How to Fix and Remove Harsh Shadows from Face in Photoshop

today we're gonna be talking about how to fix harsh or soft shadows in Photoshop now picture this suppose you have a picture of a subject with one side of the subject completely bright well-lit and the other side in shadows now how to fix that today we're gonna solve just that using the very basic concepts of blend modes and channels so without any further ado let's get started so just as before here we are back in Photoshop and by the way all the photos shown in the tutorial it's available for download check the link at the description below I'm running out of breath anyway so the first thing that you need to do as you can see in this image the right side of her face not face exactly the right side of our bodies well lit but her face is completely in dark you want to brighten that you want to get rid of the shadows so what to do first thing select the channels tab if you cannot see the channels tab and go to windows and make sure you have clicked channels is checked for clip now press and hold ctrl a command and then click on RGB now this selects the brighter areas of the picture now this is interesting now when you hold ctrl a command and click on RGB it makes a selection based on luminosity which means the brighter areas will be selected and the dark areas will not be selected as simple as that let me just illustrate that okay this is not a part of the tutorial but let me just illustrate that so we held controller command we clicked on this and let's say we create a new layer and let's fill it with any color say white or say black let's fill it with black now as you can see if I turn off this layer as you can see the white areas the bright areas have been painted with black right so which means that when we made that selection by pressing ctrl a command and clicking on RGB it selects the bright areas of the picture okay now let's show this this was just for demonstration now what you do go to channels press and hold ctrl a command click on RGB this selects the bright areas but we want to affect the dark areas the shadows right so what do we do we invert the selection and as simple as that control shift I command shift I if you're using a Mac that inverts the selection now other way to invert selection is going to select inverse okay control shift I command shift I as you can see here now press control command J this puts the dark areas in its own layer have a look dark areas in its own layer now what was the blend mode which brightens up things remember from a blend mode tutorial screen right Sophie change a blend mode to screen have a look it's all solved the shadows are gone but you think we didn't want to get rid of the shadows in the water or anywhere else we just wanted to get rid of the shadows in her face so create a mask as simple as that press and hold alt or option and click on this mask button this creates a negative mask now select the brush make sure the foreground color is white and paint back in just the face with soft brush doesn't matter you don't have to be super perfect in this super accurate and that's just paint over her face with white okay so there we go as simple as that done before after done right if you want you can paint extra areas maybe her hand or something like that but I will leave it just to this okay before after its solved as simple as that now before we move on to the next example I've got a quick confession to make we cannot completely remove shadows we just can reduce them so keep that in mind find a happy place where it looks good but you cannot always remove shadows completely you just cannot remove shadows completely you just can reduce them okay so in this example as you can see we've got a harsh shadow there and we have got a lot of shadows here and there soft shadows so we just can reduce them keep that in mind there's a little variation in this so hold on so we'll go to channels as usual present whole controller command click on RGB then ctrl shift I to invert the selection then ctrl a command J then what to do change the blend mode to screen now as you can see it's looking faded why the picture was already faded right so we need to get rid of the brightness from the already dark areas from the super dark areas okay so what do I actually win now when I add this Green layer it's darkening some areas like this okay darkening some areas which should be completely dark we don't want that to happen we just want to brighten up the shadows which are moderately direct so here's what to do how about making this layer invisible from super dark areas wouldn't that be interesting so to do that you know it's already right-click on it and go to blending options another way of going to blending options is double click on the right hand side of there just a shortcut good to know now take the slider of the underlying layer from left to right as you can see the super dark areas are becoming invisible okay the super dark areas of the underlying layer what is the underlying layer this is the underlying layer the super dark areas of this layer is becoming invisible from this layer okay keep that in mind okay so here it's looking good you can move the shadows now what did I just do you can press and hold alt or option as you can see the selection is very harsh you can press and hold alt or option click on this the slider breaks down and then you can make this ladder apart from each other to make the transition smooth transition between visible areas and invisible areas smooth okay so I would stop somewhere around here it looks good okay have a look let's zoom out a little bit before after makes loads of difference here too you can add a mask personal alter option click on this select the brush make sure the foreground color is white and just paint in this area there you go done solved have a look before after but sometimes what happens which brings us to our next example when we brighten up the shadows when we reduce the shadows we kind of lose colors in shadows or maybe you see kind of color shifts so let's learn what exactly to do in that case so we have our third example and then this go to channels personal controller command click on the RGB do the same thing control shift I control a command J and then change the blend mode to screen now when you do that let's add a mask very quickly and we might have to add that blending options and let's take the flatter from the left of the underlying layer there we go and it's done now this looks cool have a look before after now if you want to increase the shadows even more you can press ctrl or command J again and this increases the shadow even more and then make a group of both of those and then add a mask okay but I don't want excessive shadows excessive removal reduction of shadows and then add a mask negative mass present hold alt or option click a mask brush pain to it white there we go and it's gone but as you can see there is a color shift here why because the color of the lighter area is warmer than the color of the shadows then the color of the lights that's illuminating the shadow areas okay so what to do add a hue/saturation adjustment layer click on this gray white circle icon add a hue/saturation adjustment layer make sure it's a clipping mask which means that the hue/saturation adjustment layer is just affecting this layer the layer which is brightening up the shadows to do that press and hold alt or option and click on this line between these two layers or what you can do you can press this button this creates a clipping mask now you can increase the saturation there you go and you can play with the hue like that and we have solved it before after you've solved it increase the saturation even more there we go before after so that pretty much wraps up how we fix shadows in Photoshop pretty easy super simple just a quick recap here's what to do first thing go to channels present hold ctrl or command click on RGB what does it do it makes a selection based on luminosity which means it selects the brighter areas of the photo but we want to modify the darker areas here's what I do press ctrl shift I'm command shift I if you are using a Mac it inverts the selection now press ctrl a command J it puts the darker areas of the photo on its own layer now remember what was the blend mode which brightens up stuff screen right change the blend mode to screen then create a negative mask by pressing alt or option and clicking on that mask button and then with the brush and white as the foreground color paint in the areas that you want to brighten if required go to blend EV and take the Slatter of the underlying layer from left to right and also if required change the hue and saturation by adding hue/saturation adjustment layer and that's all for this I hope you enjoyed this and if you did make sure to give us like a not just like when the Bell so that you my friend don't miss anything I'll see you as manager until then stay tuned and make sure that you keep created [Music]

Channel: PiXimperfect

Views: 512,934

Keywords: remove shadow photoshop, remove shadow from face, fix shadow in photoshop, fix harsh shadows, portrait retouching, fix dark shadows, reduce harsh lighting, fix lighting, remove unwanted shadows, remove shadow under eyes, photoshop tutorial, piximperfect

Id: ntIh1aFPLCM

Length: 9min 18sec (558 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 01 2017