I need some help on how to fix the blown out areas on my daughters arms.
I have some ability to use photoshop. But I never can get the arms to look right when trying to correct the blown out area.
The blown areas are essentially neutral, so regular tonal value changes will just render them "grayer". Likely, you would need to consider cloning or painting some semi-matching color form other areas.
While they are a bit more than "rim lighting" ... I think they convey the summer sun that goes along with the attire and boat vibe. I think it'd take more effort than gain and would require more expertise/finesse that I'm skilled toward to pull it off with a natural look. Maybe someone else will have a simple solution, but ... for me atm.
I'd likely not worry about it and just enjoy her engaging expression.
This is a nice snapshot. To fix all the issues would take a massive amount of work. You have blown out areas on the arms, street, boat, etc. You have additional distractions such as the light colored object above her left shoulder, the antenna growing out of her arm and the light colored mailboxes. There is a lot of clutter and additional small distractions; e.g., the object left of the steering wheel, the rusty bolt half visible at the bottom left. I also agree on the fix for the blown areas on the arm. I would work at about 800x with a 10-20% opacity brush matching color on her arm. Even with a lot of work the results are not apt to be very satisfactory. Consider this a snapshot and give up on trying to correct the issues.
Thanks for the reply's.
I know this pic has a a lot of clutter and major distractions.
But I was just wanting to learn how you would go about fixing a blown out skin area due to sun.
I will try brush matching color and see what happens. But I do think the skin is too blown out to fix.
Search for 'repairing blown out skin tones', or something similar on YouTube.
There are many vids available, most will involve selections and building a base other than the neutral color and then brushing, cloning, patching (choose weapon of choice) to try to match tone and build up texture. As @CamperJim suggests, not a quick task if done properly, but you can take it to whatever level you like.
Not a task done with Lightroom - you'll need CS in some flavor.
I'd keep it like it is. I agree with Camperjim, it would take a lot of tedious work to fix what is essentially a snapshot. We all have images where technical shortcomings are trumped by sentimental value.
The real issue isn't blown highlights, but rather ugly light. Even if you tame the highlights the unattractive lighting will remain. The on camera fill flash doesn't help matters either. It leads to a flat light that is merely illumination.
for me atm.