Retouching Portraits in Photoshop

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Kevin Waters
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Retouching Portraits in Photoshop I Removing Blemishes When removing blemishes, acne or other imperfections on the skin, our goal is to maintain as much of the original skin texture as possible.

soft-edged brush that s slightly larger than the blemish you want to remove. a.

1 Retouching Portraits in Photoshop I Removing Blemishes When removing blemishes, acne or other imperfections on the skin, our goal is to maintain as much of the original skin texture as possible. That way, our retouch doesn t look pasty and obvious. 1. Open picture Choose the Clone Stamp tool. 3. From the Brush Picker (which you access by clicking on the Brush thumbnail in the Options Bar), choose a soft-edged brush that s slightly larger than the blemish you want to remove. a. Tip: Once you re working, if you need to quickly adjust the brush size, use the Bracket keys on your keyboard: the left key ([) makes your brush smaller; the Right (]) larger. 4. In the Options bar, change the Mode pop-up menu of the Clone Stamp tool to Lighten. When the mode is set to lighten only pixels that are darker than the area you re going to sample will be affected. 5. Zoom in on the blemish under her eye on her cheek. Switch back to the Clone Stamp Tool 6. Find an area right near the blemish that s pretty clean (no visible spots, blemishes, etc.), hold the ALT key, and click once. The tool now samples the skin from that area. Make sure this sample area is very near the blemish so the skin tones will match. If you move too far away, you risk having your repair appear in a slightly different color, which is a dead giveaway of a repair. 7. Move your cursor directly over the blemish and click just once. Don t paint! Just click. The click will do it it will remove the blemish instantly, while leaving the skin texture intact. 8. Don t forget to get the birthmark on her hand. 9. Try applying the skin tone change from page Save the resulting image as 7-1after 11. Now you need to resize the image. Image > Image Size. Make sure Constrain Proportions and Resample Image is checked. a. Width = 4.5 inches b. Resolution = 72. c. The Height will adjust itself. Page 1 of 7

2 12. Now re-open the original 7-1 and resize it the same way, saving in your folder as 7-1after. 13. Create a new file (File > New) with the dimensions 6 inches wide and 6.5 inches tall. Resolution should be 72 ppi. 14. Drag the before and after onto the new canvas. 15. This time you will label the photos before, after and clone tool. 16. Now add some style to the text and background. This is a PROFESSIONAL document that would be in a PROFESSIONAL portfolio. Styles, fonts, colors and backgrounds should be simple and comply will all of the Design Principles and Typography Contrast techniques we have covered. 17. The final collage will be saved as classid_clone.psd Page 2 of 7

II Removing Dark Circles under Eyes In this section we ll use a combination of tools to fix the dark circles under the eyes. 1. Open picture 7-2. 2.

In the Options Bar and set your Brush size to about 21 soft, the Mode to Lighten and the Opacity to 50% 5.

3 II Removing Dark Circles under Eyes In this section we ll use a combination of tools to fix the dark circles under the eyes. 1. Open picture Zoom in to the area under his right eye (left as you are looking at it). 3. Select the Clone Stamp Tool. 4. In the Options Bar and set your Brush size to about 21 soft, the Mode to Lighten and the Opacity to 50% 5. Press and hold the ALT key and click once in an area near the eye that isn t affected by the dark circles. Just under the dark circles. 6. Now, paint over the dark circles to lessen or remove them. It may take two or more strokes for the dark circles to disappear. 7. Now to work on the left eye. Repeat steps 5-6 on the left eye. You may not be as happy with the results. 8. We ll edit the area some more with the Healing Brush Tool. Click the Healing Brush Tool in the toolbox on the left. 9. Be sure to change the Mode to Lighten. 10. Simply ALT-click the Healing Brush in a light area under the dark circles, and then paint them circles away. 18. Save the resulting image as 7-2after. 19. Now you need to resize the image. Follow the steps in green on the previous exercise but this time you will label the page healing tool. 11. The final collage will be saved as classid_healing.psd Page 3 of 7

III Whitening and Brightening Teeth We are actually going to remove the yellowing before we whiten the teeth. 1. Open picture 7-14 2.

Carefully draw a selection around the teeth, being careful not to select any of the gums or lips.

of the selection. 5. Go under the Select menu and choose Modify > Feather. When the Feather Selection dialog appears, enter 1 pixel and click OK.

Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. When the dialog box appears choose Yellows from the Master drop-down menu (second box from the top).

Now that the yellow is gone change back to Master, and drag the Lightness slider to the right to whiten and brighten the teeth.

4 III Whitening and Brightening Teeth We are actually going to remove the yellowing before we whiten the teeth. 1. Open picture Zoom in on the teeth. 3. Switch to the Lasso tool (L) and choose the Polygonal Lasso tool in the Options Bar. 4. Carefully draw a selection around the teeth, being careful not to select any of the gums or lips. If you miss a spot, press and hold Shift while using the Lasso tool to add to your selection, or press and hold Alt to drag the Lasso to remove parts of the selection. 5. Go under the Select menu and choose Modify > Feather. When the Feather Selection dialog appears, enter 1 pixel and click OK. This smoothes the edges of your selection. That way you won t see a hard edge along the area you selected once you ve whitened the teeth. 6. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. When the dialog box appears choose Yellows from the Master drop-down menu (second box from the top). Then, drag the Saturation slider to the left to remove the yellowing from the teeth. 7. Now that the yellow is gone change back to Master, and drag the Lightness slider to the right to whiten and brighten the teeth. Be careful not to drag it too far!!! 8. Now remove the dark areas under his eyes using the methods in the exercise early. 9. Save the resulting image as 7-14after 10. Now you need to resize the image. Follow the steps in green on the previous exercise but this time you will label the page whitening. 11. The final collage will be saved as classid_whitening.psd Page 4 of 7

IV Removing Hot Spots Hot spots (shiny areas on your subject s face caused by uneven lighting or the flash reflecting off shiny surfaces, making your subject look as if they re sweating) can be the

In the Option Bar set the Mode to Darken and the Opacity to 50%. 4.

5 IV Removing Hot Spots Hot spots (shiny areas on your subject s face caused by uneven lighting or the flash reflecting off shiny surfaces, making your subject look as if they re sweating) can be the toughest thing to correct in digital photography unless you know this trick!! 1. Open picture Zoom in on the shiny spot on her forehead. 3. Select the Clone Stamp Tool (S). In the Option Bar set the Mode to Darken and the Opacity to 50%. 4. Choose a medium, soft-edged brush from the Brush Picker then hold the Alt key and click once in a clean area of skin (an area with no hot spots). 5. Start gently painting over the hot spot areas. 6. As you work on different hot spots, you ll have to resample (ALT-click) on nearby areas of skin so the skin tone matches. For example, when you move on to another hot spot, sample an area of skin near the new hot spot that you ll be working on. 7. Now whiten her teeth using the method from exercise III. 8. Save the resulting image as 7-8after. 9. We re going to resize this one a bit differently. Select the Crop tool. In the Options bar at the top, set the width to 5 and height to 3 (in will pop up for inches). Set the resolution to 72 pixels. 10. Click and drag the selection box across the picture to frame her face. Setting the Width and Height this way will only allow you to crop by that ratio. Get as much of the image in this ratio as you can. 11. Repeat the resizing and file saving steps from the green section of exercise 1 but label the finished product Removing Hotspots. 12. Save As classid_hotspots.psd Page 5 of 7

V Lessening Freckles or Facial Acne This technique is popular with senior class portrait photographers who need to lessen or remove large areas of acne, pockmarks or freckles. 1. Open photo 7-5 2.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Drag the slider all the way to the left. Then, drag it slowly to the right until you see the freckles blurred away.

Press-and-hold the Ctrl key once on the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. This creates a new blank layer directly beneath your current layer the blurry layer. 5.

6 V Lessening Freckles or Facial Acne This technique is popular with senior class portrait photographers who need to lessen or remove large areas of acne, pockmarks or freckles. 1. Open photo Make a duplicate of the background layer by going to the Layer menu, under New and choosing Layer via Copy (or just pressing Control-J). We ll be working on this duplicate layer. 3. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Drag the slider all the way to the left. Then, drag it slowly to the right until you see the freckles blurred away. The photo should look very blurry, but we ll fix that in just a minute make sure it s blurry enough that the freckles are no longer visible. Click OK. 4. Press-and-hold the Ctrl key once on the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. This creates a new blank layer directly beneath your current layer the blurry layer. 5. Click back on the top layer the blurry layer. Right-click and choose Create Clipping Mask to group the blurry layer with the blank layer beneath it. Doing this removes all the blurriness from view and a down arrow will appear only on the top layer. 6. In the Layers palette, click on the middle layer the blank layer. Press the letter D to set your Foreground color to black. Press the B key to switch to the Brush tool pick a soft edged brush. 7. Lower the Opacity to 50% and change the Mode to Lighten. 8. Paint over the freckle areas and as you paint you ll see them diminish quite a bit. If they diminish too much, and the person looks too clean, undo, then lower the Opacity of the brush to 25% and try again. 9. Ctrl click all the layers to select them all. Go to Layers>Merge Layers 10. Save the resulting image as 7-5after. 11. Repeat the resizing steps in Exercise 1 and label the finished product clone tool. 12. The final collage will be saved as classid_diminish.psd Page 6 of 7

VI Removing or Lessening Wrinkles 1. Open photo7-12. 2. Duplicate the Background layer by pressing Control J you ll be working on this layer Layer 1. 3. Get the Healing Brush tool.

Find a clean area that s somewhere near the wrinkles (perhaps the upper cheek if you re removing crow s feet, or if you re removing forehead wrinkles, perhaps just above or below the wrinkle).

The great thing about this tool is that the wrinkles will disappear, but the texture of the skin stays behind. 6.

7 VI Removing or Lessening Wrinkles 1. Open photo Duplicate the Background layer by pressing Control J you ll be working on this layer Layer Get the Healing Brush tool. Then choose a soft-edged brush from the Brush Picker choose a brush size that s close to the size of the wrinkles you want to remove. 4. Find a clean area that s somewhere near the wrinkles (perhaps the upper cheek if you re removing crow s feet, or if you re removing forehead wrinkles, perhaps just above or below the wrinkle). Hold the alt key and click once to sample the skin texture from that area. 5. Now paint over the wrinkles with the Healing Brush tool. The great thing about this tool is that the wrinkles will disappear, but the texture of the skin stays behind. 6. Now that the wrinkles are gone, it s time to bring back just enough of them to make it look realistic. Simply go to the Layers palette and reduce the Opacity of this layer to bring back some of the original wrinkles. This lets a small amount of the original photo (the background layer) show through. Keep lowering the Opacity until you see the wrinkle, but not nearly as prominent. 7. Select all the layers and go to Layers > Merge Visible 8. Save the resulting image as 7-12after 9. Resize the image but this time change the size of the height to 3.5 inches. 10. Resize the original 7-12 the same way. 11. Create a New Blank Document - 6 in x 6.5 in and 72 pixels Resolution. 12. This time you will label the finished product lessening wrinkles. 13. The final collage will be saved as classid_wrinkles.psd Page 7 of 7

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