sunset11 Loc: Chicago

Sorry, faces dos't look good :-((

Rustybucket Loc: England

Thanks Merlin. It was a trickier than usual job. I treated the flare first by making a new layer in colour blend then painted the sampled face and hair colour where nec. Then selected the faces and did some levels. Used the smudge tool to get rid of graining on face... lots of other little bits of tweaking till it looked as good as I could get it. Fly by seat of pants job really :-).

Merlin1300 Loc: New England, But Now & Forever SoTX

WOW !! Nicely done :)

Bobber Loc: Fredericksburg, Texas

This one is indeed trickiy. Overall treatments seem to lead to reducing contrast to undesirable levels. The sky and sea areas require being treated differently from the those more shadowed. The spot of sun flare was the easiest issue for me to deal with.

Looking at the picture, it seemed to me that it has two features important to preserve, the features of the two people and the drama of their setting.

in fact it is not only a matter of preserving the people's features, but in the first place digging them out of the original darkness in order to be seen much at all. I never was satisfied by what I managed in that respect. Some other efforts did the digging better. However it was often at the sacrifice of other elements, sometimes even of the facial features themselves as they faded into lower contrast.

My result with the people is a darker one than others got with it. I felt more comfortable with the overall balance this represented. And I never was satisfied with getting a good definition of the woman's features. Her face remained too low in contrast especially near the border between her skin and hair to the right side. I think it was due to an overall flair from the sun, different from the sun spot flair spot that was much easier to deal with.

Most of the time I spent working on the picture was spent making selections. I thought it necessary to separate the sky and the sea from the darker elements. And as Rusty did, I also did treatments on the faces with selections isolating the effects of the work, so as not to disturb the rest.

There are several ways to deal with flares and glares. In general they reduce contrast in the areas they affect. So, contrast enhancement tools are of help. Rusty used painting on a separate layer. I worked on the original using a selection and Image/Adjustments/Replace Color, a tool I often find handy and used elsewhere on this one.

Another handy tool was mentioned by CaptainC, the clone tool muted to something like 35%. borrowing from areas having color and tint more suitable to that prevailing in the area needing fixing.

So, what I sought to do was keep the sky and water, even to enhance its dramatic qualities some, then correct the problems with the people's images. As I said before I was not satisfied with that aspect. I ended up with a gross cheat. I borrowed the image posted here by either Rusty or Sunset, and layered it over mine and erased the sky, sea, and other background. Next I increased the contrast of this layer a little, then blended it with mine by cutting the opacity. Finding the beads too bright I also partially erased over them at less than 100%.

Can't say this is the last word on this project, or even that it is the best one, but hopefully it contributes something of use. It surely is a seat of the pants project.

deayala1 Loc: Pleasanton, CA

Thanks for your help Bobber. I knew, once I saw this picture, that it was not going to be frameable - just rendered enough to be an "I was there" photo. I took what you all had done and then processed it as a pseudo-HDR photo hoping to bring out the fore & background.

Bobber Loc: Fredericksburg, Texas

I am glad you found something here worth further effort.

Do you feel that the false HDR result is a better rendering? Does seeing every shadow brightened to full noon time values improve a sunset picture? Do you get more detail this way with out distorting other important features?

I feel that, if you like this result better, then you might consider, that it was not the best time to go for this picture. There is not much point in capturing the subtleties and dramas of sunset light, then going for a noon light PP result.

It may be observed that tastes in photographs vary and that one is as valid as another, as long as there is an eye to find it pleasing.

deayala1 Loc: Pleasanton, CA

Actually. I'm going to give my daughter-in-law all versions and let her decide.

Rustybucket Loc: England

deayala.... That's a great idea...cos ya can't tell till they're all seen together ....and BIG. :-)

joe west Loc: Taylor, Michigan

well here is my 2 cents worth hope you like it

TucsonCoyote Loc: Tucson AZ

Good show there Rustybucket, now you got to fix the guy's face too !! lol