Need Help with reducing lamp intensity PLZ

Hello,

I'm not that expert with photoshop and am not a professional photographer or something like that.
I'm trying to make a nice photo for a couple of friends, and I have the following disturbing problem in the image:
The lamp in the background is very strong and it bugs the eye -
How do I reduce the brightness of the lamp?

here's a link to a picasa version of the image:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/vEp0iV8Hu7tG_ApKLSAsSQ?feat=directlink

just to note: I have already sharpened the image
and also reduced some lens blur in the black skirt area
(I know that I haven't made it perfect, again I'm quite a novice)

Can someone PLZ give me some advice?

I'm trying to do something nice for that couple...

thanx in advance

The only way that comes to mind for me is to just use the clone stamp tool to get the light out.

I opened it up real quick and this is what I came up with: http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee180/ClaytonPerryman/Help1.jpg

If you're having trouble getting it stamped out, and have a higher resolution image, I wouldn't mind doing it for you and your friends for free (and actually taking some time to make the clone stamps look authentic). Just let me know.

hi,
i am a novice also... but i played around with your image a little...
1. what i did was i selected the two people... and applied a curve adjusment to just them, not the whole picture... that made them the central and stand out .........

2. now what i did after that (and this if youwant to keep the lamp, was i used the the doge and burn tool at low opacity... and just dark the lamp a little at a time untill i was satisfied with it...!! I also tone down the brightness of that building in the background so it would dominate the certer of the picture... wanted the eye to be pulled toward the popel not the building or lamp...

note: i almost be tempted to eliminate the lamp... is it that important to the image? if not eliminated it awfull dominating ... if nothing else experiment with and without the lamp and see how that comes across..

asiniv said:

Hello,

I'm not that expert with photoshop and am not a professional photographer or something like that.
I'm trying to make a nice photo for a couple of friends, and I have the following disturbing problem in the image:
The lamp in the background is very strong and it bugs the eye -
How do I reduce the brightness of the lamp?

here's a link to a picasa version of the image:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/vEp0iV8Hu7tG_ApKLSAsSQ?feat=directlink

just to note: I have already sharpened the image
and also reduced some lens blur in the black skirt area
(I know that I haven't made it perfect, again I'm quite a novice)

Can someone PLZ give me some advice?

I'm trying to do something nice for that couple...

thanx in advance

Hey, thanx guys for the help:

only seen the replies now, for some reason the auto notification haven't notified me...

anywayz, I've tried all kind of things - according to your advice and a bunch of other stuff - contrast, cooling photo filter, exposure...
didn't get the result I wanted.

I don't want to play around with the couple itself to much, so I've come to mind that the option you 2 suggested - removing the lamp is the best.
tde - I'll be glad if you could help me out with that, I messed around with it myself with the stamp tool but haven't been able to be accurate enough.
the full image is at:

http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=mfd3dymhrtt&thumb=5

thanx a lot for the help! hope it will turn out alright, it's important for me
that they will like it...
btw - just a little bit of info about the scenery - it was taken in a beautiful balcony across the walls of the old city of Jerusalem... I tried to catch them in a natural position when they didn't noticing me photograping them :-)