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[throwingks]

I think the white window throws off the calculations. Should I edit out the window, make adjustments to the picture, then put the window back in?

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Same thing as the window one above, but in reverse?

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This was dimmly lit with no flash, adjusting contrast and brightness washes it out. Is all hope lost?


Any help is appreciated. I will continue to play on it, but I am losing my determination.

[Hazanko]

maybe change the hue/saturation? that usually works good for me... i've just been getting into color correction and what not, and it's being a real learning lesson for me. i haven't tried fixing any of them myself(your piks) so i'm not sure as to exactly what would work right... if you still need help tomorrow i'll load up PS and see what i can do...

[Owtlaw333]

When messing with the brightness of photos, there's only one thing you need to know...

Levels.
Learn it; love it.

Never use contrast & brightness. It gives you less control on darks and lights. And auto adjustments is just outta the question.

You also have to go by the mantra "Crap in, crap out". You can only do so much to a photo without doing some REALLY fine, selective tuning.

[throwingks]

If you want to try and help you are more than welcome, I can upload a 1600x1200 resolution copy to my server if you would like.

Does the "crap in-crap out" mantra mean crappy original photo will still be crappy-ish after adjustments?

Everytime I crop out the window in the 1st pic, I fill the void with black and run adjustments. When I paste te window back in, I get like a black outline. What is the best way to get rid of that? Should I just not even go through those steps and do maual adjustments? If so, are there any guides I can read?

[Owtlaw333]

QUOTE(metaldevil @ Apr 30 2006, 06:42 PM)

If you're going to use adjustments for layers, I recommend using adjustment layers

I'm glad you mentioned that (completely slipped my mind.. although I didn't wanna load the guy with TOO much info anyways, haha). Because that's also where masks come in. When using an adjustment layer, it uses a mask which comes in handy when you only want to edit a specific area (ie. just the person in the chair).

And yeah, I meant if you have a crap picture, you can only do so much to it before it looks even worse... unless you do alot of fine tuning (such as using masks and such). You just have to try everything out, tinker with using layers, masks, so on and so on... PS requires a lot of practice and usage to understand any of it. We could sit here for hours explaining stuff, but you won't understand any of it without tinkering with it urself. The best part of it will be when you won't have ta ask for help anymore  (although I never had anyone to ask lol)

[throwingks]

Thanks for the input!! I have been trying on my own. It just gets frustrating. It's not as simple as getting rid of redeye.

I am gonna do some more later today and post up my progress. Maybe, you can tell me some things I did right or wrong.

Thanks again guys.

[throwingks]

Better? I think so. I am not sure if I can polish poop more than that.

I think this one looks better than the above one. I worked mostly with levels only.

I have no idea how to handle the picture of my wife with our son. I have another photo with the same problem. The problem is in the fade of bright to dark. If it was a distinct line it would be a lot easier. The only thing I can do right is get rid of his redeye. I kind of like how it takes the focus off her, I would just like it to be a little more suttle.

[metaldevil]

Red eye... lol

They look much better now, man.

You may have to think about cropping your wife out of that one picture, although she probably won't like it.