Fortunately, the background is pretty uniform, so you could use the Clone Stamp tool in PS to paint over the shadow from nearby areas. You have to keep changing the source point to avoid the Clone Stamp artifice.
I did a quick and dirty attempt with two passes. On the first I set the opacity to 100% and the flow to 23% in Lighter Color mode (so I didn't have to worry about painting over the dress, and this also helped with some of the skin areas). Then I set flow to 100% and painted over the areas just outside the dress/person boundary to smooth it out. It needs some detailed work, but you should get the idea:
I tried to think of a way using a mask, but I couldn't find an easy way to build the right one. Maybe someone else who has some experience making tricky selections will have a different approach.
Here is one I just tried to clone edited. Need feed back!
If you're happy with it, that should be enough. It could be a little better, for example the area on the lower right (table with flowers) has a noticeable shadow. But I'm looking at it knowing there was a shadow issue, and so I'll see it. I don't know whether the normal viewer would. In any event, fixing it is just more of what you were doing.
I still use a flash bracket to avoid having these harsh shadows in post. However, I do like your edit, at first look, I did not notice any harsh shadows. Good job!
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I did a quick and dirty attempt with two passes. On the first I set the opacity to 100% and the flow to 23% in Lighter Color mode (so I didn't have to worry about painting over the dress, and this also helped with some of the skin areas). Then I set flow to 100% and painted over the areas just outside the dress/person boundary to smooth it out. It needs some detailed work, but you should get the idea:
I tried to think of a way using a mask, but I couldn't find an easy way to build the right one. Maybe someone else who has some experience making tricky selections will have a different approach.
If you're happy with it, that should be enough. It could be a little better, for example the area on the lower right (table with flowers) has a noticeable shadow. But I'm looking at it knowing there was a shadow issue, and so I'll see it. I don't know whether the normal viewer would. In any event, fixing it is just more of what you were doing.
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