# Need help removing shadows from a portrait(I messed up guys!)



## Foxx

OK OK, forget for a moment that I royally screwed up this headshot and didn't do my homework before shooting. Forget that I didn't use a flash and used a low shutter speed. Forget that in almost every aspect this shot is crap and I should re-do them. I did these hastily for a friend who needed shots by tomorrow and didn't think about bringing the right equipment/I've never worked in a studio setting before.

HOW do I go about removing the shadows behind her in this shot? I have PS CS5 and Lightroom. I've done some googling but I'm I couldn't get any decent results with the methods I tried.(most likely because I don't know what I'm doing)

Will some kind soul take mercy on me this day and explain to me what to do?







EDIT: underexposed and I missed the white balance. I'm just going to re-shoot, but the technique would be helpful anyways. Please?


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## sierramister

Cut out the background and replace it with a new background.


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## mwcfarms

Move her further from the wall next time. Soften your light? or flash with a diffuser. Hold up a sheet or tack it to the ceiling if you have too. As for this in lightroom or PS you can if your proficient cut her out and put her on something else or you could clone it out. I would definitely fix the WB in lightroom and up the exposure a bit and even possibly fill some.


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## CCericola

You can use the quick select tool to select the girl. Then use Refine Edge to mask her out of the back ground. You can then fill the background with a hue you want. You can also fix the exposure using a curves adjustment layer. Here is a very quick, rough example.


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## Big Mike

> and I should re-do them


Live and learn.  

Fortunately, it's not too hard to fix, as mentioned above.  The more time you spend (the more careful you are) with the edge of the selection/mask, the better it can look when you replace the background.


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## Robin Usagani

What christina said but most of the time the hair edge wont look natural... or you can use Topaz remask.  If you are desperate, send the raw to me.  Should take me less than 5 minutes but I wont be home for another 7 hours .


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## Kerbouchard

In this case, I would probably go the opposite direction. I would start with the lighter, outer shadow and use the targeted adjustment tool in Adobe Camera RAW to click on the middle of the shadow and drag up until it matches the darker inner shadow. Then I would do the same for the outer wall. With the shadows relatively uniform, it should provide quick and easy results that won't look like a cutout.

Then do your global exposure and white balance corrections.

For your next shoot, obviously have your subject a bit further from the wall and don't have her shoulders turned quite so much...45-50 degrees is usually about right.


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## bazooka

Do you have the RAW file or a large jpg to work with?


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## JMBriggs

Schwettylens said:


> What christina said but most of the time the hair edge wont look natural... or you can use Topaz remask.  If you are desperate, send the raw to me.  Should take me less than 5 minutes but I wont be home for another 7 hours .



Wow Schwettylens, that was really nice of you to offer to do that for them.


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## Kerbouchard

JMBriggs said:


> Schwettylens said:
> 
> 
> 
> What christina said but most of the time the hair edge wont look natural... or you can use Topaz remask. If you are desperate, send the raw to me. Should take me less than 5 minutes but I wont be home for another 7 hours .
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Wow Schwettylens, that was really nice of you to offer to do that for them.
Click to expand...


It would be even nicer if he did a good job on his edits...

In any case, I'm more a proponent of, "If you give a man a fish..."


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## KmH

Foxx said:


> I'm just going to re-shoot, but the technique would be helpful anyways. Please?


When you take a portrait, turn the camera to the portrait frame orientation.


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## ang1995

What about this? I'm not a pro or anything so it's not the best!


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## o hey tyler

Kerbouchard said:


> JMBriggs said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Schwettylens said:
> 
> 
> 
> What christina said but most of the time the hair edge wont look natural... or you can use Topaz remask. If you are desperate, send the raw to me. Should take me less than 5 minutes but I wont be home for another 7 hours .
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Wow Schwettylens, that was really nice of you to offer to do that for them.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> *
> It would be even nicer if he did a good job on his edits...*
> 
> In any case, I'm more a proponent of, "If you give a man a fish..."
Click to expand...


What an underhanded, unprovoked, and rude comment... That's not really the "Christian way", now is it?


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## MissCream

Here is my edit, if Schwetty doesn't edit it for you I can


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## Foxx

Thank you all for your amazing edits,

and even to those that dissed me. I know I deserved it, these were horrible shots/edits I made with too much haste. :thumbdown: Not at all proud of these. 

MissCream, how did you go about getting those results? I have a few more I would like to shop/chop but I don't want to throw the work off on others 

Schwetty: thank you muchly for the kind offer, but if I don't learn from my mistakes now I'll never learn! and KmH, you always for pointing out the stupidity in my shots >.< basic, BASIC mistake.


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## MissCream

I did a few things, I played with the curves (ctrl+m and moved the middle of the line up and the very bottom left to the right). Dodged a bit on the left side of her face. I used auto contrast & tone (I don't usually do that but in this case it worked). I matched the color of the background around the shadow and painted that color over the shadow. Then I used a little bit of lens blur on her face in a different layer, masked it and put it where I wanted it. After that I made another layer, smart sharpened it, masked it and made it sharp on the eyes, mouth and hair only. I hope this makes a little sense, I'm awful at explaining myself! Oh and I also did some burning around her eyelashes.


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## KmH

It's inexperience, not stupidity.


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## SimpleFoto

Ok,  I know I'm a little late to this party but here is my edit and a video showing how I did it.












Thanks Foxx for letting me use the image in a tutorial


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## bianni

here is another way to do it, using layer mask. duplicate the image and put a blank layer below it and fill it using the gradient tool. apply layer mask on the top layer and brush away the original bg to reveal the new bg layer below it. vary the softness or hardness of the brus depending on the edge that you are erasing. Adjust with curves to lighten a bit,  merge.


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## MaMaManda

Same thing here who can explain how to fix this =/


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## bianni

Select the image and place in another layer and make a different bg


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