I have done a photo shoot, where I used the flash, but have ended up with a shadow by someone's face. I have used curves and everything else I can think of and it won't go away. I am new to Aperture, please help.
You'll need to play around with the brushes to try and lighten the shadow.
Dodge would be my first suggestion but something like this is really a matter of experimentation until you get the affect you want.
Have you tried "Highlights and Shadows" under the "adjustments" tab? It certainly will lighten things but is indiscriminate for everything in the image.
What I do when faced with this is normally edit the image in Photoshop. I select the shadowed face using any of various tools, copy and past it above the rest of the image, and then apply the "screen" function in blending modes. It typically makes the result too light but that can be controlled with the opacity slider on the copied face layer. Also, you can use a layer mask to soften the edges, etc.
Highlights and Shadows is a good suggestion. It can also be brushed in to limit the effect to just the area the OP needs to change.
To the OP remember most (all?) of the adjustments in Aperture can be brushed in, you're not limited to those listed under Quick Brushes.
regards
If there is a hard edge to the shadow use the patch tool to soften it. Thus less noticable, but of course thats Photoshop.
The Patch tool was supplanted in v. 3 by the Repair and Clone Brick. Although it is still available, I would suggest using the blur brush delicately to soften edges of abrupt tonal change.
I couldn't tell what problem the OP was trying to fix. Certainly Frank's suggestion -- lighten the darks with a brushed-on Highlights and Shadows adjustment -- is worth trying. (I don't think one can get acceptible results for this kind of operation with the Dodge (or is it Burn?) Brush.)
(Fwiw, "Highlights & Shadows" follows the naming misleading naming conventions one finds everywhere in photography: it is more properly the "Lights and Darks" Brick.)
(Sent from my magic glass.)
When I use "Highlights & Shadows" to lighten parts of an object that are cut off by a shadow boundary, I found it useful to turn off the "edge detection" and to set the brush range to "All". With the "Detect Edges" option on there will be a nasty darker line along the shadow boundary, and the width of this line will depend on the softness of the brush - the softer the brush, the wider the gap close to the edge that brush will not effect. The same goes for "Brush range: Shadows". To see the width of the gap I usually check with the brush overlay turned on.
Here is an example of an australian crocodile with the tail cut off by the shadows and a second screenshot showing the brushstrokes in red, with edge detection on. Notice the gap along the shadow boundary?
Also, with shadows this dark, you'll be out of luck with the "Highlights & Shadows" brick, if you want to remove the shadow completely. With this control you only can enhance the contrast a little and somewhat lighten it, but you cannot remove it. The sliders are limited to settings resulting in subtle effects.
(Fwiw, "Highlights & Shadows" follows the naming misleading naming conventions one finds everywhere in photography: it is more properly the "Lights and Darks" Brick.)
How right you are, Kirby!
P.S: I still have not managed to give the poor crocodile back its tail. Can crocodiles regrow their tail like lizzards?
The best I could do so far has been to use the "Curves" to raise the luminance and to stretch the contrast at the same time, but it looks very unnatural.
Message was edited by: leonieDF added second image and P:S:
How do I remove shadows on the face even when I have used flash?
