Shadows in Adobe

[Jen5678]

Does anyone know how to get rid of shadows on faces when retouching a photo?

Thanks

Jen

 

[G5Unit]

You could always high light the area and make it grighter or use the patch tool to take a piece from another part of the face to the shaded area.

 

[MrSugar]

You could always high light the area and make it grighter or use the patch tool to take a piece from another part of the face to the shaded area.

I think the first idea is the best. Duplicate the layer with your photo, then use the polygonal lasso to loosely select the area with a shadow that you want to brighten up. Then feather the selection by something reasonable to your photo size -- probably in between 10 and 25. Select the inverse (so only the shadowed part of the face will remain) and delete it. Now change that layer mode to "screen" and play around with the opacity until you find yourself happy.

I know that came out really complicated, but I have used this technique a lot to lighten certain parts of images.

You also have to realize there are a lot of ways to do this, masking, adjustment layers, etc. Perhaps look into finding a few tutorials on the query at a site such as http://pixel2life.com/

 

[homerjward]

what about using the dodge tool?

 

[Jen5678]

Thank you for all the help.

I'm gonna try it now.

 

[mxdemian]

I agree. Dodge tool is the easiest and you can get some great results.

 

[Moxiemike]

I agree. Dodge tool is the easiest and you can get some great results.

dodge tool all the way

m

 

[Mac_Freak]

Did you try using Curves on adjustment layer and then masking out what you don't need to be brightened up.

That is:
-roughly select areas that you want to brighten
-go to Layer>Adjustment Layers>Curves, now you automatically get mask applied which you can fine tune later
-make adjustment with Curves for desired look

It is always good to overdue the adjustment a bit and later use the Opacity slider to make it just right.

Levels should also work with that.