I have been knocking my head against a wall with this one...using PS 6.

I have a photo that is underexposed which I can fix with levels, curves or just duplicating and changing blending mode to screen. That's not the problem...

Problem is that there are 4 people in the photo and the photo was taken under a bunch of trees (thus the darkness) except on one half of a face there is a sun spot thru the trees, making it very bright. I have tried to use the cloning tool to no avail...using regular brushes or soft brushes...changing opacity, using normal/darken/lighten modes. No matter what I have tried, the end result always comes out blurry and not matched up with the rest of the face very well. I even tried deleting the area and just copying/pasting part of the face that looked right (transforming to fit) and you can guess that didn't work well either.

What am I missing/forgetting/just not doing correctly? I have searched for tutorials but haven't found one that is specific enough to help. Also tried a couple tricks out of "ps book for digital photographers" by scott kelby but the tips either were for the entire photo or darkened it way too much to be realistic.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your help!
Laura

Hi Laura,

I've had luck with increasing the midtones by about 12 and highlights by half that amount or 6. You could try different combinations. Increasing the midtones has saved more than a few of my pictures.

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Mona
My Gallery

Hi, if I have this right, you have duplicated your layer and blended in screen to fix the shadow area, and now your highlights in some areas are blown out??
If this is the case, once you get your shadows where you want them, add a mask to that duplicated layer and with your paintbrush(soft tip) set to black (black conceal, white reveals) set your opacity to about 20% to start and just paint over the face area, the screen mode should disappear and the original underneath will show thru. this might be what ya need...

I never used PS6. I went from PS4 to CS. In the filters it has an option for "Fill Flash". Does PS6 have fill flash?

I've only played with it once. It's not too difficult. You can center it over the area you want lightened. If PS6 has it it might be worth a try.