Picdude Loc: Ohio

I may be looking for an effect that cannot be achieved so I'm hoping someone can either point me the right way or tell me it can't be done so I can move on.

I have an old black & white photo from the mid to late 40's I've scanned and am trying to do some touch-up and coloring work to. The subject is in a khaki uniform in on a bright sunny day in front of a hill side during summer. The photo is very dark at the top and appears almost over-exposed at the bottom.

What I would like to do is apply exposure post-procesing as a gradient, lighter at the top of the photo and darker at the bottom, without losing detail in the middle. I have photoshop CS3 and Lightroom 2.6 but can't seem to find the effect I'm loking for. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

notnoBuddha

Without seeing the picture I would suggest a couple of things. You may try to to do some selective burning and dodging. You may want to try some some selective painting. Either of the above I would use a very light intensity setting - say around 15%, work slowly and be careful to not overdo. The blur tool may also be of some help. Any old pictures I have worked on do take some time and I try to work slowly and just a portion at a time. The chances of you finding a "fix" for the overall is about zero and knoow when to say good enough.

arphot Loc: Massachusetts

Sort of agreeing with Buddha on this one. Also, depending on how much 'almost over-exposed' it is, you won't get back any highlight information. Never mind that; since it's a scan (I presume) there is no information at all.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

You can also use a neutral density gradient to even out the density. It will not bring back lost detail.

docrob Loc: Durango, Colorado

gradient tool

Picdude Loc: Ohio

Thank you all for your replies. Buda, I will be doing a good bit of painting once I'm happy with B&W repairs, and that does always help. ABC, thank you for the gradient suggestion, I played with that a little bit, may need to delve deeper. Have also come across an HDR function which has given some promising results, but I have been unable to edit the picture after the appliction. Will keep pounding awy for a bit.

fotowerks Loc: San Diego, CA

I don't know about LR 2.6 but LR3 has a graduated filter tool just beneath the histogram in the develop module. This can be used to do precisely what you are trying to achieve. You can control the filter's graduation and adjust exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, clarity, sharpness, and color. Good luck, hope this helps.

JBD Loc: SF. Bay Area

Try in CS3 using the curves adjustment layer, and selectively lighten or darken the areas needing correction on different layers the turn the mask black on the layer mask and using the white brush "paint" in only the targeted corrected areas you wish on the individual layers, than merge the picture.

Rbo36 Loc: S. W. Michigan

I don't know if this would work in any of your programs but I have used it in Photoshop Elements 9 to darken a portion of a picture that is too light.
Neutral Density Gradient Filter.
1. Open picture in Photoshop.
2. Set foreground color to black. (Small squares in lower left corner) (Press letter D)
3. Click on Add a new adjustment layer.(Half black half white circle icon)
Click on Gradient in drop down box.
Gradient Fill dialog appears.
4. Click on the little white downward facing arrow to the right of the Gradient thumbnail.
5. Double click on the checkered gradient thumbnail in this list. (By default this puts the dark area at the bottom.
To move it to the top (if desired) click the Reverse box. Use the angle wheel to change it to other areas.)
6. To change the amount of darkness use the Scale slider.
7. Click in the gradient icon. (long bar)
This brings up the Gradient Editor.
Move slider (white square) to adjust smoothness.
8. Click OK.

Picdude Loc: Ohio

Again, thank you everyone for your responces.

Fotowerks, 2.6 does have the same gradient tool. I have not been a big Lr user before so did not understand how that feature worked until you pointed it out. After I played with it a bit I masked out my main suject, used the gradient to adjust the background to my taste then reintroduced my subject as a new layer (similar to what JBD suggested). Need to start reading up on Lr user manual.

Rbo, the gradient filter you described is accessed a bit different but esentially the same thing on CS3. I didn't use it for this application but I had some previous projects that it would have made my life so much easier and will use it in the future.