Sunny day processing help please

[*Babs]

Can anyone give me an idea on where to start with a set of photos taken on a sunny day?

They're of my son, some with my husband too, in wooded area. My son has a winter jacket on which has a kind of reflective quality to it which is enhancing the light bounced back. If I adjust it (using my basic PPing skills) so his jacket looks OK, the rest of the scene is too dark. If I adjust it for the background then he is too bright.

I have PSE9 and LR3 to play with.

Here is an unprocessed original for you so you can see what I mean.


IMG_1848 by *Babs, on Flickr

I'm not looking for anyone to do it for me, btw. I just want some pointers on where to start with it as I am still learning

 

[arad85]

I'm not looking for anyone to do it for me, btw. I just want some pointers on where to start with it as I am still learning

In LR 3 develop module play with the exposure, fill light, recovery, blacks sliders. They each affect the curves in different places (if you hover over the sliders and look at the histogram the areas that are most affected are highlighted). You can use these sliders to tone down highlights, bring details out of shadows etc...

 

[swanseamale47]

Open the image in elements raw converter, and try around recovery 50, fill light 50 and blacks 10. That should lighten the darker bits a little white bring back the jacket detail, the black just helps the contrast.

 

[*Babs]

Thanks both. I'll have a play with the raw file. That's a whole new world!!

It's a lovely set of photos (for me anyway - I'm not saying they're technically the best or anything) so I'd like to salvage something if I can.

Appreciate the help. I may well be back!!

 

[swanseamale47]

I would have posted an editied version for you to see but you have editing turned off. Don't hesitate if theres anything else you need to know.
Wayne

 

[*Babs]

I would have posted an editied version for you to see but you have editing turned off. Don't hesitate if theres anything else you need to know.
Wayne

Thanks. Feel free to have a play with the pic I posted. I set my settings when I was new here and not sure what the forum was like I'll change my settings.

Hints and tips are great though. I find both LR3 and PSE9 such big programs to try and master. I've learned a bit but it's very much learning as I go along and I get the feeling I'm getting into more complex areas now that I essentially want to do a different type of processing on a specific area. Thanks for the help

 

[swanseamale47]

Here you are with the setting I suggested.

 

[*Babs]

Here you are with the setting I suggested.

Thank you! That looks so much better. I will have a play around with the raw files over the holiday weekends and see if I can replicate your results.

Thanks for your help. I do appreciate it.

 

[swanseamale47]

Mines obviously done from the jpeg but you should be able to get better results again from the raw.
Wayne

 

[Andy_S]

I may be a bit late for this, but my suggestion for LR3.
I gave the the image a boost to the saturation +5 and vibrancy +40.
Using the adjustment brush in Develop mode, zoom in and colour over his jacket with an exposure adjustment of -1 to bring it back in line with the rest of the image.
I also painted over the shadows on the righthand side of your husbands face and their legs with +0.5 exposure.
Add a very slight vignette and here you go

HTH.

 

[*Babs]

Here's my attempt. Using a combination of both your suggestions in LR3:


Adrian & Callum by *Babs, on Flickr

I'm still not 100% sure of the blue in the jacket. I think it might still be too distracting. But it's definitely better.

What I did:

Recovery +5
Blacks +5
Vibrance +40
Saturation +5
Highlights -12
Lights -12
Shadows +10
Vignetting Amount -13

Then over my son's jacket:
Exposure -1.46

And over my husband and shadows:
Exposure +0.50

... and obviously a slight crop.



Thanks for the help

 

[Andy_S]

Just thought, when adding the exposure adjustment over the jacket, you can also drop the saturation slightly. Should give the result you want.

 

[*Babs]

Thanks Andy. I'll give it a go!

 

[swanseamale47]

Darkening the jacket is easy enough, just use the quick selection tool to select the jacket, then CTRL+J to duplicate it then change the layer blend mode to multiply (on the layers palette)

 

[*Babs]

Thank you! I'm learning a lot this weekend!