Skin Retouch

When someone asks me to retouch them in Photoshop I usually am slow to respond  – its wise to assess the situation to ascertain what exactly they want from you – it’s a sensitivity minefield.  “Do you want me to remove your double chin?”, “Oh sorry, you didn’t think you had one”…. “Do you want me to take 20 years off?”, “Apoogies, I didn’t realize you were 27″….. “Your moustache?”, ” My bad, that must be a shadow from somewhere”…..  “I could reduce the size of your nose?”,  “Again sorry, that angle makes it look bigger than it is in reality”…… “Just make you look like a Model?, “Yeah the retouching on that will take me forever!, I charge by the hour so it will cost you a fortune”…..

Sometimes I get the impression the person is fishing for a compliment – “Sure you don’t need any airbrushing – you’re practically flawless!”  in which case you do nothing to the image, maybe adjust some levels and hand the file back!  The reality is – your aim is to make the person look their best – the image may have factors mitigating against this – unflattering light, no make-up, too much make-up badly applied, maybe the person has some spots that weren’t there yesterday etc…..  The vast majority of women and a surprising amount of men use make-up every day to make themselves look at their best – to hide unflattering aspects of their appearance, whether permanent or temporary, (imagined or real – best not go there) and to accentuate their good side.  Photoshop is there to do the same – apply virtual make up.  As in the real wold equivalent it is easy to slap on the virtual make-up.  Finding a happy medium is not always easy as how people view themselves is by its nature entirely subjective – you may consider that the wrinkles show character, they on the other may think it makes them look haggard and weary.

So my usual response is non-committal and non specific, along the lines of – “I don’t think there is much to be done, but I will have a look”…  This I feel needs to be refined …. while you may know you have a lot of work to do to make them look at their best, in order to flatter your client you want them to believe you think you don’t , – an intentional collusion of self delusion if you will – how exactly do you get paid for that?  Maybe the brutal truth is the way to go after all……

The image above is courtesy of Retouch Pro, below is  my retouched version….

 

Beauty Retouch Again

Image Courtesy of Dallas J Logan

This image is another one submitted on the the Model Mayhem website for retouching.  The photographer in this case was Dallas J Logan, from Brooklyn in NYC.  Most of the retouching on the skin was achieved by painting with a small low opacity brush (4-7%) set to either black (burn) or white (dodge) on a 50% gray layer set to the soft light blending mode.  The clone stamp and healing brush were used sparingly on the the skin, apart from removing or reducing some of the major blemishes, but quite a bit on the hair.

Cheers

Colin

 

Bleach beach Girl

I found this contemplative portrait of a young girl on a beach on the free stock site http://www.sxc.hu.  Overall I thought the image had a nice feel to it – it was let down by by being too flat and being too warm (overly red).  So naturally for a beach shot I decided to cool it down substantially and increase the contrast………

 

Model Mayhem Beauty Retouch

Model Mayhem (http://www.modelmayhem.com/) is a website community for models, photographers and photoshop “wizards” (their term not mine!) etc.  On one of the forums people submit sample images for retouching, I happened on the image below from photographer Carol Lee from Texas (Mayhem #1216562) on this thread http://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thread_id=550304 .  The extent of the retouch is quite extreme, I spent a couple of hours on it – but it shows what can be done with less than perfect skin…

Cheers

Colin

Original Photo Carol Lee

 

Studio Retouch

Stuart over at Ebony & Pearl photography (great photographer check out their website) gave me a couple of great studio shots to retouch, giving me free reign to play around with as I saw fit, cheers Stuart!. This particular shot I decided to give a grittier look to…..

Daniel Photographed by Stuart McNamara

 

Photo Restoration

One of the services I provide at Farlco Digital Imaging is the restoration of old and not so old photographs.  The level of restoration can vary quite a bit depending on your requirements and the state of the original.  Each image presents different challenges, there could be tears or rips in the photo or strong discoloration.  This example on the face of it looks quite simple but I spent a couple of hours on it.  For more details check out my website www.farlco.com.

Cheers

 

Open for Business!!

Farlco Digital Imaging is now officially open for business! I offer a wide range of professional photo editing services, check out my website – www.farlco.com –  for examples and descriptions of these services.  Along with photoshop tips and tricks, I will also post examples on this blog of the type of work I can do for you and your clients….

Occasionally I trawl through various stock image sites looking for images that I can adjust and improve on in Photoshop, indeed many of the samples on my website come from this source.  Of course on many of the more professional stock sites the images have already been optimized, but www.sxc.hu is a free stock image site – so many of the images have not been adjusted, I found this image on this site , and thought it could do with the with the strong red cast being reduced, while I was at it I would do some retouching – some blemish removal, skin softening etc.  Stock sites are a great source for finding images to retouch, particularly faces – asking your wife/girlfriend/friend/significant other could you use their image as an example of retouching and blemish removal is a can of worms I for one want to steer clear of – we all are imperfect, but none of us like this to be pointed out!

Colin Farrell

 

Dodge The Dodge Tool

Working non-destructively in Photoshop is central to effective retouching. One of the most destructive tools (or tool sets) in photoshop is the dodge and burn tools (the sponge tool is also very destructive tool and also to be avoided). I try to avoid these tools as much as possible and if I use them it would only be on a mask and never on the background layer. These tools are non too subtle that add noise and nasty artifacts. This was the case with CS3 and earlier versions, now however in CS4 things have improved dramatically with the protect tones option for these tools. I prefer to use the following method for burning and dodging :

1. Add a new Layer with and fill it with 50% Grey.
2. Change the blending mode to Soft Light.
3. If you want to dodge or lighten the image set your foreground colour to white and use a soft brush (B) with  a low opacity (under 10%) to lighten the image.
4. If you want to burn or darken the image set your foreground colour to black and use  a soft brush (B) with  a low opacity (under 10%) to darken  the image, you can do this on a different layer if you wish.
5. You build up the burning and dodging effect by brushing repeatedly in the same area.
6. You can change the opacity of these layers to reduce the effect, if you wish to increase the effect simply duplicate the layer.
7. Painting with a 50% grey brush brings the image back to it’s original tonality.

This method can be very effective in reducing wrinkles in a subtle way by painting out the wrinkle gradually, using it in conjunction with a wacom tablet gives you better control of your brush strokes.