Does anbody have a techcnique in darktable or GIMP for reducing the heavy shadows under her eyes, without affecting (or minimal affect) to the shadows elsewhere?
_DSC2182.NEF (22.9 MB)
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Convert RT to 32-bit floating point TIFF, AmAze method.
In the GIMP, use Threshhold then Selections then Invert to make a mask:
Then with masked and background layers visible, adjust Brightness/Contrast then merge down. Adjust merged layer in Levels then USM 8px. Downsize to 25%
What you’re looking for is called “dodging and burning”. In DT this is mainly done with masked instances of exposure.
Here I first brightened (dodged) the greater area around the eyes, then I darkened (burned) the eyes themselves:
Here’s a more general tutorial on the subject:
With Gimp:
Screen mode
With ART 1.24.5
I don’t use Gimp to process images, nor Darktable, but I wanted to try.
A quick edit, I selected the shadows then increased the brightness
@Ofnuts has offered an excellent technique. I use a similar approach to fix color problems or enhance colors, but applying it for exposure is obviously successful too. I feel his approach is the answer you need.
I struggled in T to a pleasing result. I was hoping a drawn mask with the feathering slider would do the trick. It did help but the GIMP technique above is probably the best answer to your problem.
Before masking above and after masking below.
Here is my attempt at further improvement of my DT image by opening the exported JPG in GIMP and warming up the skin tone in the panda mask of the eyes.
Here I am adapting a technique I teach students for warming skin tones. In the class I use a Portrait of a person and create a skin tone color manually by selecting RGB values. However, in the image of the panda eyes I sampled the sunlit skin of the forehead. One difference with my method compared to the method by Ofnuts is that I use the soft light blend mode.
Warming cold skin tones with soft light blend mode
Skin tones in shadows are often too cold and need selective warming.
Open image Portrait -Robert and go to Colors > Shadows-Highlights to darken the highlights by 50% and brighten the shadows by 50%.
Change the foreground colour to 81 red, 56 green, and 42 blue
Create a new transparent layer and then set the layer blend mode to soft light.
Using a soft paintbrush add the warm sampled colour over the cold skin tones. If you make a mistake, use the eraser tool.
If the colour is excessive, try adjusting the opacity slider. If the colour is insufficient duplicate the layer with the colour and this will add intensity.
For me it’s a mission impossible! It not suffice to recover something, it’s about to relight the scene. Of course working at a pixel livel by dodge and burning may help but it’s a never ending story.
The only solution is to shoot at a different time or to accept those harsh shadows for artistic purposes.
The one who came closest is @Donatzsky who darkened the lights too, but we are far from the result you expect.
I just thought, without “pixel peeping”, that she was wearing sunglasses of the pilot type …
Wasn’t the TO just asking for a reduction? I think a reduction IS possible.
Here is a detailed view of my edit without
I’m unsure if it is better then nothing or worst, it seems unnutural to me… 
Here’s what I did in ART, since that’s what I use.
_DSC2182.NEF.arp (30.1 KB)
Close-up, before and after:
First off, I’m no expert at all but what I tried to do:
I think the last two are also important since the fairly distinct line between dark and light is a strong factor in creating the “panda” look. I agree with another poster who initially thought she was wearing aviator style sunglasses, which again was a result of that abrupt dark-highlight line on each side. My edits are by no means perfect and some detail was lost. I had to adjust hue a tiny bit in the raised shadows since it moved slightly purple-ish. I also added back some contrast around her eyes since everything was really flat with the raised shadows.
It’s a great technique. Sometimes, an instance of Colour Balance RGB can give needed flexibility, eg, working on shadows and mids.
_DSC2182.NEF.xmp (27.1 KB)
I was where I was when I was, ie on holiday, on the otherside of the world for me! Sometimes you just have to work with what you’ve got. DT dodge gave very unsatisfactory results, hence my question.
I understand your point.
The problem is hard to correct, in my example i tried the retouch module to blend the highlights into the shadows and it somehow works although not perfect.
