Affinity Photo Overexposure

[eddietheone]

Hi all.

 

Could someone point me to a video or help please.

I am trying to save a photo of two women for someone that was taken with a flash and was way overexposed, The flash has pretty much blown out a white blouse on one of them and the faces and skin tones are also pretty well blown out. Focus may also be a bit out but that can be ignored. I have tried searching around on here and utube but cannot find anything that really shows me how best to set about this.

My efforts with filters etc so far tend to bring up a mixed bag with strange lines appearing or weird shadows rearing their ugly heads so if anyone does know of a video or tutorial that can get me going I would appreciate it.

 

Cheers Edward

[Dan C]

Hi eddietheone, 

Would it be possible to upload/show the image you are trying to recover?

Lee

[smadell]

Did you shoot in Raw? If so, uploading the raw file would be best!

[eddietheone]

Hi Sorry to be a bit slow in replying but I was away from the computer over the weekend and this forum wouldn't allow me to log on for some reason.

The photo was taken in the 80's and is about twice the size of a 35mm thumbnail in reality.

However I have hopefully attached the photo to this message so any pointers will be gratefully received.Scan two Final zz.afphoto

[thomaso]

The photo is overexposed in the lights + underexposed in the shadows. APhoto offers various ways / tools for the correction.

Here is just a rough illustration (with exaggerated settings) of a possible workflow. It used the auto-selections of highlights / shadows (menu Select > Tonal Range > …) which obviously would need to get more specified in the adjustment masks to reduce the effect for certain parts (e.g. hair) and to blur the edges of the selection. For a more flexible + detailed selection process you can use the Selection Brush + the Refine options.

A Curves adjustment gives more options (custom curves) than a Level adjustment (linear sliders), though they both affect the same (contrast + peaks). Alternatively they also can get altered in the Developer persona with slightly different tools (in V1 less flexibly / less undoable). The Histogram panels can help to check the affecting adjustments, especially for the resulting min/max values (at the diagram edges).

[David in Яuislip]

Develop persona
Blackpoint 25%
Highlights -70%
WB Temp 6%

Photo persona
Sponge to desaturate red eyes
Sharpen to taste

Also try duplicating the layer, set blend mode to multiply and opacity to ~35%

[Ldina]

1 hour ago, David in Яuislip said:

Develop persona
Blackpoint 25%
Highlights -70%
WB Temp 6%

I liked David's move into the Develop Persona, which I used in the following edit (I used different settings). Then I did some additional non-destructive edits in AP, including a Recolor Adjustment to add some more color to their skin. This was a tough photo to work on because so much of the image was blown out in the highlights. Perhaps the attached file will give you a few ideas on how to touch up old photos. There are many approaches and techniques, depending on the image and the nature of the problem. Layers are in tact in this AfPhoto file. Hope this helps.

Scan two Final zz-edited.afphoto

[Ldina]

oops...I mean to include a screenshot too. Here it is.

[smadell]

Good morning, @eddietheone. I couldn't resist the chance to throw my hat in the ring. I darkened tones and corrected skin and hair colors (first and foremost) with 2 Curves layers. I gave the lips a tiny bit of extra color, and got rid of the annoying (to me, at least) halos at the edges of the girls' faces. Added a touch of Vibrance to enhance. And I darkened and blurred the background, and put a very light High Pass filter on at the end. JPG and .afphoto files attached…

Overexposure Edit.afphoto

[Pšenda]

4 hours ago, thomaso said:

The photo is overexposed in the lights + underexposed in the shadows.

It looks like over-illuminating nearby objects with a flash that tried in vain to illuminate even a very distant background.

[eddietheone]

Many thanks to everbodywho has joined this thread. It has been very instructive to see what everyone has done and the paths they took to get the effects. I will next week be attempting to try these options as my learning option for any future photos that come my way. It is amazing the effects you can produce with Affinity for sure and again many thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions.