Help with shadows

[dylansdigitals]

I have a picture of a team of cheerleaders but due to the time of day that I had to take the picture, there is a real heavy shadow on half the team. Its bad enough that I couldn't get the position to ensure they were all looking at me but I also want to make sure that the shadows are at a minimum. I have Photoshop Elements 5.0 - does anybody out there have any suggestions?

Thanks

Denise

[Jzazzi]

I'm not a PS guru, but my first thought would be create a new layer and set it to Overlay. Take the paint brush and use a soft brush, medium-small size, and choose white. Lower opacity to something around 10-15% and slowly "paint" onto the shadow areas to lighten them up. I don't have the patience or skill to make this believable but maybe you will have better results.

And maybe someone else can suggest a better method.

-J