Overexposure fix

[pam]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and fairly new with PS aswell so I thought I'd try my luck here with an issue I have. I took some shots of my SIL and her fiancee and I overexposed the first few really badly (snow covered ground) and I am wondering if there is another way to fix this that I might be missing, I played a bit with the levels and brightness but I'm not happy with the results. She really likes these shots so I told her I'd see what I could do, lol! I have PS 6
Thanks!

[RJ Johnston]

Do you have the Shadow/Highlight filter in your version? If so you can set the shadow value to zero, then move the highlight slider to 25; highlight tonal range near the 100 end. Well, see if you have it and play with the settings.

[Gooder]

Hello pam,

Here is a quick and easy technique that I have used (while in Photoshop but you can do all of this within Elements).

1. Load up your original photo
2. Make a copy of it
3. Select the copy and change the blend mode to multiply.

That should bring back some detail!

To go further you could then use the (shadow highlight) as RJ Johnston mentioned, but I would do that on the copy!

Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Lee

[Chuck Engels]

I have also seen using multiple copies of the image on separate layers improve the image.
Here is a nice tutorial about it
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutoria ... posed.html

and another one
http://www.photokaboom.com/photography/ ... posure.htm

There are many more if you search the internet but they are all pretty much the same

[RJ Johnston]

I tried the multiply on those images, but didn't think it came out as good as the shadow/highlight.

[ScrugneysGundogs]

I'm surprized noone mentioned using a curves adjustment on this picture?! I just spent a couple of minutes tweaking it with curves and then a levels adjustment.



Try Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Color Curves...>(Advanced) and play with the top two sliders. Leave preview on and you can watch the slider changes in realtime.
Remember, this was just a quick and dirty fix. You can probably do better with one of the tutorials. I remember doing one one time that changed the "white" part of the blown highlights into several shades of yellow. It was considerably more involved than this fix.

[JohnnyO]

I like the original better

[Gooder]

Another way of fixing such problems would be to shoot in RAW & JPEG. That would give you more options with your photos! Something to think about for the future!

If the methods here are not what you are looking for then how about changing the photo to Black & White, or create a montage which can hide the overexposed parts!

Hope it helps!
Lee

[Bob D]

I was thinking that maybe my eyes are not good enough for this type of work, but I agree with JohnnyO. The original looks just as good if not better.

Bob D

[Chuck Engels]

So does this mean that Overexposure is in the eye of the beholder?

[Gooder]

Hi JohnnyO & Bob D,

I agree with Gooder!

I think the original poster of this thread asked for some help in fixing the photo.
Do you both have any suggestions on how to fix such things and not just a simple (I agree with…) that is not really helping the matter!

Please do not take this in the wrong way but Pam came here for help and as you are both Moderators, I think you both could do a little better!

Have you both tried any of the suggestions given here?

Cheers,
Lee

[JohnnyO]

Here is where I agree with RJ. Shadow/Highlight

[Gooder]

All moderators sticking together!

Do you have any suggestions of your own JohnnyO to contribute to this post?
Still no help there then…

Pam,

If a montage is also used with these overexposed images they could be further helped with the many photoshop & Elements actions that are available.

Hope it helps,

Lee

[Bob D]

I guess that I assumed Gundogs was satisfied with using the curves so more suggestions were necessary.

[ScrugneysGundogs]

Remember, this was just a quick and dirty fix. You can probably do better with one of the tutorials.

I don't particularly like the result I got either. I was just trying to point out that blown highlights can be enhanced with a "curves" fix, as well as a "levels" fix.

The concept is to bring out the missing detail. Whether you like the result or not, it is clear that using curves brought out some detail that was missing in the original picture. Blown highlights can be very hard to fix because the color data is gone/missing. You might want to look for a tutorial that tweaks the remaining colors into shades of yellows, as I said before.