I ♥ Faces - Fix It Friday #54

Yes, it is that time again. Can you believe I have missed out on this wonderful fun for the past TWO weeks? Well, as they say "life got in the way". Here I am this week though to share my process for fixing this photo. The original is very washed out and there is a bad highlight across the boy's face. I decided to be brave and did some retouching on the highlight to make it 'disappear'. So here is the original image:

And here is my 'fix':

So here is what I did to get here (As usual I must post my disclaimer that I do not use Photoshop, but PhotoImpact. I will be listing actions as they are in my program and hope that you, if you decide to follow my steps, can find similar ones in the program that you use.)

Smart Curves - the Kodak preset gave me the best initial lighting adjustment

Cone Tool- I used this tool to 'reconstruct' the area of his face and hair that were 'whited out'

                   I also used the clone tool to remove/reduce the blemishes on his face.

Colorize Pen- I used a deep blue at 75% transparency to brighten up his eyes a little

Contrast- increased to +10

Colorize Pen- I greened up the grass some to make it stand out better against his white shirt

Mask Mode- I masked off the background for the next step

Enhance Lighting- Increased Fill Flash to +40

Deselect All (to remove the mask)

Enhance Lighting- Increased Fill Flash +20

Contrast- increased to +24

And there you have it, a nice bright image of an adorable boy! To see additional fixes be sure to click the Fix-It-Friday logo below. Also, to see a 'reverse fix', check out my post When Was I?