Anybody know how to fix this?

[Notes_Norton]

It's a picture I took a long time ago in Mexico. I scanned the slide and before I work on noise, color, contrast, etc., I'd like to get rid of the shadow on the right hand side of the signs.

 

Is there any way to do this?

 

It's just for my own enjoyment and learning.

 

http://www.nortonmusic.com/pix/Bumps.jpg

[KuruPrionz]

It will be time consuming but my first thought is that you could select, copy and paste parts from the areas of the signs that are not in shadow and that way everything should match nicely.

You will learn all sort of fun stuff about reversing images, changing sized slightly, etc.

 

I would to the white area around the perimeter first, then the white area inside the red triangle and then the red triangle.

 

Trying to leave the shadowed areas alone and "unshadow" them will probably drive you insane and selecting, filling with the same color will lose some of the realism, texture and detail of the image, especially the edges.

[Notes_Norton]

Thanks. I've already been driven crazy by this one. It seemed like it would be a simple thing to do.

 

I thought I'd put a mask around the shadowed part and then lighten it up, but as hard as I tried to contain all the shadowed part and only the shadowed part, Elements had a mind of its own. As carefully as I drew the outline, Elements would move the border I drew either to omit part of the sign, or include some of the area around the sign.

 

I took this on as a project to learn something, It's turning out to be teaching me something other than what I intended to learn. How to control frustration.

 

I'll try your suggestion and see what happens. If I learn how to do this, it could come in handy on a picture more important than this one.

 

This one brought back nice memories of Mrs. Notes and I in a rented VW cruising through Mexico to explore Mayan archeological sites. That was back probably in the 1980s so I would have taken it with my Pentax K1000. The slides have all deteriorated and some of them are not worth trying to clean (I learned that the hard way). I used film from the Seattle Film Works for a while, supposedly discarded end of motion picture film reels. Those faded the most, although some of my Kodachrome and Ectachrome slides are faded too. Plus I don't live in an air-conditioned home (by choice) so there is some mold growth on some that seems to be impossible to remove without removing the picture as well (I'm practicing on slides I should have tossed when they came back from the lab).

 

It's an adventure.

 

Notes

[Lou Gehrig Charles]

The best "fix", of course, would have been to wait about five minutes for that shadow to move off of the sign. LOL Easier said than done of course, since the photo was taken a long time ago and far away. Just try convincing the wife you want to stand there for another five minutes.... Probably wasn't going to happen.

[KuruPrionz]

With almost 30 years since I started using Photoshop, I've done everything the wrong way more than I care to keep track of and I learned from every wrong move.

 

You should be able to make accurate selections in Elements, I suspect a setting is at a lower tolerance than you need to get total accuracy.

 

And, having tried lots of ways to correct a color, I've found the easiest way is to use the actual color and object so everything matches.

Or, as one of my instructors used to say "which color of white is it?"

[KenElevenShadows]

Someone who is gifted at Photoshop could do that, probably be taking the other corner and reversing it, fitting it in, and then applying a combination of the healing brush and possibly a little bit of cloning. that in theory should work.

 

I just don't do this kind of work.

[KenElevenShadows]

The other way to do it, again in theory, would be to somehow paint over the area. I think lightening it would be challenging because you would need to match the exact same color.

 

Another possible way would be to attempt a color replacement, swapping out the colors.

 

I think the approach in my prior post would be the way a Photoshop master would approach it first, if I had to guess.

[KuruPrionz]

Someone who is gifted at Photoshop could do that, probably be taking the other corner and reversing it, fitting it in, and then applying a combination of the healing brush and possibly a little bit of cloning. that in theory should work.

 

I just don't do this kind of work.

 

Great minds think in similar paths. The reason I suggested doing the colors separately and the bottom (white) first (taking a piece of it from another part of the sign) is that neither sign has the graphics installed in perfect alignment with the shape of the sign. You can see the thickness of the white at the bottom changing since the red is crooked. That means you probably want to find a piece of the white from the same area on one of the other sides. That should be the closest and one is probably better than the others.

 

There is also a detail along the edge, especially along the bottom of the higher sign. Lots of little things that need to be represented even if faked from another spot for the photo to look real.

It's quite a project, these days I'd quote high in hopes that the customer would go away. And professional Photoshop work does go cheap on the interwebz but I am not sure of the quality.

Too many workers and not enough work.

 

Worst case, it's a great learning experience for Notes. I did a lot of jobs way too cheap since I was getting paid the same anyway. They were learning curve jobs that gave me the chance to grow new skills - that I mostly never use at all now, so it goes...

[Notes_Norton]

The best "fix", of course, would have been to wait about five minutes for that shadow to move off of the sign. LOL Easier said than done of course, since the photo was taken a long time ago and far away. Just try convincing the wife you want to stand there for another five minutes.... Probably wasn't going to happen.

Wise thoughts, but we were on our way to some ancient Mayan ruins that wouldn't wait until after dark.

 

The wife would have waited if we didn't have a time constraint on the destination. She takes pictures too.

 

Notes

[Notes_Norton]

<...snip>Worst case, it's a great learning experience for Notes. I did a lot of jobs way too cheap since I was getting paid the same anyway. They were learning curve jobs that gave me the chance to grow new skills - that I mostly never use at all now, so it goes...

This is exactly why I decided to do it. Perhaps it's too big of a step for a newbie, but I've been known to skip the baby steps before, sometimes with good results, sometimes with terrible results. But each case teaches me something.

 

The picture is not a great picture, it's a bit amusing to me (would be more so if a busty girl in a bikini was further down the road but still in view). It's just a fond memory of a trip through Mexico in a rented VW, exploring Pre-Columbian sites. When I get to the other slides, it might make a humorous first slide in a slide show. Then again, it might not.

 

I'll try some of the other suggestions.

 

Thanks so much to you all for your generous help.

 

Notes

[KuruPrionz]

<...snip>Worst case, it's a great learning experience for Notes. I did a lot of jobs way too cheap since I was getting paid the same anyway. They were learning curve jobs that gave me the chance to grow new skills - that I mostly never use at all now, so it goes...

This is exactly why I decided to do it. Perhaps it's too big of a step for a newbie, but I've been known to skip the baby steps before, sometimes with good results, sometimes with terrible results. But each case teaches me something.

 

The picture is not a great picture, it's a bit amusing to me (would be more so if a busty girl in a bikini was further down the road but still in view). It's just a fond memory of a trip through Mexico in a rented VW, exploring Pre-Columbian sites. When I get to the other slides, it might make a humorous first slide in a slide show. Then again, it might not.

 

I'll try some of the other suggestions.

 

Thanks so much to you all for your generous help.

 

Notes

 

If you have a photo of a busty girl in a bikini, you could always put her in the background. Another challenge and not an easy one!!!!!

 

Since I was a photo major, I always say "look at the light, not the picture". That's the first step anyway.

[Notes_Norton]

Nah. I wouldn't want my wife putting a hunk in one of her pictures (do unto others).

 

BTW, that was my first attempt at a watermark.

 

Every day I learn something, even if it's what not to do.

 

"Look at the light, not the picture." Thanks for the advice.

 

Notes

[KenElevenShadows]

This is interesting. Now, I have a lot of photography videos showing up on my YouTube feed anyway, but it's sort of a coincidence nonetheless that this shows up a day after I post suggestions about this very topic.

 

Have a look. It looks simple enough, and allegedly only takes about ten minutes. And this would be less complex than a shadow on someone's face, I would think, and also that the shadow is less complex in general.

 

[video:youtube]

[KenElevenShadows]

I used the above technique. I got reasonably far with it but you can still tell that it's an edit. I spent about ten minutes on it after figuring out the steps.

 

It's obviously not super great, and you can tell that there is an edit.

 

I had more problems with the top shadowy area because there is this weird smudge in the original, and it was difficult to get it to blend. I also attempted to do that one first, so maybe I wasn't as good at it. The technique appears to work, though, and I wanted to show you that the video has merit and is relatively easy to do...and that's a good thing since I seriously suck at Photoshop.

 

[KuruPrionz]

We are limited on MPN with regards to image size, under 1mb each is a fairly small file. It looks fine to me but it's probably been downsized and detail may be missing.

 

From your description that the edit is still visible, my first guess would be that the softness of the brush may need adjusting. The tutorial video shows a touch-up job on a woman's face, a soft edged brush will compromise detail but in that particular case, compromising detail is often completely intentional since a sharp lens can be brutal used for portraiture. Softening portraits in Photoshop has replaced soft-focus lenses for the most part.

 

Objects have no ego and sharp lenses simply bring out the texture of objects, not a worry. You may need to adjust your tools to match the project, it's worth a try and another learning experience.

 

There is always more than one way to get desired results in Photoshop and this way has worked for you up to a point. Adjusting the softness of the brush may get you there and it may create other artifacts that also look edited - particularly at the edges. The clone tool may be helpful in hiding the transitions but you will need to zoom in tight, choose a small brush and again, adjust the sharpness of that brush. You would have needed to do that with the technique I posted earlier - sorry no video, I'm just not that into Photoshop anymore.

 

In fact, I bought Elements 2021 a while ago, opened it once for a couple of minutes and haven't thought about it since then... Cheers, Kuru

[Notes_Norton]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

 

I'm going to try my hand at this tonight.

 

Notes

[KenElevenShadows]

I had the softest brush possible. It's just a bit of need for color matching and getting rid of some of the artifacts that were already present.

 

If someone took more than the ten minutes I spent during my inaugural attempt to fix it, I am sure that they would do quite well, better than this.

 

I just thought I would give the YouTube video a try since I had posted it. I was curious about how it would do. It's conceptually easy too, which I like. And I learned a few things about blurring the outlines and the Smudge Tool.

[KuruPrionz]

Well, I didn't watch the entire thing.

Ken, is one layer color and another texture?

Just a curiosity question, I've done things like that before and it's probably a better way. In that case, with the selection defined it would not matter what kind of brush you used if it only applied color.

[KenElevenShadows]

Curves & Color. But really, only the Curves is necessary. He's using the Color layer to turn it black and white to see the changes, but then deletes it after that. You're not brushing on color at all.

[KuruPrionz]

Curves & Color. But really, only the Curves is necessary. He's using the Color layer to turn it black and white to see the changes, but then deletes it after that. You're not brushing on color at all.

 

Got it, thanks. More than one way to skin a cat and more than one cat needs skinning. Over the years, I've fallen behind as Photoshop and users who've stayed the course have moved forward.

The guitar called to me, decades before Photoshop. And the call is not to be ignored, I've no regrets. I LOVE to play guitar, always. There were plenty of moments during Photoshop sessions when I wondered what the hell I was even doing there.

[KenElevenShadows]

I'm not very good at Photoshop. I know what I need to do and not much more than that. I don't cut/paste objects (unless it's for high comedy, like putting the Starship Enterprise on my profile pics) or manipulate or things like that. I do know how to do star trails and reduce noise and sharpen reasonably well, but that's hardly the domain of a Photoshop guru. I mean, almost anyone can do that.

 

But what you say is true. There are always multiple ways to do things in Photoshop. That's part of what makes it such an amazing program. If you want a powerful program that can do just about anything, it's probably impossible to beat. Most people don't need that, so for many, Luminar 4 or Luminar AI or Affinity or Photoshop Elements are more than adequate.

 

As an aside, I've been using Pro Tools for the last umpteen years. However, I don't have a subscription model. I am using (I believe) 10.3.2 on a 2006 Mac Pro. It sounds great and runs better than ever because I have an SSD there and don't do anything else with the computer, so it runs better than it did back 2006.

[Notes_Norton]

The first attempt was utter failure. Of course, it isn't failure until I quit trying, instead it's part of the learning curve. You have to know what NOT to do as well.

 

One of the Photoshop tools used in the video is missing in Elements. I found another video expressly for Elements

so I'll try that one.

 

Duh! It never occurred to me to search UTube for tutorials. I've done that for guitar lessons, how to change a fan in a ThinkPad, household plumbing tips, but for some reason picture editing other than a link from Adobe didn't enter this brain.

 

After some Band-in-a-Box work, I'll try this new one.

 

Notes

[Notes_Norton]

Next attempt better, but still not acceptable. Perhaps I need to learn more basics before I go back to this. I'll bookmark this thread to come back to and put 'shadowland' on the back burner while I learn more basics on how to use the tools in Elements.

 

Thanks again for all the help. I'm not done with it yet!!! Just taking a breather.

 

Notes