Shhhh - Before and After

I really worked hard to rescue this photo and I think it turned out so well that I hate to show you the original.  I was using my fully-manual 200mm f2.8 and somehow completely over exposed this shot.  Also, he was standing next to a red truck that cast this awful red glow on the left side of his face.  Still, I wanted to see what could be done for the photo so here’s what I did:


    1. Applied a Black/White gradient map
    2. Adjusted the Levels, bringing up the blacks and lowering the mid-tones
    3. Very lightly dodged the highlights and burned the Shadows to further increase the shadows in specific areas
    4. Applied a very light warming filter
    5. Flattened and saved – Done!