Don't let the sun go down on me

[sunshinewashere]

http://www.sunshinewashere.com/photo/nyukiss.jpg

I imagine there will be a few people who say this is too dark (ah those last moments of dusk!). Nevertheless, thought I'd share. I like it when people gaze at each other longingly... :)

[Stevie@JC]

I can honestly say i like the lightin on the pic an the others will disagree thanks for sharing

[bikerider]

A great capture of a lovely moment, yeah' so it's a bit dark but the essential elements are clear leaving a nice feel, well done.
Roger.

[Art Rodriguez]

That is a tender moment that you have captured very well.

Art

[KaplanMultimedia]

Very nice image. I do like the lighting a lot but I would still like to see the over-all levels brought up a bit.

[sunshinewashere]

I guess I do have a technical query... does anybody know any trick for lighting or post-producing darker skin tones in such a way that doesn't compromise the levels of the rest of the shot?

I ran into a problem with this in that I want to be able to see the gentleman's face a little more clearly, without ruining the darkness of the background or blowing out her face which are both more or less as I want them. I have tried copying him from the shot and pasting a seperate layer of him on top with a lower opacity so that I could try to lift him a little bit while retaining some of the detail of the original, but it ends up looking unnatural.

Any and all suggestions much appreciated, esp. from the Photoshop gurus out there!

-Aaron

[KaplanMultimedia]

I guess I do have a technical query... does anybody know any trick for lighting or post-producing darker skin tones in such a way that doesn't compromise the levels of the rest of the shot?

I ran into a problem with this in that I want to be able to see the gentleman's face a little more clearly, without ruining the darkness of the background or blowing out her face which are both more or less as I want them. I have tried copying him from the shot and pasting a seperate layer of him on top with a lower opacity so that I could try to lift him a little bit while retaining some of the detail of the original, but it ends up looking unnatural.

Any and all suggestions much appreciated, esp. from the Photoshop gurus out there!

-Aaron

I think the fastest and easiest way would be to try using the dodge tool. Just select an appropriate sized brush with a soft edge and paint around the area you want. You can experiment with the exposure level, (start with a lower number, maybe around 10%) and also try using the different range settings, i.e: shadows, mid-tones, highlights. You can always undo it if you're not happy with the results.