The sun was too bright - anyway to fix it?

I am still a photography "newbie". I love taking pictures and always have but I am just starting to dablbe in photography. I took this photo of my sister's family in bright overhead sun - first time taking photos in bright light like that. Now the photo is covered in hot spots. Is there anyway to fix this?

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Shadows and highlights adjustment in Photo Shop will help...
You could however use a reflector to put some light on the dark side of there faces during shooting or have them face the light and use a flash to lift the shadows...I beleive that Flash in AV mode is good for this.......

Cute pic. I worked it a little in ps.. curves with some dodging and burning.. pretty blown out though.

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Hi there...

Welcome to POTN...

Actually, if you look at the Histogram, there's not that much by way of blown highlights in the image...

I suppose it would be too much to hope that you shot RAW & JPEG

If you had the RAW file, there is much you can do with this to improve the look & feel...

Otherwise, try adjusting Shadows & Highlights both about 30% which improves it immediatley... Add some UnSharp Mask to sharpen it up a tad... example follows... (Note compression for uploading kills it a bit - but you'll get the idea...)

Cheers;

Lee

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Thanks for all of the tips. I didn't think the histogram was absolutley horrid either but I just didn't know where to start. I also need to take out the electirc box thingy on the side of the house. They wanted it by their house so I took it where they wanted it. I wish she had picked a shader spot. I took pics of them in other locations and they turned out great. it also didn't help that it was soooo windy that day and the baby did NOT want to cooperate!

There are two methods that I use to take images such as this group portrait, either shoot into the sun or use a flash.

My suggestion to photoshop this image would be,
1. start with Shadow / highlights tool to lift shadows
2. Duplicate image, set to screen mode
3. Set a black mask for the duplicate image
4. paint on the mask with a soft white brush to lighten the shadow area.
5. adjust opacity of the duplicate to taste, flatten.

You will only be able to regain detail which is already lost ( ie over-exposed.) by using healing brush type tools, although there is almost insufficient information to do this in this size image.

Well here is my attempt...

Is there a way to avoid this when taking the photo?

I was thinking maybe fill flash or something to overpower the ambient

smorter wrote in post #5708315
Is there a way to avoid this when taking the photo?

I was thinking maybe fill flash or something to overpower the ambient

This isn't my skill area (portraits), but I've been reading lots so hopefully I've picked up some good tips along the way. If anyone wants to correct me please feel free to do so. I'd like to learn too ....

I think the common wisdom is to keep the sun off the front of your subjects altogether, at least if it is very bright and strong. Sunrise and sunset will be different. Bright sun shining into their faces will make them squint. Bright sunlight above them will cast strong shadows into eye sockets, under noses and chins, and anything else that sticks out! As you have found, bright sidelighting creates hot spots (ditto overhead sun).

Your choices are....

- Place the sun behind them and use a reflector or flash to provide fill;

- Place them in a shaded spot (even shade, not dappled) and use your flash to provide a catchlight in the eyes and pop them from the background, just a little. I think open shade is the term we're looking for - in the shadow side of a wall/building, for example. Shade in a forest would work too, so long as you have even lighting on your subjects and not dappled sunlight dancing through the leaves. Go off camera with your flash, to the side, in order to create more depth in their features;

- Hope for kinder weather - light cloud makes a wonderful natural softbox;

- Shoot at sunset or sunrise, when the sun is battling through the atmoshpere and is softer, warmer, and less direct. A reflector may be an advantage.

- Take some seriously powerful flash gear so you can dominate ambient light completely and light your subject almost entirely with flash alone. I don't think a pop up flash would really cut it. You may also find your background vanishing, which may or may not be what you want.

- Have the sun facing towards them, from the side a little, but use a large diffuser to soften the light and remove the harsh shadows and squinting. A big white sheet held by a couple of assistants, or a clothes line, should do it. Effectively you'll be creating your own "open shade" and at the same time adding soft side lighting to enhance features in a flattering way.

smorter wrote in post #5708315
Is there a way to avoid this when taking the photo?

I was thinking maybe fill flash or something to overpower the ambient

You can try to expose the background correctly and use a flash for the people a try is always a try

luigis wrote in post #5709983
You can try to expose the background correctly and use a flash for the people a try is always a try

That's a good technique for when the background is brighter than the subject. In this case it would clip highlights even worse.

Using Lightroom I adjusted the exposure, recovery and fill light sliders to balance out the lighting as best I could. Slight +10 boost to Vibrance to bring a little more color back from the harsh lighting. 30% noise reduction to remove some of the jpg artifacting. You could sharpen it a bit, but with the jpg artifacting in the posted image I didn't bother sharpening at all.

_

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My try, not as bight and a little softer appearance.
.

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Here's a quick try. With a high resolution image and an investment of some time you should be able to get a decent result even though the side lighting was quite harsh.

My quick attempt.

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE