shadow from hair light (how to remove?)

Hi All

I've been at this for 4+ hours on different days, trying to get the shadow off this subject's chest. Any ideas how to do it? See this link on YT:

I've tried with the mask tool, and with the picker tool, both end up looking bad, worse actually than just leaving it as is. I'm a beginner at this, would appreciate any insights to lessen this or make it go away completely.

Still learning! Thanks everyone.

Stephen

I don't think you can compensate for a lighting problem this bad.

My advice would be to live with it. You might consider using a power window as a "flag" (like a cutter on set) and just darken everything from the guy's neck on down, and consider that style. I would take baby steps doing this and make it subtle. When everything is darker, the shadow will be less noticeable. Here's what I mean:



You could also try to defocus the shadow a little bit, but that's a very tricky adjustment that's very source-dependent. If it were me, I'd also try to dodge the glare on the top of the guy's head, which to me is distracting (another lighting issue).

This kind of thing happens when people try to shoot in a studio that's too small, or they have the lights aimed at steep angles, which inevitably create unflattering shadows on the talent. I always cringe when I see gross nose and chin shadows on interview subjects on network TV, where they really should know better. (Your material doesn't look as bad as some of the stuff I've seen on television over the last few months.)

There are occasions where clients give me marginal material and ask me if it can be made perfect, and I have to stop myself from shrugging and saying, "you could always reshoot it!" We can always make it better in post, but it just wastes time to try to chase perfection with material flawed this much.