Graduation girl

[Marydh]

Hi everyone....especially the shadow police.
Please take a look.  Never quite sure about how much healing to do.
Thanks,
Mary

[Jo Ann Snover]

You called the shadow police?? :) I think you have done most of the work, but there are some issues with the shadows that could really help the image feel less as if it's floating.

The shadows in the original are hard-edged and very dark - not very nice flash photography - but that means you need to match that in the restore. In addition to the edges and darkness, look at where they are, which tells you where the light is coming from. The shadows are below and behind the areas casting them. This means you don't see the all-around soft shadows you created anywhere in the original. The primary subjects are brightly lit, even at the bottom (as far as I can tell given the damage) but there is a lot of light falloff on the wall as you move down (given the flash is higher up and pointing down).

So look at my version of your WIP and then the explainer I put together to see if that clarifies what I'm getting at:






I put my editing layers over a gray background - an experiment to see if that makes the suggestions any clearer. I used a Curves adjustment layer set to Screen blend mode to lighten a few areas and the shadows were a layer set to Multiply blend mode where I drew with a low flow soft edge brush in various colors. Almost all the time, I need to lasso that area and blur it a bit as well.

The eyebrows were drawn in beautifully, but they were then sharper than the rest of the photo. On a separate layer, use the blur brush to soften that area.

I did a very rough job cloning the panel-joining area but you have enough to work with behind the people - just make sure it lines up above (I used a guide to make sure)

Your distributor may have an opinion on the green shirt detail, but I'm not sure it's worth a ton of time given it's not really the focus of the image.

Hope this is (a) clear and (b) helps :)

[Shadow]

Run with Jo Ann's tips and you'll have a beauty. Good luck.

[Marydh]

Thanks so much Jo Ann.  I've never been able to get a handle on shadows, but I keep learning.  I'll get on your suggestions today.  You are VERY helpful and VERY clear.  Going to go back and do a lot of screen shots.

I was wondering what you all felt about his hair.  I don' like it but don't know what to do about it.

[Marydh]

I hope this is better.  Upon further inspection, it looks like it's not molding but just a separation in the wall. (Another picture in the gallery shows it too.)  I hopefully made his shirt look better.....and the shadows?  I still couldn't get them to look like yours Jo Ann but hope they will suffice.

[Jo Ann Snover]

I think it is much better - passes the believability test :) Often, we can't know exactly how things were, but as long as the restore could have been - is believable - that's good.

If you have a good reference for the wall join, that's great - the lines align, and the jogging vertical is what caught my eye originally

Your shadows are a little less aggressive - as shot, the shadows are horrible and I think your brain is rightly resisting them! I like how yours looks and the people seem grounded in the scene, so you're good. The only thing I will note is that with my darker shadows on the young graduate's dress, it slims her down a bit :) Wasn't my intention, but that's the effect  it had

[Marydh]

Thanks Jo Ann.  I'm going to take another look at her hips (of course who doesn't want to look slimmer) and send it in.
Really appreciate your help.
Mary