Photo touchup, where to start?

[clickcanada]

I am very new to this digital photo thing, and am just getting started with Elements. I know how to crop, adjust contrast and use the heal tool, that is about it.
I took this pic tonight at the sun was setting, and when I got home I realized that it is not a terrible pic, but the top is over exposed, and the front too dark in the shadows of the trees behind me.

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I would love to hear how I could have done this better while shooting, and what can be done to fix the background. Oh, I was using a D70 set to ISO 500, A mode at 4.8 handheld with no flash.

Thanks for the help:redface:

Michael

Oh, I am thinking that my next purchase will be a SB600/800, it may be more usefull than new glass.

 

[Gale]

What software do you have.
Shadow/highlights in PSCS or higher.

Use fill flash nest time
Try levels or curves if no s/h available:>)))

Can be recovered. Pretty picture.

 

[Gale]

Shadow/highlights and highpass sharpen a 5.0 for the first one and a glow action on the second one, over the first one.
Kind of a small image to work with. But will give you ideas

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View attachment 91564

 

[clickcanada]

Thanks Gale, much appreciated. I have Elements 5.0, and it has the shadow/highlights feature. I will have to play with it a bit when I have a few min, I think I will be able to rescue a bunch of photos with that one tool alone. In my begining steps with learning all of this, I have taken a lot of pics that are very dark as a result of not really understanding how to use ISO and appature settings. All a part of the fun I guess! :tongue:

 

[Dave]

Or you could do it as a sunset shot...

(this was done quickly and crudely, but you get the idea)
Before

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After

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[MurphyD]

Michael,
I haven't been doing this long, but I use Elements 5.0 and I really had to learn how to do this problem. Here is the easiest process I have found
1.New Layer
2.Select the two figures using either the Magic Selection Brush or the Magnetic Lasso tool
3.Clean up the edges with Selection Brush Tool
4.Adjust Levels for the two figures. Adjusting Levels means you move the right slider to the left and the left slider to the right until the sliders are under the edges of your information graph.
5.Menu item Select>Inverse
6.Adjust Levels for the rest of your image (sea and sky)
7.Menu item Select>Deselect.
8.You may have to do a Levels on the pooch only to get it right

When you look at the two information graphs you will see that the graph for the two figures is piled up on the left and sea/sky is piled up on the right. You are telling the computer or printer to display only that part of the picture that has information in it.

Look at my thread https://www.nikoncafe.com/vforums/showthread.php?t=112089 and you will see the same problem. Bright background/dark foreground.

I learned this and another few hundred items on the very helpful forum since January. So it really feels good to pass it on to another. PM if you need more help to work through it.

David
P.S. Shoot in RAW format. It makes this kind of stuff SO much easier and look a lot better.