How to remove shadows

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amjad175

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Hello,

I have extracted this image from cluttered background, I want to remove the shadows under his chin / neck area but can't seem to get it right.

I've tried dodge and sponge, brush removes them but leaves the area looking very flat. The right hand side of the jacket appears to be less sharp as well, any ideas on how to bring it line with the left side?

I have CS4 full and CS5 and LR3 trial versions.

Thanks.

IMG_4023-8.jpg
 
you could try reopening in lightroom and use the fill light tool, but the darker skin tones may fool it into lighting the wrong places too - give it a go, but dont go too heavy, you need some shadow to stop it looking too flat.

the lack of sharpness is due to the f4 aperture, the baby is not parallel to lens, therefore anything out of the focal plane will be more out of focus and is perfectly normal.
 
Photoshop. Clone tool. Set it to lighten and sample from area around neck. I wouldn't over do it though, perhaps just soften the harsh shadow line.
 
I've had a look at the clone stamp and it seems to be working. Only did a rough test, I'll have more time later to play with the settings.

the lack of sharpness is due to the f4 aperture, the baby is not parallel to lens, therefore anything out of the focal plane will be more out of focus and is perfectly normal.
Click to expand...

I'll stop applying sharpening filters! :thumbs:

Thank you for the quick replies.
 
I think I'd copy the lower neck and free transform it up to lighten the dark area.
 
As the area of shadow is fairly plain you may be ably to use the clone tool set to lighten. But there is quite a strong difference between the light and dark areas which could make it tricky to get looking normal. I would take a slightly different approach and:
1) Duplicate layer in photoshop.
2) Layermask everything but the shadow. Be as accurate as you can but doesn't need to be perfect.
3) Adjustment - levels. Have a play with the sliders untill the shadow matches the surrounding area.
4) Flatten/merge down.
5) Use the clone tool to blend in the change if it's not quite perfect.

I found this method works well for removing shadows over more detailed areas where cloning wouldn't work. This also has the benefit of keeping more of the skin detail and doesn't give the smoothed look I get when cloning.

Hope this helps.
 
I'll have a go with the layer mask option, I'm just starting on Photoshop and not used free transforms yet (as far as I know).

Just bought Martin Evenings CS5 book so that should help as well.

Thanks.
 
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