Evening out horse's sun-bleached coat

[meaghancarr]

Hey Damien,

I'm working on a black background portrait of this horse who has a severely sunbleached coat on his neck/body and some sweaty patches. I'm struggling to even out and darken his neck/body to match his cheek. How would I go about doing this? Thanks!

My attempt:

 

SOOC:

How his coat normally looks:

 

 

[Damien Symonds]

First of all, please read and acknowledge understanding: https://www.damiensymonds.net/2011/09/cropping-tutorial.html

[meaghancarr]

Ah! Sorry, didn't realize I had uploaded a cropped version. Here is the uncropped

[Damien Symonds]

Thanks.

Did you shoot raw?

[meaghancarr]

Yes. The forum won't allow me to upload it though

[Damien Symonds]

No, that's ok, just checking.

Can you do this for me?

[meaghancarr]

My Windows desktop is calibrated and I have an exact print match.

[Damien Symonds]

Ok, can you update your profile details with your calibrator information?

15 minutes ago, meaghancarr said:

You definitely didn't need to do all that stuff with turning the blue areas to grey in the background.  You're simply going to add a black Solid Color layer and carefully mask it around the whole horse.

And you definitely need to do that first, before we discuss the imbalances in the coat.

[meaghancarr]

Without thinking I answered the calibration question about my home monitor, but I am traveling and editing on a friend's factory calibrated monitor. I did, however, bring pro prints to match and they are dead on. I apologize...clearly I am a hot mess today. 

[Damien Symonds]

Now, talk to me.  Do you still think the body needs to be darkened?

Or do you share my point of view that the sweet spot is actually somewhere in between the two areas?  I think the body should be darkened a bit, and the face lightened a bit.

[meaghancarr]

I agree!

[Damien Symonds]

Ok, so how about this?  https://max.mailbigfile.com/2af97d8ff66f24df97f4c157c9991f86/listFiles.php

[meaghancarr]

I like the evenness color, but the sweaty areas and mottling definitely stand out a lot.

Switching the blend mode of the hue/sat 1 layer to Luminosity helps some, but definitely looks flat compared to Soft Light.

[Damien Symonds]

That's ok, it's all about the d&b from here.  https://www.damiensymonds.net/simple-dodge-and-burn-tutorial/

[meaghancarr]

LOVE these tutorials. Thank you for the direction! Time to get to work.

[Damien Symonds]

Don't keep me in suspense, @meaghancarr!  How did it turn out?

[365andBrand]

On 9/11/2022 at 4:51 PM, Damien Symonds said:

First of all, please read and acknowledge understanding: https://www.damiensymonds.net/2011/09/cropping-tutorial.html

This is critical information i wish i learned years ago! I've spent so much time trying to figure out how to manage cropping, both in camera and in processing workflow, particularly for printing ans saving for different purposes! But, never did I consider this. Thank you. 

[meaghancarr]

On 9/13/2022 at 3:40 PM, Damien Symonds said:

Don't keep me in suspense, @meaghancarr!  How did it turn out?

My bad -- client changed her mind and went with a different photo, but I used the same method and it turned out great *chef's kiss*