Help with shadows in PP

[apiercy]

I took this photo a few days ago of high school softball and the shadows are terrible. Here are the origional and my edited version. Does anyone have any suggestions for PP? :dunno

My edit:
http://erwinrecord.smugmug.com/photos/137163954-L-1.jpg

Origional:
http://erwinrecord.smugmug.com/photos/137164023-L-1.jpg

-Anthony

[Fuzzytek]

I started with your retouched one. I think you did a good job with it.
These are the things I did in Paintshop Pro.
Cropped photo keeping aspect to .66666 - eliminated the noise in the photo and brought focus where it is desired.
Unsharpen with radius 1 and strength 115
Levels at 20, 1.3, 220Not sure if you like the results better. Perhaps I would have got different going from the original photo posted.

http://fuzzytek.smugmug.com/photos/139440622-M.jpg

[MarkR]

http://Hobbyist.smugmug.com/photos/139476652-L.jpg

Here's my (10-minute) attempt with Photoshop

Assign a false profile (I used Apple RGB with a 1.4 gamma) to brighten the entire thing. Then a light tough with Highlights/Shadows. Finally "by-the-numbers" set highlight and shadow in curves to increase midtone contrast.

[slapshot]

I took this photo a few days ago of high school softball and the shadows are terrible. Here are the origional and my edited version. Does anyone have any suggestions for PP? :dunno

-Anthony

I think your original fix is pretty good, just need to add back some contrast as it is a little flat. Your original was underexposed to start with...try bumping up the exposure the next time around.

I have the same problem with shadows from bright sunlight in shooting lacrosse. I have found the PS Shadow/Highlight tool to be very effective, althought I think that is only available in PSCS2. Not sure what software you are using.

[Duffy Pratt]

Here's my take on this:

1. Applied 1.8 gamma adobe false profile
2. Wrote RGB curves, with shirt white, dark spot on bottom of shoes black, and skin from arm and leg as guides.
3. Convert to LAB, did shadow/highlight adjustment.
4. On dupe layer, Applied L channel to itself in screen mode, then set blending mode to maybe 50%, and blend if to isolate only the shadows, and then only where they were A positive.
5. Back to sRGB, and its still too dark, so I duplicated the file. Applied 1.4 gamma profile to the dupe.
6. Applied the duplicate as a new layer and blended at 50%.

Duffy

[SitterS]

I am not even sure what I did on this one but whatever I did I am sure it was probably too much. :rolleyes Thanks for letting us play.

Shane