Photoshop Technique 3 - Compensating "Too Much Flash"

My flash photography skill still sucks, a lot of time the main subject are blown out despite of the correctly exposed background. Just learn a useful technique to save the errors.

1. Make a copy of the photo layer - Layer > Duplicate Layer

2. Change the layer Blend Mode from Normal to Multiply to bring back the original foreground detail the flash blew out. However, darkening the entire photo made the background too dark.

3. Hold the Alt key and click the Layer Mask icon - to add a black Layer Mask.

4. Switch foreground color to white > use soft-edged brush to paint over the foreground area, in this case, me and the woman who were over-flashed - revealing the darker "Multiply" layer and removing the over flash effect.

5. Avoid to paint the background as the flash wasn't too harsh there - the amount of flash looks slightly balance now.