CSand Loc: Fayetteville, Georgia

Working on this photo of my great grand twins. One came in for a snack and was watching his brother play in stream. Question- best way to work on right, raised arm of boy in window. Do I clone out? How to handle blowout and glare at that point? How to handle glare on window on right side which includes brother in stream? Is there much I can do? I would love to save this. Feel free to work on in order to show me what to do.

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IDguy Loc: Idaho

Yes, I’d clone out the hand fragment.

If you have Lightroom you can try haze removal. I don’t know if it is available with the adjustment brush. If not you can try some of what it does; e.g. increase contrast in that area.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Hand was easy. Used ipad Lightroom which doesn’t have adjustment brush.

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R.G. Loc: Scotland

The image as a whole is so segmented that global adjustments are only going to achieve very limited improvements. What works for one area won't be what works in other areas. The only way to optimise things is to make lots of selections. In Lr I do that with the Adjustments brush.

Glare is just haze with bright highlights and you can treat it as such. Selecting the glare, lowering the Highlights and adding Contrast and Clarity are the main techniques. If you have a recent version of Lr you may be able to add Dehaze selectively. If you have Lr you can zero the Brightness and lower the Highlights fully for that selection as a first step, and before you do anything else select Duplicate several times by right-clicking on the button for that selection. Then add whatever other adjustments you want. Doing things in that order enables you to add several applications of Highlights reduction - which is what's needed most.

More generally, when you add contrast you have to keep an eye on saturation. It's easy to end up with too much. Plus when you select shadow areas it's a good opportunity to add a small WB shift towards yellow. As you normalise the lighting of shadows you want the colouring to be normalised at the same time, and shadows are typically a bit on the blue side. That's especially true of outdoor shots when the sun is bright yellow and the sky is blue. Yellow may also need to be selectively subdued if you intend to add lots of contrast and/or saturation.

The only advice I can give you for the blown areas is to try cloning. It's the only thing that might give convincing results.
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joehel2 Loc: Cherry Hill, NJ

Very nicely done.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Thanks.

Don, the 2nd son Loc: Crowded Florida

CSand Loc: Fayetteville, Georgia

Thank you for your suggestion. I do have dehaze and will work more on this.

CSand Loc: Fayetteville, Georgia

Appreciate your comment. Will continue to work on photo.

CSand Loc: Fayetteville, Georgia

Appreciate all of these suggestions R.G. Plan to try them later today. Thank you.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

OK, I'll grant you the bit of his hand is a minor issue, but could be distracting. The overall tint of the image, due to the woodwork, was toned down and the reflection left in place. The blown-out part of the shirt is hopeless lost and any attempt to do much but burn it down a bit will produce an ugly tonal issue.

The overall scene is reminiscent of works by Gregory Crewdson. The reflection becomes an integral part of the scene, as it produces an almost dream-like image of the hinting that the boy in the window may be dreaming about playing in the stream. As such, I'd leave it there or increase its appearance to emphasize the dream-like nature of the scene.

As with Gregory's work, it's best left to the viewer to form the story that's being told.
--Bob

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CSand Loc: Fayetteville, Georgia

You realized exactly what I was sensing in this photo. As they are twins, Connor could be seeing himself in the stream. Don't really believe that entered his thoughts. He was enjoying his pretzels. I did consider leaving the haze as it could be thought a shaft of light as it was certainly hitting the side of cabin and Connor's hair. Not sure what my final work will be. Just know this is so special to me. The one in the stream is more outdoorsy in nature while the one inside is the computer geek. This adds story to the photo for me also. Aidan remained in the stream even when the rain shower came. Will look up Gregory Crewdson. Thank you.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

I tried my hand at it as well as enlarging it a bit. I saved it as a PNG also.

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rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Your comment about Aiden staying in the stream even when the rain came reminded me of my grandmother. She would mind my sister and I when our parents were not at home. My sister and I were in the pool and it started to rain. My grandmother, bless her soul, would come out of the house and tell us that it was raining and to get out of the pool before we got wet. I still chuckle about that moment.
--Bob

CSand Loc: Fayetteville, Georgia

Good, good memories. We always had a lake house. If swimming and no lightning, we would swim under the dock if the rain got cold. Kids don't even know about such simple fun anymore. I try to share with all kids.