Fixing blown highlights... an experiment.

gmonkeh

Sometimes you get that shot you like but there's the problem with some highlights being blown. I've been in an experimental mood lately since getting CS3 so I played around with one of my images.



1. Always duplicate your original.
2. Go to Select > Color Range. Use the Eyedrop tool to sample the lightest part of the blown highlight you want to save. Adjust the fuzziness level as needed. Click OK.
3. Create a new blank layer. Using the eyedrop tool once again sample a part of the skin (midtones usually work the best for this.) Then go to Edit > Fill > Use Foreground Color.
4. Deselect. (CTRL + D) and Change the layer blend mode to multiply.
5. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur and apply a radius that's just enough to remove hard edges.
6. Go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance.... Select Highlights and adjust the color sliders so the "new skin" matches the surrounding skin tones.

You can adjust the opacity to your preference.

As a final step you can add some noise to give your new skin a little more texture.



This was a quick and dirty 5 minute edit so it's not perfect but it's an improvement. But you can run the process a couple of times until you get a good balance in the skin tone.

Lex

SitterS

Looks like a good fix. Thank you for sharing.

Shane

Swartzy

Whoohoo....
Thanx Lex....copied that one down. Always fun learning how to roll over

DavidTO

Try this one on for size:

The Impossible Retouch.

gmonkeh

Hmm that looks really interesting as well. I haven't played around in LAB mode much except when I do my sharpening step.

Thanks for the link David!