Rescue the Orangutang! (or is ir too late??)

[natalie]

Hi folks
I took this snapshot at the Singapore Zoo, this lovely fellow was highly entertaining. I love his pose but the photo is lacking clarity and is perhaps overexposed (?). I'm wondering what the best tools are to try to fix it. If you can offer your opinion, I'd be most appreciative. (I have photoshop CS4 but have a very basic working knowledge of it)
Thanks,
natalie

[MarkChap]

I think an adjustment in Levels would go well, also I think it need an increase in contrast

[MarkChap]

A quick edit in Faststone, increased Contrast, slight saturation increase and a small sharpen
You could do more with the full size file. Levels and curves would allow you to draw a bit more detail from the shadow areas

[ving]

i dont have access to anything here at work, but as kiwi said there is setail in there that can bought out with the right adjustments. just increasing the contrast makes it a bit better

[natalie]

Thanks for your feedback Mark & Ving
Just quickly, are there any 'rules' for how far to go with the levels, curves and things or is it just a matter of 'tweak it till you like it'??
thanks

[old dog]

that`s a lay back ranga Natalie. Nice capture...so to speak.

[Kel1973]

I am going to have breakfast with them in a few weeks, looks like it is worth it.

[natalie]

thanks Old dog, these guys were super entertaining and provided many photo ops
Kel, we had breakfast with them too and I loved it! There was even a little bub, which was very sweet to see. Make sure you go back to the orangutangs later in the day too, they are 'open range' within their part of the zoo. Highly social and very entertaining. My man and I spent nearly and hour watching their antics!

[ricktas]

Had a go too,

Created a layer and applied a gradient to the bush and sky down to the wooden railing to darken that area
Masked out the Orang-utan from the gradient layer so he wasn't darkened
Darkened the foreground fence
Made a selection of the Orang-utan and increased saturation, and played with contrast for the selection only, and then used the burn tool to darken some areas like his face, that looked to pale in the original.

Using a small JPG file is not the best way to do this, but it shows that the photo has potential to be made quite good

[natalie]

thanks rick, that pic actually is looking ok
thanks for the tips folks, now i have some good place to start playing around with the original
Thanks again, i appreciate your input

[Kel1973]

Thanks Natalie I am even more excited now