Retouching An Image
In the
following retouching steps two layers and an adjustment layer will be
used to make improvements to the image from the first
technique.
This is a three step technique to modify the appearance of
- the eyes
- the teeth and
- the lips
of the final image from the previous technique.
This is the starting point ...
Step One - The Eyes
When we meet someone we always look at their eyes -
either consciously or unconsciously.
With a portrait photograph it is easy to sharpen the
eyes making them the focal point of the photograph - the first step in
retouching
Here is how to do it ...
- Open your photograph in Photoshop and zoom in on the
eyes.
- Select the Lasso Tool and select
one of the eyes.
- Press
the shift key and select the other eye. Pressing the shift key when
making a selection adds to the selection. When you are finished you
should have both eyes selected.
- Press Ctrl-J (Windows) or Cmd-J
(Max) to jump the selected eyes to a new layer. If you click the little
eyeball next to your background layer only the new layer with the eyes
will be visible - like this ...
- Now lets sharpen the eyers.
- Select Filter > Sharpen >
Unsharp Mask. Keep the Radius and Threshold
at 1.0 and move the Amount slider around and watch what happens in the Preview
box.
- If you left click and hold on the preview box it will
change from being sharpened to original. The Amount
in my example is 149.
- Experiment with the amount slider until you are
satisfied and then click OK.
Step Two -The Teeth
It's amazing how a little bit digital dental hygiene
retouching
will improve a picture!
Our digital hygiene will be done with a Soft
Light Layer.
Cue the digital cleaning brush and let's go ...
- Zoom in tight on the teeth in your photograph so they
fill most of the screen.
 |
| Soft Light Layer |
- Select Layer > New Layer
and
when the dialogue box comes up name the layer Teeth,
drop down the Mode, select Soft Light
and put a check mark in the Fill with Soft-Light-neutral
color (50% gray). Click OK.
- Now comes the fun part! Press the D
key to make black and white the
foreground and background colors and then press the X
key to make White the foreground color.
- If you are using a pressure sensitive Wacom tablet
the
next step is
very easy. Select your brush tool and make sure it is close to the size
of the teeth you will be cleaning. In the Brushes Palette
click Other Dynamics and make sure that Pen
Pressure is visible in the Control drop
down menu. If it isn't, make it visible.
 |
| Some Digital Dental Hygiene |
Make sure you have the Soft Light Layer selected,
take
your brush and very lightly start painting white over the teeth.
Check your work as you go by turning the Soft Light
Layer off and on. If you think you have gone too far press the X
key to make Black the foreground color and darken the area that is too
light.
- If you are using a mouse decrease the opacity of the
brush and follow the same procedure.
- Here are the teeth after they have been cleaned ...
 |
| After Cleaning |
All done with the teeth, now let's move onto the lips
...
Step Three - The Lips
The final retouching stop will make the lip color stand
out a bit more with
a Hue and Saturation Layer.
- Zoom in on the lips so you won't be distracted by the
rest of the picture.
- Add a Hue and Saturation layer by clicking Layer
> New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation. Click
OK.
 |
| Hue and Saturation Layer |
- When the dialog comes up, drop down the Edit
menu and select reds. You may see a bit of a change.
- Start moving the Saturation
slider
(the middle one) to the right and watch your image. When you are happy
with the new lip color, click OK.
- Zoom out and check the overall picture. It is likely
that the overall
image will have a red cast that you want to remove. The easiest thing
to do is to hit Ctrl-I (Windows) or Cmd-I
(Mac) to invert the layer - now all of the red is gone.
- Press the D key to select the
default color and then press X to select White
as the foreground color.
- Select your brush tool and if you are using a Wacom
Tablet, select Shape Dynamics to change size with
pressure and make it a soft edge brush.
If you are using a mouse select a small brush size
with
a soft edge brush.
Now
zoom in on the lips and carefully paint over them with white. That will
bring back the red you applied with the Hue and Saturation Layer.
 |
| Final Image |
There you go - three small changes that make a big
difference in the end image.
And here is the final image of technique one and the
addition of different layers.
Video
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