Indoors Photo Rescue – How I did it

Indoors Photo Rescue – How I did it: "

I took this photo of my daughter last night and it needed a lot of rescuing. I wanted to share the method I used to fix this shot with you all because – let’s face it – even the best of us need a little rescuing from time to time!

{How I Took it}

I took this in my very dimly lit front room using my Canon 7D and a Lightscoop. Camera was set on auto due to laziness. The settings were:

• ISO400


• 18-200mm lens at 40mm


• f/4.5


• 1/60th sec.

{How I edited it}

LIGHTROOM

• Imported RAW into Lightroom


• Adjusted exposure (up)


• Clarity (up)


• Brightness (up)


• Temperature (cooler, but still keeping it warm)


• Cropped


• Lightened shadows


• Lessened blown-out highlights (using both the recovery slider and the highlights slider)


• Used an adjustment brush for her skin to undo the amped up clarity from the third step. My personal skin adjustment brush is clarity somewhere around -45 and brightness at +4


• Exported files as DNG to maintain the edits I’d applied, but keep the file from being compressed into a jpg.

PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS (PSE)

• In PSE, I ran the enhance > adjust sharpness amount 69% (this will depend on your photo of course)


• I then ran the MCP Eye Doctor action on her eyes (this is the most magical of actions I will never be without it!)


• After completing the action, I flattened the image


• Duplicated background layer at ’soft light’ 35% just for a little added contrast


• The top layer, I applied a fliter > gaussian blur to add a little glow


• Used the eraser to erase the top layer/gaussian blur away from her sharp-as-a-tack eyes


• I could have removed the crumbs but I think they’re cute

Voila!

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Indoors Photo Rescue – How I did it