Retouching Part 1

Retouching. On this post we’re talking Retouching and how I do my retouching process.

I’m retouching this photo of one of the models from a shoot we did earlier this month of the beautiful Chloe. Chloe is just like any other person on the planet (with skin) that has a few blemishes. No big deal! But for the look I’m going for we’ll be retouching a few of those for the beauty/fashion look I want.

Shot with
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 85mm f/1.2
AlienBee 1600b
white beauty dish with sock

Software used
Adobe Photoshop CS6
Imagenomic Portraiture

Hardware
Wacom Intuos5

From Adobe Lightroom after I’ve flagged the which pictures are best to edit I cmd + E to edit in Photoshop. Before doing anything, I make a new layer cmd + shift + N and name that grey back for cleaning up the background sensor dust spots and light flyaway hairs.

I use my Wacom Intuos4 tablet, select healing tool or J, check sample all layers at the top and clean up the background.

SKIN

Portraiture

Cmd + J to copy the background layer and open up Imagnomic Portraiture. This is a must-have plug-in for me any plug-in that makes photoshop life easier or faster I’m a fan of it.

Left side under presets, set to default.
Right side set the output to a new layer, and check the create transparency mask box ( x )  hit ok and in photoshop make a layer mask *white* out of that.  I use the white cause it will pick up the grey background and smooth that out for me and I won’t have to.

Portraiture doesn’t get all of the skin smoothed out so new blank layer (cmd + shift + N) and label that skin. Why do I make all these new layers? Because I can always go back and erase.

Switching from Heal tool (J) Clone (S) Clone mode: normal and opacity between 20-40 percent.
Zoomed at 100 percent and get all imperfections that I do not want. Don’t overdo it; you cause you still want that skin texture. Also, don’t overlook the shoulder and the hand.

LIPS

New blank layer (cmd + shift + N) label it lips and Heal and clone any lipstick/make but leave the cracks. That’s part of the texture.

The cover image is a little too dark for me, so I use curves to brighten it up just a little bit. Layer > New Adjustments Layer > Curves

EYES

Eyes are a little dark, so I use Levels Layer > New Adjustments Layer > Levels to lighten them up some.  I hit (cmd + I) to invert the mask, select the brush tool (B) and paint white over the eyes, then bring down the opacity to about 70%

Highlights

Highlights are the bright spots from the beauty dish, and I want to tone those down a little bit new blank layer (cmd + shift + N) Clone tool (S) set the blend mode to Darken and opacity to 40% and paint over the forehead and nose area and tone the highlights. Setting the brush to 40% means it’s just going to knock those down lightly.

Lastly, I’m going to go through the photos and do any final tweaks, hair, eyes, lashes, ect.. and I’m done getting this photo where I want it now time to make my color adjustments.

Stay tuned for part 2 of retouching using two more Photoshop plug-ins.