Help! What can I do to rescue this mess?

[edith]

Can anyone advise me on how to correct the following photo- I don't know if it was auto flash or perhaps two flashes at once but this photo is totally washed out- my face is hiding there somewhere! Any advice would be appreciated.

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[Cameron]

It is too washed out. Visual detail can only be recovered up to a certain point. In this case there is no detail in the washed out area to recover.

Cameron

[TCampbell]

Here's your EXIF exposure data (this is invisible data embedded in the image):

Exposure: Auto exposure, Landscape, 1/16 sec, f/2.9, ISO 1600
Flash: Off, Did not fire

1/16th sec is pretty slow, f/2.9 is fairly wide open, and ISO 1600 is an aggressive ISO setting for low light. Note that your flash did not fire.

It looks like your camera was trying to expose for the background.

Unfortunately this JPEG image has flattened the data in the overexposed area so that it's all the same value - it lacks all the detail that would allow recovery of the image. When trying to bring down the over-exposed highlights, they all dim down to a flat grey but still no detail (looks just like the white ... only gray).

[edith]

Thanks for having a look- i thought it was beyond saving- ho hum.

[ChicagoJohn]

4uamont redux by ChicagoJohn, on Flickr