Calling Photoshop experts

[hatmandue]

Can any of you work your magic on this photo, I would like the people to be more visible.

[S.Horton]

Hope this helps.

Enjoy.

http://midnightblue.smugmug.com/photos/366626903_9R4zY-L.jpg

[hatmandue]

Thank you

[S.Horton]

You're most welcome.

More people may pop by, and if they are better than I am (many are) or take more time, you'll get something even nicer!

[PixelMagic]

Is this an original image? There's major banding in the sky and an obvious halo around the couple.

[Nathan]

I tried. I appreciate the practice... I find that underexposed images are very hard to improve without introducing noise. Someone can probably do it better.

[MattMoore]

That's a tough one.

303133

I did this in about 3 minutes, looks fake to me now. :cry:

[OL9245]

th'ats a tough restoration. Here is what I did.
take a mask of the couple,
treat the couple with curbes, WB, denoise, and the rest jus as if it was a separate image.
then paste a patch of the sky ans set it in front of the couple with low opacity to help the PPed couple merging into the original BG.

http://masla.smugmug.com/photos/367245475_AkGTn-X3.jpg

[Nathan]

I think other people are doing better with the sharpening of the two subjects than I did... but everyone is still getting the halo. For anyone interested... I took the halo by doing this:

3 layers - original on bottom, then a duplicate layer of the original, then the couple on top. On the couple layer, I saw a bit of a halo... so I selected everything but the couple, then used refine selection to expand the selection by 2 or 3 pixels. Hit delete. Then on the duplicate layer, I smudged the bright halo areas and any dark outlines underneath the couple... sort of like sweeping the dust under the rug. Then, any visible area that looked like it was too smudged, I took the eraser to erase those areas of the duplicate layer to reveal the original background.

Maybe if someone can do a really good job sharpening and use that method to get rid of the halo, we'll have a winner.

Unfortunately, because of the way this picture was taken... I'm afraid it's going to look like someone cut and pasted the couple onto the background.

[hatmandue]

To everyone that has made an attempt to fix this photo I really appreciate your help.:lol:
The picture was taken using timer mode and the camera was placed on a rock (no tripod available), I used a Rebel XT with the L series 24-70 lens. What should I have done in setting up this photo to enhance the quality?

[OL9245]

manual exposure on your wife was a requirement. Your camera has been fooled by the sun.
You may have taken the time to take a picture of your wife alone, check the image and histogram, and do the timer mode only when you are okay with the image. in all cases, never take an image in any auto mode with a shining sun in the viewfinder. You need manual for that sort of picture.

[Electric Shepherd]

Actually it's the moon, not the sun! {although it has a similar effect on fooling the cameras metering}

It's a pretty challenging exposure to be honest.

Here's my quick attempt:

[OL9245]

Actually it's the moon, not the sun! {although it has a similar effect on fooling the cameras metering}

It's a pretty challenging exposure to be honest.

Here's my quick attempt:

Oooops! now you mentioned it, its so obvious I cant understand how I took it for the sun. The mood is so special.

I like Your edit very much BTW

[scorpio_e]

To everyone that has made an attempt to fix this photo I really appreciate your help.:lol:
The picture was taken using timer mode and the camera was placed on a rock (no tripod available), I used a Rebel XT with the L series 24-70 lens. What should I have done in setting up this photo to enhance the quality?

I would have used a flash. and expose for the background.

[PhotosGuy]

There are many other ways to do it, but the simplest is using a Layer Mask for local changes. Post #9:
Airport runway shoot (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=117950)

Adjustment Layers (http://www.bairarteditions.com/pages/tutorials/photoshop/layadjust.html) for local changes. Note what's said in the "Advanced Tip".

[hatmandue]

@ PhotosGuy- Wow, that should keep me busy fixing all the underexposed pictures I have. Thanks for the post!

[scorpio_e]

There are many other ways to do it, but the simplest is using a Layer Mask for local changes. Post #9:
Airport runway shoot (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=117950)

Adjustment Layers (http://www.bairarteditions.com/pages/tutorials/photoshop/layadjust.html) for local changes. Note what's said in the "Advanced Tip".

Nice tutorial Frank:)