Kim reached out to me today with the editing challenge of all editing challenges…a photo that was completely blown out (and I was tempted to title this “Blow Out,” but thought all of my “13 year old boy” followers might laugh too hard).
I completely understand the dilemma…you’re out with a friend and want to be in FRONT of the camera instead of BEHIND it. So, you pass off your camera to your husband/friend/trust-worthy looking stranger, etc. and cross your fingers that the photo you set up will turn out the way you planned. Well, I know from personal experience that it doesn’t always turn out that way and your husband looks at you with a blank stare…followed by “these pictures look like crap.” Well, maybe that’s just my husband. In which case, you begrudgingly throw your camera into auto mode and try again.
Before you scroll down to my “after,” let me warn you that this is by no means perfection. I do not have a step-by-step plan for fixing these situations and lost track of my steps for this one. However, if you come across this situation and you can’t replicate the picture (or have a better copy amongst your set), there are multiple ways to balance it back out. For me, I used a combination of the burn tool, the eye dropper and paint technique, the multiply blending mode and PATIENCE.
If you want to try your hand at fixing this photo…let me know and we’ll pull together a competition. In the meantime…Kim, you win the award today for the most complicated photo editing challenge!
Care suggested that she’d like to see my BW conversion. In an effort to give the people what they want…here’s my attempt:
