Can I fix a photo that is dark or underexposed?

SG
Posted By
Steve_Gribbin
Apr 10, 2007
Views
270
Replies
9
Status
Closed
I took a photo at sunrise a couple of days ago and used the jpeg setting instead of a raw format. Now I can’t do much to change it I wondered if anyone could shed some light (excuse the pun) on how to fix it. I’ve tried a couple of the brightness and contrast and the levels adjustments but with not a lot of success. Any help that anyone can offer will be appreciated. I have CS2

you can view a smaller version at

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/7759702@N06/453633348/>

thanks,

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C
chrisjbirchall
Apr 10, 2007
Using Highlight/shadows from the Image>Adjustments menu can bring back a little of the darker mid tone detail. You will see noise in the darkest shadows though.

Here I’ve used H/S on a duplicated layer, then added a layer mask and restored the deepest shadows to black to eliminate the noise in those areas.

Shame it’s on Jpeg. A RAW file would have been far more forgiving.

Chris.

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=16xwG2QsT8PP6pKRmI KlQ16uGDNfw1>
SG
Steve_Gribbin
Apr 10, 2007
Thanks for the advice Chris, I’ll give that a go and see what happens. I’ve even tried a white layer with soft light selected but it washes out a lot of the sunrise colors.
B
Bernie
Apr 10, 2007
Or try duplicating the layer and setting teh topmost one to screen transfer mode
R
Rod
Apr 10, 2007
wrote:
I took a photo at sunrise a couple of days ago and used the jpeg setting instead of a raw format. Now I can’t do much to change it I wondered if anyone could shed some light (excuse the pun) on how to fix it. I’ve tried a couple of the brightness and contrast and the levels adjustments but with not a lot of success. Any help that anyone can offer will be appreciated. I have CS2

you can view a smaller version at

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/7759702@N06/453633348/>
thanks,

The above picture is a little small so I resized
it. Yours should look much better with the
original. Anyway, I used "Shadow/Highlight",
"Levels" and a little noise reduction in
Photoshop. It took about three minutes but with a
little more time it could be made better.

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s108/Billfor/453633348_a7 88873528rev.jpg
R
Rod
Apr 10, 2007
wrote:
I took a photo at sunrise a couple of days ago and used the jpeg setting instead of a raw format. Now I can’t do much to change it I wondered if anyone could shed some light (excuse the pun) on how to fix it. I’ve tried a couple of the brightness and contrast and the levels adjustments but with not a lot of success. Any help that anyone can offer will be appreciated. I have CS2

you can view a smaller version at

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/7759702@N06/453633348/>
thanks,
Sorry, I didn’t see the larger version. I just
figures the first one you posted was the only
size. Anyway, you get the idea of what it takes to
fix this photo.
SG
Steve_Gribbin
Apr 10, 2007
I hadn’t thought of that, thanks for the suggestion. I’ll give it a go right now.

I do know that I’m setting the camera to RAW and not changing it again.
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Apr 11, 2007
Steve,

Jpeg is a baked cake.
Raw is a set of ingredients to bake a cake with.

Rob
C
chrisjbirchall
Apr 11, 2007
Rob. That is the finest analogy I have ever seen for this particular… erm… cookie.
SG
Steve_Gribbin
Apr 18, 2007
Thanks Rob and Chris, I’ve been away for a week with no email. Took myself a lot of raw ingredients and hope to bake some nice pictures from them.

thanks for the help.

Steve

Master Retouching Hair

Learn how to rescue details, remove flyaways, add volume, and enhance the definition of hair in any photo. We break down every tool and technique in Photoshop to get picture-perfect hair, every time.

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