Calling all Photoshop Experts...

I'd appreciate some help.

I've tried multiple adjustment layers, level adjustments, channel mixes, three or four different plugins from Fred Miranda, exposure, brightness and contrast....curve adjustments in all three channels.... the kitchen sink.

I even put them in Aperture to see if that would help. I'm stuck.

I had my head in a book all night last night trying to figure out how to make this crap I am getting lately look better (not pastel and fake looking).

#1:



#2:



Any help appreciated.

bursty said:

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Yeah, they're pretty effed up, aren't they?

OutThere said:

I'm in Switzerland at the moment and forgot to put Photoshop on my new powerbook before I left, so I can't play, but I think you might be running into problems with the fact that both pictures have some gradient in contrast from one side to another. Since you have this gradient, whatever adjustments you do to the picture as a whole will turn out leaving one part of it looking crappy...can you put gradients into adjustment layers? That would help but I don't know...

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Yeah, I tried that - thanks, though.

That's the problem with the pics - they are backlit (into the sun) and hazy. The backlit part of the image is overexposed, leaves the rest of the image underexposed and the light illuminates the haze.

The folks I work for didn't have a problem with the best I could do with these until lately when they played around with highlights and shadows - they think just jacking the highlights is OK, but the images still do not look good.

Blah.

Here is one I did - I need to desaturate it a bit, but they approved it.

Still ugly, but less ugly, I guess.

Before:




After:



Crap in, crap out, I always say.