dpattinson Posted November 18, 2009 Share #1 Posted November 18, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) I do have a question for any PS gurus. Any suggestions for toning down flash-burn highlights? I did some work on this one with the healing brush, but I'm not entirely satisfied with the results. The work is on her forehead above her right eye. I wanted to remove the specular highlight, without clobbering skin texture and leaving a more diffuse highlight. I can get it to work OK on smaller areas, but I'm struggling to keep good texture in larger areas. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted November 18, 2009 Posted November 18, 2009 Hi dpattinson, Take a look here Question on toning down flash highlights on skin.. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Jamie Roberts Posted November 23, 2009 Share #2 Posted November 23, 2009 David-- I had a look at your shot in the photo forum. First, I would have bounced the flash--it's better than a Lightsphere or whatever they're called these days. You generally need a lot less light than you think, and wall or ceiling colour really doesn't matter that much (well, as long as they're not black). Anyway, bouncing would have saved you a harsh highlight in post. But if you have to deal with that, then I'd 1) create a new layer 2) use the clone stamp in the new layer, set it to sample all "below" layers and make sure it's relatively small and keep the hardness high (so you retain texture, so it doesn't look cloned). Make sure you're not aligning the clone either! 3) set transparency on the clone stamp to about 30% and build up a credible looking fill. 4. adjust the layer opacity to blend (or use the layer operations ("Darker" or "lighter" sometimes work well--depending on the patch). By the way, for smaller amounts of work with the healing, I'd also use the multi-layer approach and the same general principles: keep the brush small and hard, and don't try to go quickly It takes time (as it did spotting prints). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpattinson Posted November 23, 2009 Author Share #3 Posted November 23, 2009 Thanks Jamie, This one was shot outdoors in the street, so I didn't have anything to bounce the flash off. On reflection, I could have got her to stand the other way and bounced it off the brick wall behind her... probably a learning there. I'm going to come back to this one and try again, will try your suggestions and repost the results. (She was happy with it anyway, so I should get the chance to re-shoot something in a more controlled environment). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
roguewave Posted November 23, 2009 Share #4 Posted November 23, 2009 David, I like & have used Jamie's solution. It is not the same as not using the flash. Flash washes out the details. That's fine for fashion, because you will only end up "retouching surface imperfections" anyway. But for street shoots, I find that even high iso gives plenty of "the look" people want to see; some glam & grit mixed together. It substantiates the illusion of being "real". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpattinson Posted November 23, 2009 Author Share #5 Posted November 23, 2009 Yeah - I usually don't use flash at all, so I'm experimenting with what I can do with it. This one over in people is also flash, at 2500iso, lots more grit Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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