Sofia (I might need a little help here)

[Wideman]

Originally Posted by Athena

sure - just tell me which parts you need me to explain better.

The results will of course always be different from person to person because we will choose different settings on the adjustment layers. I'm sure if I redid it today it would probably be slightly different again.

Thanks Athena..I am quite lost when it comes to what you did with the layers exactly...It would be great if you could take me step by step. Am sure lots of other people would love that too!

[Athena]

I don't mind doing a step by step on what I did including the actual numbers in the adjustment layers (I'll have to do it again as I didn't save it last time as a PS format).

Jenni - is it ok with you if we use your image to do this?

[JenniH]

Yes, it's okay.

[Athena]

ok guys - I have a french lesson this morning and when I get back home I'll re-edit the image and then post the step by step tutorial.

Thank you Jenni for letting us use the photo of your beautiful Sofia.

[Athena]

ok - everyone ready? There are shortcuts to the commands I'm going to use, but I will do as much of the tutorial as I can through the pull down menu to keep it basic.

1. Right click on the original photo of Sofia in the first post in this thread and copy it.
2. Open Photoshop and click on File, New.
3. In the dialog box that opens, make sure that the option next to Preset says "Clipboard" and then click OK.
4. Click on Edit, Paste to drop the copied image into this new file.
5. In your layers palette, click on "background" to select that layer and then click on Layer, Delete to delete it.
6. Click on Layer, New Adjustment Layer, Levels and in the dialog box that opens, type "Darker" as the name and then click OK.
7. Copy these values into your adjustment layer controls. Don't worry that it will make the image look horrible for now. Trust me.
darker no mask.jpg darker.png

8. Click on Layer, New Adjustment Layer, Levels again and in the dialog box that opens, type "Lighter" as the name and then click OK.
9. Copy these values into your adjustment layer controls. Again, don't worry about how it looks just yet.
lighter no mask.jpg lighter.png

10. Click on the mask of the layer you named "Darker" to select it. (the mask is the little empty box next to the links in your layer palette.)
11. Change your tool to the paint bucket (either click on the paint bucket in the toolbar or press g on your keyboard), select black as your paint and click anywhere in the image. This will hide the effects of this layer. Do the same thing to the layer you named "Lighter". Once you have masked them both, the image will look again as it was originally.
12. Click on the layer you named "Darker".
13. Now change your tool to the brush (either click the brush icon on the toolbar or press b on your keyboard) and adjust it's size (right click and the dialog box to do this will open) for the area that is overexposed in the image. I used 150 pixels.
14. Paint with white on this adjustment layer's mask at 100% opacity the most overexposed area and then lower the opacity to around 45% and paint a bit on the area surrounding (the blanket and part of the pink top. Your layer mask and the image will look something like this:
darker mask.png

darker with mask.jpg

(I ran out of permitted attachments, please continue in the next post.)

[Athena]

15. Paint at 100% with white on her face and the top of her hat. Your mask and the image will look like this:
lighter mask.png

lighter with mask.jpg

16. Now the most important part - adding back the color that the over exposure created. Click on Layer, New, Layer to create a new layer. Name it "Color" (or Colour if you are more inclined towards British spellings).
17. Your tool should still be the paintbrush. Hold down the "alt" key on your keyboard and you will notice that your brush turns momentarily into a dropper. With the "alt" key depressed, click on the dark fold in the top of Sofia's hat. This will choose that color as your paint color. Or if you want to use exactly the shade I used, click on your current paint color (in the tool bar) and enter these numbers in the dialog box that opens.
color numbers.png

18. Paint at 25% opacity over the overexposed mitten and the area just around it. Paint over the mitten more than once to make the paint darker there. If you over do it, you can lower the opacity of this layer to compensate, or start over on a new layer. This is the trickiest part of the whole edit - be patient with yourself. My paint job looks like this:
color.png

And the finished image like this:
finished.jpg

[Athena]

Wow - that took a lot longer than I'd expected. I hope I didn't mess the instructions up! Fingers crossed...

It looks like a lot to do, but once you get comfortable doing edits like this you breeze through them in only a few minutes. Have fun!

And thanks again to Jenni for allowing us to use her photo.

[Elli]

Nice walkthrough Athena, well done.