Fix it Friday–Sun flares

I haven’t done I Heart Faces’ Fix It Friday in a while and this lovely shot caught my eye.  Even without work, you can see the potential.

Opening this in Photoshop, I tried doing an all-over level adjustment, but I wasn’t happy with what I was getting.  I went in with my dodge tool and lightened midtones in his face and some of the foreground as well as a few streaks of sunlight on his shoulder.  Then I used the burn tool to darken some of the shadows on his clothing and his long lashes!  The sponge tool let me saturate just the tall weeds and the blue areas in the sky.  I also used the clone tool to get rid of most of the lens flare on the bottom right.  A little contrast made all the difference at the end.  It’s more of a tweak than an all-out change, but I like it!!

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