overexposed image

I took a photo last night and it was way over exposed. I shot in RAW. Is here any secret to fixing this in lightroom. I brought down the exposure, etc but it still looks funny. The faces are still overexposed. They were facing the sun and I made a big boo boo. Please help!!!!

anitaw2 wrote in post #18648352
I took a photo last night and it was way over exposed. I shot in RAW. Is here any secret to fixing this in lightroom. I brought down the exposure, etc but it still looks funny. The faces are still overexposed. They were facing the sun and I made a big boo boo. Please help!!!!

It depends on how over exposed. If the highlights are off scale, no amount of processing is going to recover those. It would help to see the image and the histogram but i'm guessing that it's way to the right and that the highlights are gone.

gjl711 wrote in post #18648355
It depends on how over exposed. If the highlights are off scale, no amount of processing is going to recover those. It would help to see the image and the histogram but i'm guessing that it's way to the right and that the highlights are gone.

I'll try to post it when I get home tonight. any help would be great.

Did the highlights just turn grey and look flat with no detail?

If so, fuggedaboutit.

anitaw2 wrote in post #18648358
I'll try to post it when I get home tonight. any help would be great.

Making the RAW available for download would be ideal. Not all images can be brought back from the dead but many can.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18648362
Did the highlights just turn grey and look flat with no detail?

If so, fuggedaboutit.

ha, ha, ha, ...OMG that is funny!

anitaw2 wrote in post #18648352
I took a photo last night and it was way over exposed. I shot in RAW. Is here any secret to fixing this in lightroom. I brought down the exposure, etc but it still looks funny. The faces are still overexposed. They were facing the sun and I made a big boo boo. Please help!!!!

We'll need the file if you want us to help. Host it somewhere then give us the link.

Damo77 wrote in post #18648548
We'll need the file if you want us to help. Host it somewhere then give us the link.

Before going through that trouble, a post with the histogram will pretty much tell you all you need to know.

gjl711 wrote in post #18648570
Before going through that trouble, a post with the histogram will pretty much tell you all you need to know.

Unless it is the raw histogram, it will tell you nothing.

kirk

gjl711 wrote in post #18648570
Before going through that trouble, a post with the histogram will pretty much tell you all you need to know.

No, it really really won't.

You could take a cue from this photographer, and recover the faces this way.

https://petapixel.com …d-family-photos-go-viral/

As others have said, without seeing the image it's hard to answer this, but I'll throw this out anyhow:

When I shoot landscapes I shoot as far to the right as I can without blowing the highlights. This usually results in an image that looks very over exposed. In Lightroom I bring down the exposure, but this alone normally results in an image that still looks washed out and lacking contrast. What usually corrects this is using the black and white sliders to bring their values to be just touching the edges of the histogram, and the shadows slider to fine tune the midtones. Sometimes I'll have to adjust contrast a little, and maybe highlights (usually reducing them.)

This is basically what I find works for my stuff, don't know if it will apply to yours.

The bottom line here is that the raw file will provide the necessary information to determine how each channel is clipped - if all three channels are clipped in the raw data, there is no exposure change, highlight recovery or reconstruction that will make completely lost data reappear. In that case, manually retouching to fill in missing tone and color may be the only option.

I have done this before in the Lab color model, where gentle cloning in the L, a and b channels creates enough information to tone down the fully blown, garish areas.

kirk

TeamSpeed wrote in post #18648639
You could take a cue from this photographer, and recover the faces this way.

https://petapixel.com …d-family-photos-go-viral/

Lol... that was funny. Seems like it's all a big joke. Here's a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.c​om/imagerybylesahall/

Damo77 wrote in post #18648548
We'll need the file if you want us to help. Host it somewhere then give us the link.

I tried to upload it last night, but it was too big (27 mb). It said it can't be more than 10 mb. How can I make it smaller? and it's a raw file, can I download RAW files (I'm new to this)?