Even illumination of flat image, removing shadows.

[sethh49664488]

Hello,

I have some flat images, paintings to be exact and they were not evenly lit when originally taken. The middle is illuminated while the outer parts are too dark. Is there a way to make the image look like it is evenly lit? Thank you.

[davescm]

Hi

Depending how much difference there is in the illumination, you may be able to use curves with gradients on the mask. Do you have an example that you can post here?

Dave

[lambiloon]

Hi please show us picture so we can guide you properly that is not difficult....Thanks.

[sethh49664488]

[sethh49664488]

davescm​ lambiloon​

[lambiloon]

hi use retouching tools Dogde and burn tool to to increase or decrease shadows...Thanks.

[sethh49664488]

See how the light source is on the face of the subject but the surrounding is dark.

[D Fosse]

You have two separate problems here:

• The central hotspot is overexposed and washed out
• The corners are underexposed

So in principle, two adjustment layers to tackle each problem:

In this case, however, the vignetting is really extreme. So you'll have to rinse and repeat. Expect a lot of grain in the corners, and some severe shadow color casts that need correcting too.

[davescm]

Hi

You can also do this in the camera raw filter (or even better if you have the original raw file , use camera raw itself)

Try a combination of the radial filter (which you can set to affect inside the drawn ellipse or outside) and local adjustment brushes to raise the shadows and reduce the overexposure in the centre.

Dave