Harsh Background and Shadowed Subject

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
April 30, 2020
6 replies
687 views

I've been struggling with editing this photo and trying all the different combos and tutorials I can find, but for every problem I fix, it makes a different aspect of the photo worse. I can't figure out how to make my subject pop without overexposing the highlights. Also, I'd like to fix the coloration to have have a more light and airy feel. I've made some progress, but I'm not happy with any of the results, so I was wondering if anyone could give me suggestions based on this raw image.

How to

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JP Hess

Inspiring

I used the radial filter around her face and upper body. Increased exposure and shadows, reduced saturation just a bit. Then I switched to a small erasing brush in the radial filter to erase around her face and body. On the overall image I reduced yellow saturation just a little bit and added a slight vignette. Sorry I can't give you the numbers because I didn't keep the image. It's gone already. Probably could've done a lot better with the raw image.

JP Hess

Inspiring

A difficult task, for sure. This is the best I was able to achieve. I know, not very good.

C

Chasing Sunbeams PhotographyAuthor

Participant

That looks better than what I've been able to manage! What settings did you use?

Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

Some "quick" suggestions-

Highlights down

Shadows up

In the Color Mixer (HSL) panel-

Reduce some saturation and luminance of the background.

With the Brush Tool-

Brighten up the face and clothes-

Crop as desired-

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .

C

Chasing Sunbeams PhotographyAuthor

Participant

Also, I know this is a pretty terrible photo so I apologize. I was just testing out some settings on my way between locations during a couple's shoot, but my client fell in love with the photo so I was trying to fix it up for her as well as I can.

JP Hess

Inspiring

Wish there was an option to delete messages in this forum, but there isn't. Please disregard.

C

Chasing Sunbeams PhotographyAuthor

Participant