How to remove harsh sunlight shadow on face

[dfest]

A few of my son's senior pictures were taken on a bright sunny day, early afternoon (we had no other choice, on vacation and spot was perfect) so in my attempt to avoid heavy shadow on his face, I used a fill flash. It helped, but still have a bit of unacceptable shadow on his face. Is there a preferred method to use to remove the shadows/blend his face color? Would I use Change to Color or something else? I've removed the easy shadows from the sidewalk, his shirt, etc., but I haven't been able to lighten his face and make it look decent. I am using PSP 2018 ultimate, 64 bit, Windows 8.1. Thank you for any recommendations.

I have attached the file in .pdf. Maybe I should remove the sunlight rather than the shadows?

[JoeB]

It would be easier for us to provide help with this if you could provide the picture as an attachment so we can see the actual issue. The tools that come to mind immediately are clone to and/or push and/or smudge brushes.

[hartpaul]

I suspect that the dark shadows may be somewhere in or near the eyes which would not respond well to cloning from the cheek or using the push tool or smudge brush.

One suggestion -
1. Duplicate the image and turn off the top layer and make the lower layer active.
2. Apply changes so that the dark sections only are improved to the level you require using levels, or Adjust > Fill Flash.
3. Make the top layer active and then use the Eraser tool with a soft low opacity setting , and slowly erase the darker areas on the top layer so the corrected dark areas show through. If you go to far then right click drag to unerase.

[Joelle]

I would use Fill Light/Clarity, experiment with the settings. The Fill Light will lighten the dark area and the Clarity adds a bit of contrast.
As we've not seen the image, it's hard to be accurate.

Joëlle

[dfest]

I would like to show you, but the two files each are too large to attach : (

[Joelle]

You could just select the part that needs adjusting (no bigger than 950 x 800) and attach that.

Joëlle

[hartpaul]

I think Joelle means to crop a section that needs reparing as a new image and then attach that,
You could also resize the image to 800 pixels on the longest side and attach that as well. Make sure you do that with copies of the image so you don't damage the originals

[Jean-Luc]

... unacceptable shadow on his face.

I find your portrait very good and don't see any unacceptable shadow. Life on earth exists due to the sun and shadows are part of the life experience. Shadows give relief : objects and people are not "flat".
The flash has done his job (lighten the shadows) and your picture is very well balanced.
I hope you don't want this shadows retouching :
https://www.rojakpot.com/imagery-lesa-h ... shop-fail/

[hartpaul]

I would have to agree. The subject is well lit and perhaps the shadows have been over filled. The idea generally to make the subject fit in well with the background and not look over flashed.

[TimW]

The only thing that bothers me is the overly red areas of the face. Select those noticeably red areas & reduce the Red Saturation for a much improved image.

[dfest]

Thank you all!

[Jean-Luc]

Here my attempt.
Clone brush
Desaturation brush.

[dfest]

Thank you so much. I know how to use the selection tool, but I do not know how to desaturate a color. Can you easily explain the steps to do so, once I have the area selected?

[Jean-Luc]

I don't use a selection.
I paint (or click) with the Desaturation brush at lower intensity.
On the following screen capture, I have made many clicks on the same place so you see the color is completely vanished.

[Jean-Luc]

You may also use the Change to target brush to colorize the red face.
Select a less reddish tone in the Rustic Masculine Palette :

rustic_masculine.png (14.39 KiB) Viewed 8097 times

Click on the Change to target tool and set the Opacity to 20 and the Mode to Color. You may select a higher value of Opacity.
You may now 'paint' on the face.
On the following screen capture, the selection shows the face before to apply and you see the rendering of the Change to target tool on the right :