HEEEEEELLLP!

[Phil]

It was my sisters wedding yesterday and almost straight away my external flash decided not to play ball! It wasn't a particularly formal affair so there was no official photographer... Just me. To say I'm gutted is an understatement.

Anyway, it was either on-board flash or high ISO.

 

This one of the couple signing the register is one I'm particularly keen to get right. What I'm after is for you PS experts out there to work your magic, both are big files to give you the best chance.

If you do have a go please include your workflow so I can follow should I like what I see

 

Don't worry about posting at full size as I will obviously be working on the RAW file.

 

Both are straight from camera with no editing.

 

First, no flash.

 

 

 

 

Second, with flash.

 

[colinb]

I'll give it a go...

[Phil]

I'll give it a go...

 

Please do

 

Obviously I've had a go but I'm not really sure I like the final result.

[bugmeister]

I'll come back to these if nobody else jumps in, but the first thing that comes to mind is the white balance which could be adjusted in RAW  particularly for the flash shot..

[colinb]

phil how does this look?

I have tried to keep it simple, started by burning the desk area I set the lasso 20 pixel feather, set burn to 'highlights' exposure 20% - this will darken the desk.

 

Then -image/adjustments/auto levels -I also pulled the slider in on levels a tad from the left.

 

one problem I can't save the edit as a jepg for some reason? So this has been save as a png.

 

 

forgot to add ... the other picture looks very blown out on the desk, I can have a go but I don't think it will look very good.

 

Click image to view large

Edited August 18, 2013 by colinb

[colinb]

similar with this one, darkened the window area and table using the lasso tool and levels.

 

and I dropped the saturation a little on this one

 

... when I post the right file (cloned off a mark on the wall too)

 

Edited August 18, 2013 by colinb

[ChrisLumix]

I couldn't work on the large pictures as this forum won't let me 'swipe' them, so this is my efforts on the small pictures instead. (Edit: my mistake = 'swiping' the small picture actually copied the large picture to my desktop so I had to reduce it down from 4MB !!!!)

 

For the first, I did the following :

1. In Shadows/Highlights I reduced the highlights about 50%
2. I cooled the temperature a little (it was too red)
3. and adjusted the tint away from magenta and towards green, a little, also to improve the colour balance

[ChrisLumix]

For the second, it was much easier. I just brought out detail using the Shadows slider, nothing else.

 

 

(looking at final result and comparing it with the first shot, I'd actually up the levels a bit (highlights) and adjust the colour balance a bit more, away from red)).

Edited August 18, 2013 by ChrisLumix

[Phil]

Thanks for the input all, much appreciated. I'll put my effort up when others have had chance to have a say (assuming they wish to).

 

As said, if I only manage to salvage this shot I'd be happy.