Black on black suit, making it stand out more?

[coldpenguin]

Going back through some of my old photos that I want to try touching up and printing out larger, I found a snap I took of someone's wedding.

The groom was wearing a black suit, and it hasn't shown up particularly well.
Any ideas on what methods I can use to bring up the suit slightly?
I have tried a high-pass filter, lightly applying/applying to specific areas i.e. the creases and seams.

Anything else?

 

[scuby]

Ummm... I assume it's not meant to look *quite* that black? On my screen i can only just make out that there's some sort of texture, rather than my screen being off... ;o)

David

 

[coldpenguin]

That is the problem I have. The dress is very white, almost blown, and the suit was very black.
Unfortunately I was only a guest, the 'tog arranged them such that the groom was leaning against a tree (which you might be able to make out in the right hand inch of this shot), in the shadow, and the light came around the tree, and is bright/blown on the lady's bust.
The dress I am recovering Ok, but the suit is coming out grey if I try to boost it too much.

 

[scuby]

Ah apologies, now i'm in a darker room i can see the image a little better. When i looked earlier i thought you'd uploaded the wrong thing!

On the wrong computer now, but will have a fiddle tomorrow... looks like a challenge though, there just isn't much light there to play with. Even if you / we can make this portion of the image have more contrast, it might not look very natural in the context of the rest of the image.

 

[swanseamale47]

I think we are going to need to see the whole pic, theres no point in us trying to lighten an elbow? if it's going to muck up the rest of the image, can you post the full pic (black out the faces if you need to) then we can see what works without making the rest of the pic too light.

Edit lightening this is easy enough but as I say without seeing the rest I can't tell what it'll do to that.
Wayne

 

[coldpenguin]

I'll try and sort out a copy of the pic. My computer rebooted due to an 'Important Microsoft Security Update' last night, and is somewhat worse for the wear now.
I don't especially want to lighten the coat, as I would like it to remain black, but I am trying to bring out the detail, as at the moment, the arm just dissappears.

By detail, I guess I guess it would be nice not to just have a hand appearing from a black hole!

 

[coldpenguin]

Blooming computer now keeps on crashing whilst I try and use CS4. I have opened the image in CS2, looks awful in comparison (and I am not sure why, I hope the image iteself hasn't been damaged, and as I am waiting on a new computer/monitor, I am not going to try re-installing now).
Anyhow, here is an export, 800x800px is the largest I can upload I think. Previously in CS4, I had already darkened the dress, and sharpened parts of it. I have proof-printed it at A4, and the bride and background look OK ish (some shadows need removing), but the groom is as expected, pitch black.
I have used the wand tool and selected the tree and suit, brightness and contrast layer mask, brightness +40 (to lighten it), contrast +25 (to bring the black back to black?), which I think it about right, but will make the suit somewhat grey.

 

[Chappers]

Open the image using the ACR option within Photoshop. Use the "Fill Light" option to add some more detail to the shadow area. Now as the suit and the tree are very similar in tone you will also get some lightening of the tree bark, which may not be a bad thing.

If you have Lightroom you can do the same thing

 

[coldpenguin]

Hmm, thanks.
I don't have lightroom.
My version of CS (2 and recently 4 which is now broke, waiting on new computer), didn't support my 'current' camera's raw output (7d), but this was on my 400D, so I might see if I can get an update to the ACR for CS4 once my computer is working. I hadn't considered it, as I usually use DPP (kinda like a negative viewer), then use the transfer to photoshop option.
Thanks for the idea, any others?