horrible skin tone photo needs help!

delph99 · 08-26-2008

Can anyone point me in any direction which will help me re-touch a family photo that was taken in bad light and all the skin tones are pretty blown out. Detail is still somewhat there. I am pretty new to all this. I probably know enough to be dangerous but not enough to fix this darn pic!

Any help would be appreciated..

this seems like a really cool community and all around site!

blooo skies
lisa

**Tamlin** · 08-26-2008

Hello Lisa and welcome to BioRUST.

If you're ever asking for advice with regard to graphics, retouching etc., it is always immensely helpful if you can post an example of the image you're working on. You can attach a copy to your post or (if your image is large) provide a link to an image-hosting site like Flickr or Photobucket. One picture is worth a thousand words, after all.

I'm sure if you can show what you're trying to do there'll be lots of people here who will be willing to offer advice.

Sedma · 08-26-2008

Sorry for interfere but maybe it could help you. First, I agree with tamlin that picture is worth a thousand words. Yesterday, I found one free program called Photoscape. I downloaded it and tried. I usualy work with photoshop CS2, but if you need only to re-touche your old family photos it could help you a lot. It's very friendly to use with lot of good filters. You should certanly give it a try. It's aprox 13 MB. I'm very surprised that such good piece of software can be so good and free

delph99 · 08-26-2008

ok - so here is the pic i need some advice on

thanks for replying so fast!

lisa

**Tamlin** · 08-26-2008

That's a real tough one. I downloaded a copy and have been trying all sorts of techniques for the past few hours, but I still can't get a result I'm happy with. I'm thinking the most mileage lies with the Shadow/Highlight adjustment tool, but I can't seem to find the right settings.
The biggest problem is that large areas of skin are blown out completely - if you run the Color Sampler tool over them, they show up as pure white (255,255,255), so there is absolutely no image data there to work with.
I'll keep trying, but in the meantime maybe someone else can find a fix...

notjustgraphics · 08-27-2008

Sorry to say but to the best of my knowledge, when you are facing Overexposure, there is no easy fix.

It's a simple a matter of having NO IMAGE DATA within the blown out regions.

Short of painting in flesh and detail where required manually, I dont believe there is much hope.

Now if you had additional exposures of the same or similar image that are not OverExposed, it is possible to combine the two (or more) photos to create 1 that is noticably improved.

Best of luck!

**Kenneth** · 08-27-2008

Have to agree with those above! Once the data is gone. It’s hard to recover.
One thing to do is to place a colored layer above, just to cover the white parts.
Emergency solution!

**Tamlin** · 08-27-2008

Good grief, Kenneth - you're a genius! That's waaaaay better than anything I managed to come up with. How did you do it? Manually painting colour back on the top layer?

**Kenneth** · 08-27-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by tamlin

Good grief, Kenneth - you're a genius! That's waaaaay better than anything I managed to come up with. How did you do it? Manually painting colour back on the top layer?

Thanks Tam, yes, manually painting on a top layer and then turning down the opacity. I only regret the burning tool parts.

notjustgraphics · 08-27-2008

I did think about this approach but I would have expected it to look a lot more patchy than this result...

Thats a fantastic result condsidering the original!

Brilliant Kenneth! lol Simply Brilliant!

Cheers!

delph99 · 08-28-2008

Wow i'm impressed! You guys just took this and ran with it! Is there sample of your fixed pic? did you select the blown out areas and then paint a color layer over it? You used the Burning tool after adding the color layer? I know enough to be dangerous with photoshop but i'm having a little trouble following what exactly you are doing. You guys are intense and WAY above my level and I WANT TO GET THERE!!!! Hopefully i'll learn one problem at a time......

thanks!
lisa

craze30 · 08-28-2008

hooo! this is so cool!! thanks! this will be a great help for me!!

**Tamlin** · 08-28-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by delph99

Wow i'm impressed! You guys just took this and ran with it! Is there sample of your fixed pic? did you select the blown out areas and then paint a color layer over it? You used the Burning tool after adding the color layer? I know enough to be dangerous with photoshop but i'm having a little trouble following what exactly you are doing. You guys are intense and WAY above my level and I WANT TO GET THERE!!!! Hopefully i'll learn one problem at a time......

thanks!
lisa

Hi Lisa - yeah, sorry about the geek-speak. I guess we got a little carried away with the "challenge" of finding a good way to fix your photo! I don't know about the other guys, but my initial plan was to work out (for myself) an effective technique for fixing it, and then post a step-by-step guide so you could follow on with your own copy of the photo - we believe very strongly in trying to teach beginners how to achieve something (rather than just doing it for them) - but Kenneth beat me to it with his excellent effort.
Ken may well give you a run-down of his technique so you can understand it better, but in the meantime here is a link to a Photoshop tutorial that uses a very similar technique (painting skin colour back onto a separate layer):
Photoshop Tutorials - Fix Blown Out Skin
Give it a go - I think we'd all like to see what you make of it yourself.

delph99 · 08-28-2008

Thanks Tamlin & Kenneth and everyone who had a say! I will try the tutorial but look forward to seeing what you have figured out as well. On a personal note - I have taken a few college courses (toward a graphics/multimedia degree) and then got pregnant. Two kids later (with NO time for any computer funtime) - i am trying to get back in the swing. I remember now how much i loved photoshop and could get lost forever doing what you guys are doing now(kinda - in a simple way!) Anyway, you guys rock! I still do not have a ton of time to "play" but this photo was for my husbands family reunion. They all know that i can do some retouching and stuff & so I have what I thought was an impossible task - cut down to size! I am now re-inspired & you have helped make me "look good" THANKS!

taymarfoto · 08-30-2008

You could always create a new layer and adjust the levels, and saturation of what is left then use the background eraser tool to bring back the rest of the image and leaving the altered blown out portion intact, flatten the layer and there's your altered picture.