[allexinwonderland]

Can anyone give me a quick tip on the best way to fix a spot of sun (on part of someone's face) in an otherwise decent shot? I'm using elements 10 but have only played with the basics a couple of times so I'm not really sure what I'm doing.

[Kerrowdown]

quick tip on the best way to fix a spot of sun

Post up the image and let us all have a look and then hopefully we can offer some advice.

[allexinwonderland]

File Date

View Picture EXIF

[adwb]

If look at your open options in elements when you select a image you will see there is a option "open as"
Use that and set the file type at the bottom to raw.

You can then open the image in the adobe camera raw mode with all the extra adjustment tools.

If you use the high light sliders you should be able to reduce the brightness only

You have detail in that bright spot It is not blown out. So you should be able to fix it.

---

Last edited by adwb; 07-02-2014 at 12:14 AM.

[allexinwonderland]

Thanks adwb that was very helpful. I still can't figure a way to isolate that spot and do anything useful with it but I think I got it good enough for what I need.
Anyone have any thoughts on possibly cropping out the top and cutting off the point where the pole and the line meet? I think I like it I cropped but just playing a little bit more....

[Schraubstock]

Hi

I honestly think you will ever be able to do anything about this. (Unless you do some serious PhotoShop cloning). Even if you darken the spot, it will forever remain to be a spot, albeit perhaps a darker one.

The Problem is, our eyes have a much bigger dynamic range than the camera has. Which means we do not notice highly illuminated sharp contrast areas against a dark shadow background so much. The consequence of that is, we unconsciously do not react to it when taking pictures. Only later we realize what we should have done. It used to happen to me a lot in my younger days but with experience you start to take note of this and this is when you may be able to do something about it at the time of shooting.

Having said that, in your picture the problem is even more highlighted because the front of the girl is pretty well under exposed and dark. Which makes the bright spot stick out even more. Now this in your case isn't altogether a bad thing because this way the bright spot is not too much burned out. So if you now lift the brightness of the young lady's front and leave the bright spot untouched than the bothersome bright spot becomes less noticeable. After all it was a very bright day and one would expect a fair bit of contrast.

I do not know what sort of PP programs are available to you, but I am lazy and avoid messing about with layers in PhotoShop when ever I can (although it would probably give a better result) and use Nik Viveza. I put a control point over the front of the girl and increased the brightness. On a compromised 8bit JPG it is not giving the best result but if you do that on a RAW image it can be refined even a bit more.

Greetings

P.S. I also decreased the saturation of the face and S-Vest as well.

[magkelly]

The only way you can do anything about that is to lighten her whole face otherwise using camera raw, lights and shadows sliders, and then you'd have to carefully clone out the lighted part which would not be easy given it's this situation. You could do it, but it would probably look a bit fake no matter how hard you worked at it because of how and where that light is hitting. I took the photo and tried the lights and shadows adjustments then even tried a filter that simulates a reflector fairly well and it still looked off. Cloning is about it but I honestly don't think it would ever look real.