How to advice on lighting

If I have a group photo where there are 3 rows of people and those in the front are lit up but in the back are a bit dark, what is the best approach to fixing the brightness so it is more or less even throughout.

Image->Adjust->Curves.

Simply adjusting brightness won’t do it (obviously).

You should never use Image->Adjust->Brightness/Contrast or Image->Adjust->Color balance anyway. Those commands are "linear," which means they degrade the quality of the image by removing detail from the hilights and/or shadows. Learn to use Curves instead; it does everyhing that all those commands do, and more, but does not degrade your image by removing hilight and shadow detail.

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Hello Colonel Blip,

First copy the image into a new layer. Then make a heavily feathered selection around the back row in the new layer. Maybe even enlarge the canvas size to allow the lightened area to expand beyond the edges instead of having the feathering affect the edges in a negative way. The degree of feathering depends on the size of the image. Then play with the levels, brightness, contrast, or if I you’re adept with curves, try those. Once you’ve got the back row lighting corrected, you could call it good and save as a copy. Or you might experiment a bit more with the Render Lighting Effects filter and see if you can add a bit of extraneous semi-ambient lighting to "fill in" from the top. Or you could copy the selection and render the lighting from the bottom/front and place this layer behind the other one and erase some of the top layer to let these back-row luminaries shine brighter.

You might also try adding an adjustment layer if you feel uncomfortable modifying the actual layer itself. Either way, you still have the option of playing with opacity and blending options to get it looking just right.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to try these techniques and further experiment on your own.

Good Luck, Col. Blip.

Should you fail in your endeavor, alt.graphics.photoshop will disavow any knowledge of your actions.

This posting will self-elapse over a long period of time.

Peadge 😉

"Colonel Blip" wrote in message

Hello, All!

One of the things I have the most trouble with on digital photos is the lighting variation with a flash shot.

If I have a group photo where there are 3 rows of people and those in the front are lit up but in the back are a bit dark, what is the best approach to fixing the brightness so it is more or less even throughout. Simply adjusting brightness won’t do it (obviously).

With best regards, Colonel Blip. E-mail:

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Colonel Blip wrote:

Hello, All!

One of the things I have the most trouble with on digital photos is the lighting variation with a flash shot.

If I have a group photo where there are 3 rows of people and those in the front are lit up but in the back are a bit dark, what is the best approach to fixing the brightness so it is more or less even throughout. Simply adjusting brightness won’t do it (obviously).

Easy with Photoshop:
Create a level adjustment layer and tweak until the back row looks good ( don’t worry about the front getting burned at this point) Now run a white to black gradient on this adjustment layer, (start at the top and drag down) and see the magic.

Stephan

There you are Sir!

Some fantastic solutions (great NG!)

There is another one you should be aware of in PSCS.

Open a copy of the original image then:
1 – creat a copy of original original background layer

2 – select and activate (blue with eye) the background copy – deselect the original back ground (no blue – no eye)

3 – click on Image -> Adjustments -> Shadow/Highlights

and Bongo! Sir

You have the opportunity to illiuminate the darker parts very easily 🙂

Articus

"Stephan" wrote in message

Colonel Blip wrote:

Hello, All!

One of the things I have the most trouble with on digital photos is the lighting variation with a flash shot.

If I have a group photo where there are 3 rows of people and those in the front are lit up but in the back are a bit dark, what is the best approach
to fixing the brightness so it is more or less even throughout. Simply adjusting brightness won’t do it (obviously).

Easy with Photoshop:
Create a level adjustment layer and tweak until the back row looks good ( don’t worry about the front getting burned at this point) Now run a white to black gradient on this adjustment layer, (start at the top and drag down) and see the magic.

Stephan

Hello, Colonel!
You wrote to All on Fri, 22 Oct 2004 19:26:11 -0500:

Thanks to all for the advice.

Colonel Blip.
E-mail:

CB> One of the things I have the most trouble with on digital photos is the CB> lighting variation with a flash shot.

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In article ,
says…

Hello Colonel Blip,

First copy the image into a new layer. Then make a heavily feathered selection around the back row in the new layer. Maybe even enlarge the canvas size to allow the lightened area to expand beyond the edges instead of having the feathering affect the edges in a negative way. The degree of feathering depends on the size of the image. Then play with the levels, brightness, contrast, or if I you’re adept with curves, try those. Once you’ve got the back row lighting corrected, you could call it good and save as a copy. Or you might experiment a bit more with the Render Lighting Effects filter and see if you can add a bit of extraneous semi-ambient lighting to "fill in" from the top. Or you could copy the selection and render the lighting from the bottom/front and place this layer behind the other one and erase some of the top layer to let these back-row luminaries shine brighter.

You might also try adding an adjustment layer if you feel uncomfortable modifying the actual layer itself. Either way, you still have the option of playing with opacity and blending options to get it looking just right.
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to try these techniques and further experiment on your own.

Good Luck, Col. Blip.

Should you fail in your endeavor, alt.graphics.photoshop will disavow any knowledge of your actions.

This posting will self-elapse over a long period of time.
Peadge 😉

"Colonel Blip" wrote in message

Hello, All!

One of the things I have the most trouble with on digital photos is the lighting variation with a flash shot.

If I have a group photo where there are 3 rows of people and those in the front are lit up but in the back are a bit dark, what is the best approach to fixing the brightness so it is more or less even throughout. Simply adjusting brightness won’t do it (obviously).

With best regards, Colonel Blip. E-mail:

Yes, Peadge. Probably the easiest way to create the mask(s) needed is with the Gradient, used in QM mode. The falloff of the light from the flash is very similar to the Radial Gradient, but a bit of tweaking might be needed. Also, the shadows cast by the front row onto those behind, might need a touch more work. The Highlight&Shadow adjustment in CS might be a good place to start, before one then works on the underexposure of the rear rows.

If possible, a bounce-flash arrangement in the photograph goes a ways toward minimixing the effect and the fall-off, though because of distance from the flash/camera, it will not be eliminated.

Hunt