Some PP help required.

Some more shots from last Sundays studio session, as you can see I got part of the exposure all wrong on this shot (forgot to turn the hair light off) I've tried like blazes to bring the blown bits back but just can't seem to get it right (need some tuition on the burn tool), can any of you imaging guru's help :




While playing around I came up with this version, quite like it myself.




And this is Rachel as herself :arrow:

I see no burnt/clipped bits

Take your telescope away from your blind eye and look at her left shoulder.

Brian, once it's gone, it's gone.

G

By the way, Rachel's right wrist and hand are very elegantly posed.

G

I cant see any burned bits either, maybe its my dodgy monitor?

I love the negative version, though the straight shot is just as nice, but as for Rachel, forget her

Sorry but you cant photograph a girl in boots and expect me to concentrate on the girl, you cannot have two objects of desire in the same image .....damm, my secret is out

Brian,
I assume you're referring to her shoulder...
You can't use a tool to just "bring back" burnt highlights

Part of the trick is to understand the problem. Always start by looking at the channels individually - the red is what's blown out, and the blue (in this JPG at least) has the most artifacts.

So, that said, I would revisit the RAW and tone it down a touch to see if there's anything left in the red channel - maybe by reducing the exposure, or using AdobeRGB colourspace, or tweaking the colour temperature you'll get some detail back.

Failing that you need to use the stamp tool and on this amount of area it's gonna be tricky to get it to look natural. This is what I'd suggest:
* Create a blank layer on top
* Pick the clone/stamp tool
* Set the opacity to 30%
* Tick the "Sample All Layers"
* Carefully Alt-click and brush with a medium soft brush to rebuild the skin area

Keep doing this until you feel you have the area rebuilt. Then... go away and have a cup of tea (important )
When you come back, toggle the visibility of the cloned layer and see how it improves things. If it's not right, carefully erase and re-stamp.

Now, if the skin texture is fine, but the lighting looks slightly wrong...
* Add another blank layer on top
* Change the layer blend mode to "Soft Light"
* Pick the brush tool
* Set the opacity to 10%
* Pick black/white as the colours (Press "d" on the keyboard)
* Paint black to darken
* Paint white to lighten

Again, you can toggle the visibility of the soft light layer to see if you're going in the right direction.

Hope that helps!
(If you want - I'll take a look at the RAW - just email it )
Matt

I don't wheather to take that as you like Rachel, her boots or the whole image (I think I can guess though)

Cheers for this Matt, will have a go, if I'm still stuck I'll mail you the PEF file, Had another look at the PEF file in SPS3 this morning, I reckon I have been a bit too zealous in adjusting the exposure, will post a revised processed image when I'm happier with my PP skills.

Thanks for that George, I was quite happy the way the pose tuned out.

Revision 2, any better.......or have I introduced my pink tinge again, looks fine in PS, converting to sRGB and load to pbase seems to add the pink tinge on some of my images.........or have I become a bit paranoid :

Well done. I doubt that any more tweaking would be worthwhile.

G