and levels box will close.
Don't deselect yet
Select>Inverse
Enhance>Adjust lighting>Levels
Move the left hand slider in ... just a touch

Here is how mine turned out ... its not brilliant but it is better:

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Z1Jyx3xWbU9CfQ35TXQpPQCJcvu3


Wendy

[Jodi Frye]

I fooled around with it the same way but ran out of time to really get it looking like it was never a problem. I did notice the red feathered scarf from the fellow behind lost it's red toward the bottom...I was wondering if the scarf was actually like this...grey at the bottom or whether the red was just completely zapped due to the darkness of that area.

[mknabster]

Hey Carol, I like the turnout of the one you did. Not to offend anyone else. But what did you use to do that?

[GaryK]

Jodi

I was havng the same problem.. also lost a lot of colour in the face

[Wendy]

Gary ...

Yes the more you correct the dark area and the more it happens ...

It would be possible to fix it by overpainting the area but it would take some time :(

Wendy

[Wendy]

Gary ...

OK I can't resist a challenge :) ... I correct a few more colours too

Version 2:

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1PgjbA1rY8OyXRmL0uDkz1o4IHaLcL0


Wendy

[GaryK]

Wendy

Did you paint in the colour?

[TonyW]

OK - I couldn't resist the challenge either:

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1vCJUThDXNLaQ11eDTyOKmNji83O3Y

Didn't overpaint but did desaturate and paint some colour back a bit using the hue/saturation adjustment mask - same with the level adjustment. Also used the equalize filter to even out the range.

Tony

[CarolLHB]

Hi MK-
First I adjusted the levels of the whole picture, the made a selection of the area that was really dark, feathered the selection, copied the selection to a it's own layer and did another levels adjustment on just that. I tried to adjust the color of that small section between the kids, but I had trouble with that-Wendy and Gary had much more success with that and the bags. I wasn't too concerned with the bags though, because if it were my photo I would crop them and the staircase to the right out of the picture anyway. I noticed the gray fringe around the boa as well-couldn't figure out if I had caused that or it was there either. Wendy's procedure is much like mine, but she has a couple of extra tweaks that I missed-and should have thought of :oops: -I guess I'll have to go back and do some extra homework, Wendy?? :lol:

Looks like it was a fun party!
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=12Ibyvj5dlpf0bRBqJxbdCBHrdJ80

[GaryK]

Wasn't me...I didn't post mine :D

Must have been Tonys. :D

[CarolLHB]

:oops: :oops: sorry Gary!

[ThomasT]

Cant resist a challenge Either guys!!!

Heres mine...

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1CPGDZ353BI08YqdLxOpNYoofFtqjc1

[Wendy]

Hi Gary ...

I created a new layer above the image changed it blend mode to colour then painted in the door, then did the same thing for the staircase red, feather boa two layers, patch of way between the two guys, girls face, guy on right hand sides face, another for his hand ..

... it took a few layers :) :)


Wendy

[Wendy]

I just tried darkening the mask slightly and adding a very slight warming filter ... but not sure if it makes it better or not?


http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1HclQs9EKikoorMAGPnEvfu2NkxBsY0

Wendy

[mknabster]

I never knew what feathering was, what is it?

[GaryK]

Feathering makes the transition between "selections" smoother.

It doesn't have to be selections but I can't think of where else they are at the moment...lol

If you had a square selection around something and changed the..say... saturation and desaturated that selelction you would see a hard line where the colour stopped and started. The more you feather it the more gradual the change from colour to no colour.

Hope this helps a bit :)

[Wendy]

Gary summed it up ...

... basically a feather is just a soft edge that goes from one thing to another ... the higher the feather the more gradual the transition :)


Wendy

[mknabster]

Oh I get it, thanks Gary!

[Tom M]

Had to try. Would have been better on a high res image.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/1556/1xb1copy4ko.th.jpg (http://img402.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1xb1copy4ko.jpg)

[Wendy]

Tom ...

I have found it addictive :) :)


Wendy