Best Way to Remove Shadows

[mattchewone]

Took a few snaps on a spur of the moment thing for some friends for them to print and realised a few that they like have some shadows on quite harsh ones from the flash.

How can I remove them without it looking like ive just drawn around them with a white pen?

Thanks

 

[gman]

Could you post an example of one? Fill light may be able to help a little in Lightroom.

 

[mattchewone]

Here you go

 

[gman]

Hmmm, perhaps using the selection tool in PS would be better and manually remove the shadows, fairly clean lines down the right side so shouldn't take long. Clone tool should be able to sort out the red furry part.

You've not got image editing ticked so can't do a quick example I'm afraid.

 

[EdBray]

It won't help you here I'm afraid, but the best way to remove shadows is to light correctly at the time of taking the image. Bounced light with a touch of fill will do it, use of reflector/s will also help.

The shadow on the posted image is to the subjects left so I am assuming you had your flash off camera, if this is the case then you need to refine your technique a little and learn to soften the light.

 

[mattchewone]

Whats image editing?

Floor is fine they like it, just want shadows around body. Could you give an example of the tool im not that clued up on CS5. Once Ive selected the shadows what do you do next .

Thanks

 

[gman]

Your profile settings, you've got the Edit box crossed which means you don't want people to have a go at editing your images.

If it's just one or two photos then you can do it manually but if there's a lot then you'd be better to reshoot as Ed says.

 

[mattchewone]

Its only a couple of photos.

Yes was my first time doing it again and we shot to close to the wall and shooting babies is akward at such a young age.

Will check my settings now

 

[gman]

Here's a quick attempt, not the best but just a quick hack (the arm is a bit crap):

Magic Eraser set at a tolerance of 5 worked quite well down the shadow and removed the remaining bits with the polygonal lasso tool and eraser.

Used the clone tool to remove the shadow on the rug.

There's a yellow cast on the background so I used the Magic Eraser at tolderance 10 to remove the entire background and replaced with pure white.

 

[OlyPaul]

Using Elements 9 duplicated the image and filled the background image with white.

Then used the quick select tool and refine edges then cut the selection and touch up with a layer mask.

This will be easier on a full res image.

 

[JasonRS]

You're not going to be able to do it successfully.

Any attempt by hand will make it look like a bad cutout, especially at the resolution posted.

At a higher resolution you may be able to create a mask from one of the channels, reds probably best for this image.
If you want to know how, look here
http://blog.weshootpeople.co.uk/2010/03/02/cutting-hair-masking-it-out/


You could, if you had the time and the inclination, create a mask for the shadow using calculations.

Once you've got a mask, I'd probably try a curve first, on the carpet, then drop in a solid colour layer for the wall and use the colour picker to match it in.