Removing shadows in portrait – ( method using CHANNELS ???)

P
Posted By
pat10036
Jan 21, 2004
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1224
Replies
1
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Closed
Hi,

I would greatly appreciate your help on the following question.

I have some portrait pictures with shadow on the wall (background) caused by the camera flash. I would like to remove the shadows.

While searching in this group and on internet, I understand that there are various methods to get rid of shadow.

I understand that removing shadows using channels is one of the good methods. Could you please explain this method?

Here’s what I found on internet – but not sure how to do it.

"there is a method using CHANNELS to exactly match a discouloured portion of an image to its surrounds. it is primarily used to remove stains such as wine stains from photos, but i have used the technique many times to remove shadows from portrait shots, matching the skin tones in the shadows to those surrounding the shadowed portion. i dont have enough internet time at the moment (not on my computer) to go through the entire technique, but a cursory search of tutorials on the net should help you find the technique, as it has been shared by the adobe programmers. the critical point being, that channels are used to correct this, not burning or dodging or contrast masks or anything else, which will give u sub-standard results compared to the channels technique."

Thanks,
Pat

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MR
Mike Russell
Jan 29, 2004
Pat wrote:
Hi,

I would greatly appreciate your help on the following question.
I have some portrait pictures with shadow on the wall (background) caused by the camera flash. I would like to remove the shadows.
While searching in this group and on internet, I understand that there are various methods to get rid of shadow.

I understand that removing shadows using channels is one of the good methods. Could you please explain this method?

Here’s what I found on internet – but not sure how to do it.
"there is a method using CHANNELS to exactly match a discouloured portion of an image to its surrounds. it is primarily used to remove stains such as wine stains from photos, but i have used the technique many times to remove shadows from portrait shots, matching the skin tones in the shadows to those surrounding the shadowed portion. i dont have enough internet time at the moment (not on my computer) to go through the entire technique, but a cursory search of tutorials on the net should help you find the technique, as it has been shared by the adobe programmers. the critical point being, that channels are used to correct this, not burning or dodging or contrast masks or anything else, which will give u sub-standard results compared to the channels technique."

Why not put up a copy of the image and see what people will do with it. We love a challenge.

Meantime, apologizing for my brevity, this may be helpful: using a contrast enhanced copy of the "a" or "b" channel from Lab mode as a selection or layer mask may save work in either cloning out the shadows or using curves to lighten the background generally. This will be most effective if the wall color differs from the people or objects that are casting the shadow:



Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com
www.geigy.2y.net

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