PhotoShop Wizards Challenge -or- HELP!!!!

Pixel Popper

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am desperate for your help!!! What I have here is a rather crappy image on on kinds of levels. The lighting is bad, the flash coverage was uneven -hot at the top, not enough at the bottom, shiny faces, and soft focus.

My problem here is that a VERY high profile client wants this image, and I am too embarrased to hand over something of this low quality. My second problem is that I am not proficient enough with Photoshop to fix it.

On the right is Doug Gansler, the Attorney General for the state of Maryland, and to his left is a genuine war hero, Major Daniel Gade and his wife.

I am appealing to your kindness and generosity. Please, PLEASE, won't someone work your magic on this photo to make it presentable. I would be forever grateful for any assistance you might be able to offer.

Here is the image:

pemmett

Not exactly an expert, but here's my attempt. Do you have the hi-res image?

Pixel Popper

Hey, Pemmett, thanks for taking a crack at it. I appreciate that. And yes, I do have the high res image. You want I should send it to you?

pemmett

Pixel Popper wrote:

Hey, Pemmett, thanks for taking a crack at it. I appreciate that. And yes, I do have the high res image. You want I should send it to you?

You can send it to emmett.photography@gmail.com

Cheers/Peter

pyrtek

BEFORE:



AFTER:

Pixel Popper

Thanks ever so much, Bernard! Somehow, I just knew that you would get in on this one.

If it exists out there on one of these forums, might you point me toward a tutorial or two which would explain how you accomplished this?

Thanks, again!

-Howard

Pixel Popper

pemmett wrote:

You can send it to emmett.photography@gmail.com

Cheers/Peter

SENT! Many thanks.

pyrtek

Pixel Popper wrote:

If it exists out there on one of these forums, might you point me toward a tutorial or two which would explain how you accomplished this?

There are literally thousands of tutorials out there. I prefer books, myself. I
can simply tell you what I did, though.

First, I used a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to reduce the reds a little bit.
I also lightened them a tad so that they wouldn't be so harsh. I masked out
the background from this adjustment so that only their faces were affected.
Next, I used the healing brush to get rid of the flash glare from their faces.
I just sampled good skin and healed the white patches working with a small
brush and zoomed to 200%. Then I added a levels layer, hit OK without
changing anything and set its blending mode to Screen. This made the entire
image brighter, but at 100% it was too much so I reduced the opacity to 25%.
Finally, I cloned out the nasty sign behind Messieur Gansler and sharpened the
image a little bit.

z_28

Effects should be better if full size unprocessed file would be available.
52kB picture is way too small for processing.

rwells

Before:



After:
Got rid of the stuff coming out of Gade's head, hair on side of wife's face, red cast out of AG's shirt, lost the sign behind AG, etc...



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