- Compensating for "Too Much Flash"
- Dealing with Digital Noise
- Removing Color Aliasing
- Fixing Photos Where You Wish You Hadn't Used Flash
- Fixing Underexposed Photos
- When You Forget to Use Fill Flash
- Instant Red Eye Removal
- Removing Red Eye and Recoloring the Eye
- Repairing Keystoning Without the Crop Tool
- Removing Moiré Patterns from Coats, Shirts, Etc.
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
When You Forget to Use Fill Flash
Wouldn't it be great if Photoshop had a "fill flash" brush, so when you forgot to use your fill flash, you could just paint it in? Well, although it's not technically called the fill flash brush, you can create your own brush and get the same effect. Here's how:
Step One:
Open a photo where the subject or focus of the image appears in shadows. Go under the Image menu, under Adjustments, and choose Levels.
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Figure
3.23Step Two:
Drag the middle Input Levels slider (the gray one) to the left until your subject looks properly exposed. (Note: Don't worry about how the background looks—it will probably become completely "blown out," but you'll fix that later; for now, just focus on making your subject look right.) If the midtone slider doesn't bring out the subject enough, you may have to increase the highlights as well, so drag the far-right Input Levels slider to the left to increase the highlights. When your subject looks properly exposed, click OK.
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Figure
3.24Step Three:
Go under the Window menu and choose History to bring up the History palette. This palette keeps a running "history" of the last 20 adjustments you've made to your photo. In this instance, there should be only two entries (called "History States"). Open should be the first State, followed by Levels, showing that you opened the photo and then made a Levels adjustment.
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Figure
3.25Step Four:
In the History palette, click on the State named "Open." This will return your photo to how it looked when you originally opened the image (in other words, it will look the way it did before you adjusted the Levels).
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Figure
3.26Step Five:
In the History palette, click in the first column next to the grayed-out State named "Levels." An icon that looks like Photoshop's History Brush will appear in the column, showing that you're going to be painting from what your image looked like after you used Levels.
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Figure
3.27Step Six:
Choose the History Brush tool from the Toolbox (as shown at right), and choose a soft-edged brush from the Brush Picker in the Options Bar.
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Figure
3.28Step Seven:
Begin painting with the History Brush over your subject, avoiding the background area entirely. (Here, I'm painting over the left side of the subject's face.) As you paint, you'll notice that you're actually painting in the lightened version of the subject you adjusted earlier with Levels.
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Figure
3.29Step Eight:
Continue painting with the History Brush until your subject looks as if you used a fill flash. When you're painting, if it appears too intense, just lower the Opacity of the History Brush up in the Options Bar. That way, when you paint, the effect will appear less intense. You can see the final repair here at left, with the background unchanged, but the subject in shadows is "brought out."
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Figure
3.30