Need some help on editing..

[Ballu]

During our NJ/East Coast visit, I captured our friends pics (as couple).
But changing lens with focus confirmation chip and non chip created the havoc with some of the pics.
We really want to have this pic, but it will over exposed (as I moved lens from flek to nikon 200mm wide open at f2.

The pic is overexposed by +1EV..

I am naive at best with digital processing and never touched PS... using Picture Window Pro. (but can get the access to PS if required).

These are resized pics.. thats why soft.. else focus is just on eyes.

Can some one help him.. abd provide the steps to save these.. so that can get the good print of 8x10 size...
(I want to from forum people here..., as overexposure is a common but a fatal mistake in digital photography)...



This is 100% crop of original pic (to provide the captured sharpness)


This is after some play with Picture window pro..


I am not happy with final result yet...
just in case, it can be saved...
Thanks in advance...

[Attila]

How about this ? Modified with AcdSee 9.0 autoexplosure function.

[Orio]

Ballu, send me a link to the RAW file. Do you have a place to upload it?
I will edit the picture for you, and then tell you what I have done, so that you can do it yourself next time.

I can try editing a TIF or JPG also, but it's much more difficult to obtain perfect results especially with exposure. So if you have the raw file, it's best.

[Attila]

[Orio]

I tried to edit the JPG.
Here's what I could do:



In 5 minutes I will explain the steps.

[Katastrofo]

Wow, Orio, that's excellent! You really pulled that one out of the fire!

Bill

[Ballu]

Thanks Attlia and Orio...
These are much much better than, I was able to do...

Orio,
I have just sent a mail.... with attached file.... No Raw... another misatek.. as I was capturing the pics of Party time at late night... trying to save memory and burst mode.. and forgot to change back to RAW+L in the morning... I really want to hit 200mm Nikkor on my head...

[Orio]

OK, here's my Photoshop steps:

1) first thing, I opened the "levels" window and adjusted the white and black point. For black point, I simply moved the cursor to the beginning of the curve. For white point, I decided to sacrifice some detail in the background and moved the cursor farther left, there where the main curve begins. This allowed me to have the maximum dynamic range available for further editing on the face (not to mention, whiter teeth on the womans' face)

2) I then opened "Unsharp mask" to adjust the so called "Local Contrast". I used the following settings (sorry, parameters names in Italian, but you will figure them out anyway):
- fattore = 37
- raggio = 26.6
- soglia = 6

3) for the third step I used a plugin called "black definition" of the Power Retouche suite. I selected a very narrow brightness range, to preserve the purest blacks and any color tone above the very dark grey. In other words, I have limited the action of the filter to the very dark greys only. I then slightly boosted the definition in that area, to bring out the texture on the womans' shirt. If you don't have this plugin, you can do the same thing by lasso-selecting the shirt and carefully adjust the gamma.

4) I then added the needed sharpening by way of Nik Sharpener Pro plugin, you can of course do it with any other sharpening plugin of choice or with Photoshop's own sharpening tools.

[Attila]

Wow! Great result Orio! Thank you very much the explanation!

[Orio]

[Ballu]

Orio.... Thanks very much.. I really liked the final result...
And thanks for providing the work flow....

[Orio]