How to correct overexposed shot in PS?


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Madmax

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Nov 22, 2003
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I am terrible in PS. Need to seek advice.

Is there a way to correct overexposed shots in PS?

My wife went on a Japan working stint for 2 months. She took some photos using a Lumix FX2. But some photos were overexposed (eg. Face is white!). I check the camera and the EV was set to +1.

Any help is appreciated.
 

Madmax said:
I am terrible in PS. Need to seek advice.

Is there a way to correct overexposed shots in PS?

My wife went on a Japan working stint for 2 months. She took some photos using a Lumix FX2. But some photos were overexposed (eg. Face is white!). I check the camera and the EV was set to +1.

Any help is appreciated.

Not much can be done. Usually very little information is captured by the camera for the areas that are overexposed, meaning there are very little details that you can salvage regardless how you adjust the levels or the curves.

But if your files are in RAW format (not sure if Lumix FX2 shoots RAW) which stores everything that the camara captures. It is sometime possible to rescue areas that are over/under exposed by a stop using the software supplied by the manufacturers or the raw plugin by Adobe.
 

Nope. FX2 is just a P&S without RAW. I quite suspected it is impossible to rescue the images.

Thanks for your help.
 

depending on level of overexposure, like what taku1a said. Over exposed pics will lose on details and that means that it cannot be salvaged.

but mild overexposure can still be corrected in PS.

using layer.

duplicate the current pic on a new layer and set blending mode to multiply.
keep repeating and use transparency to 'fine tune'.

after that adjust the colour balance of the picture with your normal curves or levels.
 

The results may be functional but won't be pretty though.
 

If you are terrible in PS. The easiest way is just do auto level
 

if everything else fails and the picture is a keeper, the paintbrush is the tool you need.

It is best if you still have some detail in the over exposed area.
Dupe the layer and fill the base layer with white, adjust the image layer to the best that it can be.
Then set the image layer to multiply and paint in the skin tones on the base layer.

I hope this helps, but beware it takes alot of detailed work and might come out looking like a Warhol print.
 

bonfire said:
If you are terrible in PS. The easiest way is just do auto level

Auto levelling usually will not help with overexposed pictures.
 

yanyewkay said:
depending on level of overexposure, like what taku1a said. Over exposed pics will lose on details and that means that it cannot be salvaged.

but mild overexposure can still be corrected in PS.

using layer.

duplicate the current pic on a new layer and set blending mode to multiply.
keep repeating and use transparency to 'fine tune'.

after that adjust the colour balance of the picture with your normal curves or levels.
This method works... should save some pics. Keep repeating the step (new layer, multiply) till the new layer is "too much", then lower the Opacity setting to your taste.
 

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