How to Tackle the Dreaded “Silhouette Monster” in a Photo

This is the same photo taken at the Matisse (Arabesque) exhibit in Rome, Italy a few weeks ago. (Some of you know what a color geek I am, so this show was a must-see.)

As we rounded the corner to head back downstairs to the gift shop, we got a glimpse of a lovely view of Rome from the window just as the sun was about to set.

Taken on just my husband’s terrible cell phone camera, of course we weren’t able to really capture the moment in all its glory.

Still, we had something, but because he took the photo of me with the light behind me, I came out like a typical shadow monster. Playing with the image a bit in Photoshop, while not an ideal image to work with for professional purposes, I thought I could still rescue it enough to share with family/friends on Facebook.

1.) I adjusted my levels but mainly used the middle gray slider to lighten up myself.

2.) I then adjusted “brightness/contrast” a little as well as played with “vibrance,” an option just like levels under image adjustments.

3.) I was more or less happy with lightening myself up but I had then accidentally/unavoidably washed the view out a bit too.
So I took my doctored image, made a duplicate, and put it on it’s own layer above the original photo.

4.) I opened the original underneath that still had the nice background. I then, in my doctored, lightened-up layer above, erased the area in the window to reveal the original below. Where I got sloppy around the edges I used my blur tool so a viewer wouldn’t see my fix.

This took me about 5 minutes, but of course if you are new, it will take you longer.

Just thought I’d share to show you how you might make a similar fix. Of course, getting the light right the first time when taking the photo helps.

Cheers!

Kristen