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People Critique ⇒ Wedding shot, help needed
- minniev
- Mentoris Supremus
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- Location: Mississippi
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Wedding shot, help needed
As mother of the groom I left the photography to the photographer at the resort where my son's wedding was held a few days ago. They don't like other photographers in the mix anyway, and I had enough going on without the camera. I did sneak a few shots, and this was the better one. I had to underexpose to keep from losing the brights since the setting was a west facing beach at sunset, pretty but challenging. The first proofs from the resort photographer shows he had the same problem but solved them with overbright flash, not my style.
I'd appreciate any help with this one, either suggestions or edits (with some description of what you did). I'm not a people photographer, and I don't retouch people so I'm in over my head. I'm attaching the original and my first edits which are in lightroom on the ipad, haven't got into PS with it yet.
I'd appreciate any help with this one, either suggestions or edits (with some description of what you did). I'm not a people photographer, and I don't retouch people so I'm in over my head. I'm attaching the original and my first edits which are in lightroom on the ipad, haven't got into PS with it yet.
"God gave me photography so that I could pray with my eyes" - Dewitt Jones
- Psjunkie
- Mentoris Maximus
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I think you'll do fine with a bit more work in Ps...still need some more brightness or lightness to the couple and in my opinion de-emphasize the back ground...they are the show so just a hint of back ground for sense of place is all that's necessary
- Duck
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To understand how to correct a particular problem you must first analyze what the problem is. In this case it is an imbalance of exposures between the subject in the foreground and the background. Understanding this, you can then look at the two parts and analyze them individually. In truth, the background is pretty nicely exposed. It's the couple in the foreground that are underexposed for the scene. The obvious solution is to do a global adjustment and boost the exposure so the subject is properly exposed. That means the background will likely start to blow out. Without some clever editing, this can often satisfy the problem but not here. We need to take it to the next level. 
With the problem identified and a possible solution available, there are two fairly easy solutions; use a global adjustment to brighten the image and get the underexposed subjects looking proper then use a local adjustment on the background to lower the exposure and balance the scene, or use a global adjustment to lower the background exposure a touch and add local adjustments to the subjects and balance out their exposures... Or if you're up to the challenge, do a little bit of both globally and balance out what's needed with local adjustments. This was my solution.
Here is the final adjustment I did in Lightroom (no photoshop involved), with an added recropping for drama.
Below are several screenshots of how I achieved this result. Enjoy.

With the problem identified and a possible solution available, there are two fairly easy solutions; use a global adjustment to brighten the image and get the underexposed subjects looking proper then use a local adjustment on the background to lower the exposure and balance the scene, or use a global adjustment to lower the background exposure a touch and add local adjustments to the subjects and balance out their exposures... Or if you're up to the challenge, do a little bit of both globally and balance out what's needed with local adjustments. This was my solution.
Here is the final adjustment I did in Lightroom (no photoshop involved), with an added recropping for drama.
Below are several screenshots of how I achieved this result. Enjoy.
"If you didn't learn something new today, you wasted a day."




Tutorials ⇒ How to critique photos
NOTE: If you would like me specifically to critique your image, please let me know through a private message with a link to your post.





Tutorials ⇒ How to critique photos
NOTE: If you would like me specifically to critique your image, please let me know through a private message with a link to your post.
- minniev
- Mentoris Supremus
- Posts: 5416
- Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2016 3:55 am
- Location: Mississippi
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Yes, you are right. I am a landscaper so when I add people I make them props instead of the subject.
"God gave me photography so that I could pray with my eyes" - Dewitt Jones
- minniev
- Mentoris Supremus
- Posts: 5416
- Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2016 3:55 am
- Location: Mississippi
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Thanks so much for the examples and the discussion which amounts to a small class! As is often the case, I could diagnose the problem but gave up too early on the cure. Your explanation and example will help me finish the job. I actually tried to use the range masks in LR on this one (LR is all I had with me, on my ipad) but I'm not very capable with them yet. They do show promise, but I'll need more practice. Do you use them?Duck wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2019 1:52 amTo understand how to correct a particular problem you must first analyze what the problem is. In this case it is an imbalance of exposures between the subject in the foreground and the background. Understanding this, you can then look at the two parts and analyze them individually. In truth, the background is pretty nicely exposed. It's the couple in the foreground that are underexposed for the scene. The obvious solution is to do a global adjustment and boost the exposure so the subject is properly exposed. That means the background will likely start to blow out. Without some clever editing, this can often satisfy the problem but not here. We need to take it to the next level.
With the problem identified and a possible solution available, there are two fairly easy solutions; use a global adjustment to brighten the image and get the underexposed subjects looking proper then use a local adjustment on the background to lower the exposure and balance the scene, or use a global adjustment to lower the background exposure a touch and add local adjustments to the subjects and balance out their exposures... Or if you're up to the challenge, do a little bit of both globally and balance out what's needed with local adjustments. This was my solution.
Here is the final adjustment I did in Lightroom (no photoshop involved), with an added recropping for drama.
MinnieV_J.jpg
Below are several screenshots of how I achieved this result. Enjoy.
MinnieV_J001.jpg
MinnieV_J002.jpg
MinnieV_J003.jpg
"God gave me photography so that I could pray with my eyes" - Dewitt Jones
- Duck
- Key Founding Member
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I have used range masks but on very select images. They do have their use but only for special types of adjustments. In principal,it works in a similar way to blend if in the way selections are made. In a way, but not exactly.

"If you didn't learn something new today, you wasted a day."




Tutorials ⇒ How to critique photos
NOTE: If you would like me specifically to critique your image, please let me know through a private message with a link to your post.





Tutorials ⇒ How to critique photos
NOTE: If you would like me specifically to critique your image, please let me know through a private message with a link to your post.
- minniev
- Mentoris Supremus
- Posts: 5416
- Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2016 3:55 am
- Location: Mississippi
- Editing option: Yes, feel free to edit my image
- Contact:
Thanks. I've just started trying to figure them out, this is the first time I've tried on anything other than landscapes. The radial filter is my tried-and-true solution for most things on the ipad. Adobe keeps promising they will bring "real" layers to the mobile platform but alas, not yet, and the early reviews from the beta testers indicate that the solution is not "real", meaning that it is probably like what's in Procreate or similar.
"God gave me photography so that I could pray with my eyes" - Dewitt Jones
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