The face tool in Photoshop. An example of professional retouching in Photoshop. Removal of large defects

02.05.2019

Everyone who processes pictures in Photoshop has thought about how to learn how to retouch photos like in fashion glossy magazines. This lesson will tell you about the retouching technique, which for many will open up new facets in image processing and will allow you to achieve results that will not differ from the work of professional photographers.

This snapshot can be obtained by going through the entire lesson from start to finish. Your work will look just as good.

To achieve really good result you need to hone your technique and learn some rules. The following tips will help you process your images:

By all means, try to maintain the texture of the skin as much as possible. Do not wash the skin too much. This makes it plastic.
It is worth distinguishing between skin defects and its natural appearance. when retouching, moles and freckles are often removed, and it is they that convey the character of the model's skin. Getting rid of them is not at all necessary.
You always need to know when to stop. You should not turn an aged woman into a young girl. This is unnatural, unless it is an idea that the photographer is trying to implement.

You can get to work. This snapshot will be used as an example:

For work, you should take pictures in high resolution. This will allow you to work out all the little things in more detail and get the highest quality result.

When processing images, you should get rid of defects as much as possible. Even what is not visible on a computer monitor will be clearly visible on a large poster. The most basic stage of retouching is cleaning the skin from imperfections. This is where you always need to start.

After opening the photo in Photoshop, you need to create a duplicate of the main layer. In order to do this, you can drag the main layer onto the icon for creating a new layer, which is located at the bottom of the layers panel, or simply press the Ctrl + J keyboard shortcut. The skin will be cleaned on the duplicate. The original will serve as a backup. It comes in handy if something goes wrong on the working layer.

It is not necessary to remove moles. If they do not disfigure the model, you can safely leave them. However, this is an individual decision of everyone.

Use the Clone Stamp tool to clean the skin. It is called by pressing the "C" key. The tool's blending mode settings should be changed to "Lighten" to remove dark areas, and to Darken to edit light areas.

Working in this mode, the texture of the skin will remain unaffected, and defects are eliminated. In work, you should use a small radius tool with a hardness of 90%.

By strongly enlarging the image, you can remove all the smallest and at first glance imperceptible defects, such as extra hairs on the eyebrows.

Having got rid of minor defects, you should go to large pores on the skin, wrinkles, shadows and highlights.

Tonal adjustments can be made with the Dodge and Burn tools.

Using the "Dodge" and "Burn" tools (Dodge and Burn), which are called "O", will even out skin tones, make it smooth and soft. These are the tools that professionals use. And remember, you cannot do any kind of blurring of the skin. This is only acceptable with frequency decomposition retouching, but this is a completely different lesson. Now let's talk about the Dodge & Burn technique.

Below is the result of using these tools:

Instead of these two tools, you can use a more flexible method - these are the "Curves" adjustment layers:

After adding a curve adjustment layer above all the layers, drag the center up. It is better to rename the layer itself to "Dodge" (Lightening), so as not to get confused in the future. Fill the layer mask with black. Initially it is white, so you can make it black by inverting the colors (Ctrl + I).
After that, you need to create another layer of curves. In it, the curve should be pulled down. The name "Burn" will suit it. The mask should also be made black.

Something like this should be the settings:

Now you should use a soft brush. In its settings, change the "Flow" parameter by about 1-4%. Draw in white.

Now to lighten the areas you need to paint on the mask with the "Lighten" adjustment curve, and to darken - on the mask of the "Burn" layer.

This is how you can get rid of dark areas in the ember of your mouth with lightening:

For more careful control You can create an adjustment layer "Black & White" (Black and White), and in it move the slider, which is responsible for the red tones to the left. This will add contrast and allow you to see uneven tones more clearly.

These are all the key points of this retouching method. To get an acceptable result, you just have to practice. Here's the initial shot and end result:

This processing technique may take longer than the usual blurring of the skin, but here the result is of a qualitatively different level. The most important thing is to do the retouching in such a way that no one suspects that the photo has been processed. People should see just a beautiful picture.

Based on materials from the site:

We recently spoke about being with the concept of beauty in modern society... A logical continuation of this theme is the question of the place of retouching in photography. The illusory nature of what is happening in the photography industry is obvious to its employees, but not to most consumers of glossy (and not only) magazines. We asked Bespoke Pixel retouchers to outline what everyone who opens fashion magazine or website.

The pursuit of the perfect
picture

We put on compression underwear or drape in Rick Owens, push-up breasts, simulate sun-bleached hair, make the skin glow with reflective foundation and put on 14cm heels (or their personal equivalent). In other words, we transform our appearance in order to broadcast in environment personal statement, position, views - or lack thereof. Where, in this case, our individuality appears more: when, having accepted a thousand micro-changes from the shape of the nails to the shade of lipstick, we come to a gala party, or the next morning, when we wake up disheveled, without makeup and with traces of a hangover on our face? It would never occur to anyone to reproach a girl for using lengthening mascara and demand that her heels be removed so as not to distort her height - this is a game accepted by society, the rules of which are well known to everyone. And where, then, is the ethical difference, is the pimple covered with tonal means or with a brush in a graphic editor?

In image processing, two related stages can be distinguished: the first is a production necessity, often an integral part of creating a digital image, and the second is the delicate territory of aesthetic solutions. The fact is that nothing has changed much since the days of analog photography. A digital image needs to be “developed” as well as a film frame. Only to replace the analog darkroom with reagents came Adobe photoshop and other graphic editors. At the stage of such "digital development" (converting a RAW file into an image), you can adjust the brightness, contrast, tonality, saturation, sharpness and other parameters of the image. You need to understand that in in this case the pixels that make up the image remain in place, and only their properties are adjusted. This does not affect the content of the image, although the play of light can also visually transform the image. An eloquent example is a photograph by Paul Hansen, winner of the 2013 World Press Photo, where no pixels have been shifted, but the dramatic "development" of the image has sparked heated debate about its acceptability.

Photo from Elle Ukraine (June 2013), retouched by Bespoke Pixel

Retouching history

The history of image manipulation is as old as photography itself. Back in the 1860s (photography at that time was about 25 years old), a discussion about retouching and its limits began between the patriarch of Russian photography Levitsky and the president of the French photography society Davanne. Davann's point of view: the photographer can only "sketch" on the negative the general drawing of the subject, and the retouchers will finish the rest. Levitsky objected, allowing only technical retouching, embedding small dots and stains.

Initially, photography was a poor technical relative of painting, and all techniques from there were automatically transferred to photographs. The early photographers were often painters, and it was common practice to paint the necessary details over the print with brushes; photographs were hand-colored and scored according to the same criteria as paintings. When shooting portraits, retouching was a must. The legendary portrait studio of Nadar in Paris employed 26 people, 6 of whom were retouchers. Franz Fiedler, German portraitist and photography theorist, wrote about late XIX century, when photography was only forty years old, so: “The preference was given to those photo studios that most diligently resorted to retouching. The wrinkles on the faces were painted over; freckled faces were completely "cleaned" by retouching; grandmothers turned into young girls; specific traits the person was completely erased. The blank, flat mask was regarded as a successful portrait. Bad taste knew no boundaries, and the trade flourished. " Below is a slideshow based on materials from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Robert Johnson, 1930, A guide to retouching negatives.
Calvert Richard Jones, Capuchin monks in Malta, 1846
This is one of the first documented retouched photographs. Calvert was a painter and smeared one of the monks who spoiled his composition on the negative. He not only brought photographs from a trip to Malta, which he sold as postcards, but also added figures of people and details to some of them.
Charles Negre, 1850s. The fire of the candles was painted by hand, the technology of that time could not realize such a picture.
Henry Peach Robinson "Fading Away" ("Fading"), 1858. One of the most high-profile staged composite photographs of the time, raising a number of ethical questions about the appropriateness of photographing certain topics ("there is nothing to shoot crap!").
Ernest Eugene Apper, who directed and filmed the "crimes" of the Parisian Communards (in the photo - the actors). The photo appeared in the press on May 24, 1871. Perhaps not all photographs of conflicts from neighboring countries are equally true.
1905, family “at Niagara Falls” (actually in the studio).
No, in 1910 such corn did not grow, but with George Cornish, it seems, we could be friends - we have a similar sense of humor.
Nikolai Antipov, Joseph Stalin, Sergei Kirov, Nikolai Shvernik and Nikolai Komarov at the Fifteenth Leningrad Regional Party Conference in Leningrad, 1926. Under Stalin, all important political photographs were retouched, painted over, and his former associates, as they fell into disgrace and repression, were erased.
Nikolai Antipov, Joseph Stalin, Sergei Kirov and Nikolai Shvernik in the book “S. M. Kirov, 1886-1934 "(Leningrad, 1936). Komarov was arrested and executed in 1937.
Joseph Stalin, Sergei Kirov and Nikolai Shvernik from "History of the USSR, Part 3", Moscow, 1948. Antipov was arrested and shot in 1937.
Stalin and Kirov in Joseph Stalin: short biography". Moscow, 1949.
Klim Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Joseph Stalin and Nikolai Yezhov, 1938.
This is a previous photo from 1938, published in 1940. The retoucher removed the "enemy of the people" Yezhov (far right), the former head of the NKVD, organizer and executor of mass repressions, who was later shot "for attempted coup d'etat."

What is
processing process

Covers of L "Officiel Ukraine, Elle Ukraine and Aeroflot Style, retouched in
Bespoke pixel

Just as a chain of specialists works on the construction of a building - from an architect to an engineer and contractors - the published photograph is the result of the work of a team of professionals: art director, stylist, makeup artist, model, photographer and others, where a retoucher is one of the modest functional links. Each specialist has his own competence: the model cannot be filmed in whatever she pleases, and the retoucher does not “play” with the picture in his own way. Each shoot has its own stylistic direction, and post-processing should bring the team's idea to the maximum (“adjustments to your taste” or “make us beautiful” is usually the first red flag - most likely, the client does not know what he wants). In essence, the image processing process is an inextricable union of aesthetic choice and its technical implementation. That is, Photoshop is just a tool in the service of photography. Its technical capabilities allow you to perform almost unlimited manipulations with the image, changing the shape of objects, texture, color, and so on (there is an opinion that an ordinary order for retouchers looks like this). But, like any tool, it can be used both for good and for evil. That's why critical moment here - common sense... It should be understood that if the processing of a photo clearly pulls the blanket over itself, this is not a disaster, but then the image is more appropriate to be attributed to the field of graphic or technical design.

A team of professionals works on fashion or beauty shooting even before the shutter of the camera clicks, in order to get closer to the perfect picture during the shooting. Therefore, as a rule, high-quality work falls into our hands, where well-groomed woman model appearance with correctly applied makeup, shot by an experienced photographer in a favorable light and with good optics. Next, we have to do what was not possible (or even impossible) to achieve during photography, adjust the image to a certain level, bring it closer to the author's idea. A retoucher can make a great photo perfect, a good one very good, an average one not bad, a bad one acceptable. To make a qualitative leap two steps is unreasonably expensive, unrealistic and simply ineffective (unless it is a leap in the opposite direction - talentless processing can kill a talented photograph). That is, ideally, the work of a retoucher is aimed not at correcting an image, but at improving it.

One of the most beloved client edits -
circle anything in the photo and caption: "What is this?"

A still from a shoot with a leading makeup artist Chanel in Ukraine for Harper "s Bazaar Ukraine,
Retouched Bespoke Pixel

Of course, each order is individual, but if we try to generalize our usual actions, we remove everything that distracts, interferes, and creeps into our eyes. Add volume at the hair roots if they are loose. We lengthen the neck, remove some horizontal wrinkles on it, clean the axillary folds and armpits, paint the nails, remove the cuticles, correct the makeup - eyes, eyelash line, sometimes paint them, smooth the movable eyelid, add color uniformity. We clean the eyes: remove blood vessels, redness, accentuate the pupil. Correct the eyebrows by removing excess hairs, level out the color and density, and edit the shape. Naturally, we work with pores, irregularities, spots on the face. Pay attention to the extra hairs in the hairstyle. We correct the plastic: body folds, waist contour, hips and back bend, remove " goose bumps»On your feet, always clean your heels. The list turns out to be impressive, but it is very complex and usually each action takes no more than 15 minutes. Contrasting transformations excess weight v model parameters and, for example, rejuvenation by twenty years in our case remain one-time exceptions. We do not work as "Photoshop wizards", but we do help clients to bring their images to match their style, brand, long-term strategy.

In our opinion, the main task processing is not "to make the photograph and the person in it better" - this phrase, due to subjectivity, does not mean absolutely nothing. Retouching and post-processing are not elusive things, not Wilde's fox hunt, where the inexpressible pursues the inedible, but assistance in realizing the artistic intention of the photographer or art director. If the task (to shoot a lookbook or an art photo session) is flawlessly implemented within the resources allocated for it, we can say that we have “good” retouching. Unfortunately, there are options when bad aesthetic decisions are ideally made technically, and vice versa - great intentions suffer from poor implementation. Therefore, when we meet an unsuccessful shot, we are in no hurry to blame the retoucher, perhaps “it was so intended” by the art director of the shooting (or the person who bears his duties).

It is worth noting that our personal aesthetic preferences as retouchers may not coincide with the idea of the author or the project of the team. Receiving another iteration with the requirement to "make the model's legs even thinner", we feel uncomfortable and always try to reason with the customer, but we understand that this is a situation about a cross and panties. Since, deep down, we are against excessive processing and the approach of “okay, fix it in post-production”, we try to dissuade photographers from making too unrealistic changes. True, in our memory, no one has gone too far so that we refused to fulfill the order for moral reasons (but maybe we are just shameless bitches). And here comes the fun part - what are the standards?

Standards and Trends
in modern touch-up

nor the transformation of the heroine into a more perfect version of herself. Vogue always works as a window to another, "better" world, and not to process someone's photos means to provide special preferences, to put in different conditions. Lena herself reacted truthfully, gracefully moving a number of her own previous statements “A glossy magazine is a kind of beautiful fantasy. Vogue is not a place for realistic portraits of women, but for sophisticated clothing, fashion spots and escapism. Therefore, if the article reflects my essence, but at the same time I am dressed in Prada and surrounded by beautiful men and dogs, what's the problem? If someone wants to see how I look in real life, let it include 'Girls'. "

Ethics, professional deformation
and the value of natural beauty

Fragment of the "Barber Shop" project

Do we feel that we are setting unrealistic standards and complexes? On the one hand, yes, it is with our hands that the waist is pulled and the eyelashes are lengthened. On the other hand, we cannot but agree with Lena Dunham - the glossy industry gives us a fairy tale, an illusion, a dream that should be treated accordingly. And if we draw an ideal picture of the world, then we would be more willing to introduce a mandatory course on the nature of digital images in secondary schools - only understanding it will save a person from complexes and make him appreciate his body. Banning Photoshop will not solve the problem - even in real life there will always be someone with more authentic legs and a wider smile.

If we talk about personal preference, we do not like photographs honed to perfection and symmetry, although we know how to do so. We prefer slight irregularities, uniqueness of bends, so we try to leave hairs, skin, pores, folds on the fingers as much as possible - not to remake a person, but to emphasize his individuality. The fact that we are girls and know how to dye, are interested in cosmetics and know how everything works, in turn, helps a lot in our work. In most cases, we can distinguish the makeup artist's intention from the imperfect performance and make corrections, where necessary, without blurring the idea. And even if we do not know which smoky trendy this season, we are saved dear friends with beauty blogs and awareness in the fashion industry.

One day
the producer really asked
lengthen arms
her aspiring ward singer of miniature build

In this article, I will show you a quick, simple, and most importantly realistic way of retouching skin. It takes less than a minute to complete it with quite decent result... Of course, with its help, it will not work to get rid of major shortcomings such as those described in. However, for working with porters of young people, or pre-processed by other methods and tools, for example, the "Healing Brush", it is quite applicable.

And so, let's get started, you see the experimental photo below.

The main work will take place on a copy of the background layer, create it (Ctrl + J). Immediately change the blending mode of the copy to "", this will allow to lighten the areas of the skin and, together with them, "press down" the defects on it.

The next step is to invert the layer (Ctrl + I). Using the "Color Contrast" filter Filter - Other - High Pass (Filter - Others - Color Contrast) remove all large details from the picture above a certain value. For this photo, I picked a value of 7.2 pixels. This value is selected approximately based on the size of defects on the skin of the image itself.

Now I will apply a Gaussian blur filter to get rid of details below a certain value. Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur (Filter - Blur -Gaussian Blur) set the value to 0.7 pixels. So on the layer there are only details from 0.7 to 7.2 pixels in size. The skin imperfections that I want to retouch are included in this "corridor" of sizes.

Some of the work has been done, but the photo does not look as good as we would like. You can fix this situation by changing the blending mode of the layers Blend If. Double click on the layer to open the style dialog

At the bottom of the dialog there are those responsible for the blending parameters for the slider, I will do with them as follows: With the Alt key pressed, I will "split" the shadow slider and move its right half into the area with light. I will do a similar operation with the light slider, "splitting" its left half and transfer it to the shadow area. Movement parameters are selected by changes in the picture and tips inner voice... I got it like this.

I put on this layer with retouch black mask, with a brush tool about the settings of which you can read the effect in the right places... As you can see the work on retouching skin passed pretty quickly.

There is a small touch left, after all the manipulations, slightly correct the sharpness. Create a merged composite layer above (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E) .Use the Unsharp Mask filter Filter - Sharpen - Unsharp Mask with 10% exposure parameters and 10px radius. the threshold is left alone.

That's it - the quick skin retouching in Photoshop is over, you can enjoy the result

Retouching the face in "Photoshop" - mandatory step, important step to beautiful and aesthetically pleasing photography. Not all images need additional processing, but often you just can't do without it. Professional and amateur photographers know how to get the perfect shot. Adobe Photoshop is just the tool without which it is difficult to enjoy the captured moment.

What is retouching?

Retouching is enhancing pictures with photo editor tools. In the program "Photoshop", the processing of the skin is done with the "Clone Stamp" tool, "Healing Brush" or "Patch". "Stamp" puts one part of the image on top of another. Knowledge of basic, simple retouching is necessary if it is related to the main activity, such as photography. Editing eliminates minor skin imperfections, image imperfections that arose during the shooting. Face retouching automatically helps the photographer save time and effort in post-processing. Often the end result needs manual correction. Beginners can use one of the skin cleansing methods called "Color Contrast". It removes pimples, makes the texture clean and even.

Sequencing

Invert the copy of the photo with Ctrl + I and select the Blending Mode "Linear Light".
Go to the "Image" - "Adjustments" - "Brightness / Contrast" tab. Check the "Use old" checkbox, contrast value -50.
Click the "Filter" - "Other" - "Color Contrast" tab. The blur radius should be around 20 pixels.
Next "Filter" - "Gaussian Blur". Increase the blur radius to 3.9.
Add a black mask to the photo, activate a brush with soft edges, color - white, opacity 30-40%. Activating the layer mask, brush over the skin of the face and neck without touching the eyes and lips.

Photoshop program

Today everyone knows what a photo editor is. Retouching the face, creating collages, drawings, vectors - all this and not only can the program "Photoshop". Adobe Photoshop CS6 is the reference version of the famous graphics editor, which has intriguing features. Content Aware makes photo processing smart and comfortable. A beautiful and user-friendly interface with the ability to process video is a huge plus of this version. There are Bridge and Mini Bridge file navigators here. They allow you to sort and manage images. The presence of "hot" keys, intuitive interface, flexible settings and realistic effects makes the program ideal.

Advantages

Who hasn't dreamed of mastering a photo editor? Facial retouching enhances the picture, if it is correct, it gives dynamism. The Photoshop program has a lot of advantages, regardless of the version. With its help, it is easy to edit single pictures, do batch processing, create complex collages, drawings. A graphic tablet improves the quality of images, simplifies the work of the designer, photo artist and retoucher. The program provides a large space for creativity and work.

How to master?

Many face retouching software (such as Portrait Professional) are fairly easy to use. With their help, it is easy to make light retouching that does not require the user to energy costs... Often, such programs process photographs automatically, which saves time, but negatively affects the result. The Photoshop program, including early versions, is quite difficult to learn, as it is focused on professionals and performing complex tasks.

The working area includes a toolbar, an area for processing photos, working environment, taskbar, bar graph, navigator and other functions. The main tools of the program are brushes, a stamp, an eraser, a lasso, a point brush, a healing brush, highlighters, cropping, darkening, lightening. They allow you to perform various manipulations with the photo. Mastering the program begins with the study of the workspace and the possibilities of "Photoshop".

There are tons of tutorials to help beginners learn the basics of image editing. Facial retouching is one of the main techniques of the amateur photographer. If you want to achieve excellence in this matter, look through the work of famous retouchers, constantly learn (including from mistakes) and develop.

What is it for?

Facial retouching is an obligatory stage of professional beauty treatment. Glossy magazines, fashion publications, cosmetics catalogs never publish "raw" pictures. Readers see a ready-made, retouched photo, which has been added a bit of gloss. Often, when editing beauty and fashion photographs, retouchers use the frequency decomposition technique. It allows you to align skin covering without loss of quality and texture. In addition, the "plastic" tool is used, general color correction of the image, darkening and lightening of the desired areas, brightness and contrast adjustment is carried out. Retouching allows you to achieve an ideal, harmonious picture, and this is highly valued in commercial activities.

Face retouching rules

Professional face retouching in Photoshop is a painstaking process that requires certain knowledge and skills from the retoucher. A good photo difficult to perfect, but easy to screw up. Beginners often make mistakes, creating the effect of "blurring" the face. In this case, the texture of the skin (pores, wrinkles), facial expressions, shadows completely disappear, the face becomes plastic. The professionals give some tips on how not to ruin your photo.

Work with high-resolution RAW images.
Rate the photo visually. Decide what defects should be removed, what actions are needed to improve the picture.
Always create a copy when uploading a photo to the program.
Make retouching on a new layer.
The skin has to have texture, forget about the plastic faces. This is no longer relevant.
Do not completely remove the shadows under the eyes, otherwise the face will become flat.
Don't remove all the wrinkles from your face. The lack of facial expressions does not make the portrait attractive.
The edges of the lips should have shadows and the contours should be clear.
The natural color of the pupils in portrait retouching- this is right.
Retouching always depends on the particular photograph and the general plan.
Stick to naturalness in retouching your face.

Remember that perfect retouching on a photo is invisible.

Instruments

Face retouching in Photoshop CS6, as in earlier versions, is carried out using the tools located on the side and top panels. The "Selection" group is necessary to quickly move the desired areas. This includes Lasso, Magic wand"," Quick selection ". The Crop tools are designed to crop a picture. With the help of the Retouching tools, you can remove defects in the photo, adjust the sharpness, blur, saturation, and tone. Also the toolbar includes "Coloring", "Drawing", "Text".

Actions and plugins

Many people may be interested in the question of how to make face retouching quickly and efficiently. To simplify the work of the retoucher, plugins and actions were created. The first are included in the package of the Photoshop program: Gaussian blur, distortion, noise and others. In addition, plugins can be additionally downloaded and installed. They work in automatic mode and do the main work for the retoucher (stylization, retouching, toning). The downside is that photography has more to lose than gain from such quick styling. Actions add drama to the image, tone, stylize, add various effects.

Errors

Retouching a face is a complex process that requires knowledge, a sense of taste and measure from a photographer. Professionals point out the ten most common mistakes in portrait photography.

Artificial leather. Regardless of the processing method, the skin should look natural. Skin texture that is too fine, aggressive or dry, completely artificial, reminiscent of marble - wrong touch-up.
Excessive rendering of volumes using the Dodge and Burn technique (darkening / lightening). Deep detailing of shadows and highlights is relevant for photo art, but not for professional retouching.
Flat face. The anatomical lack of volume (shadow / light) on the convex or sunken parts of the face - under the lip, eyes, in the cheekbones, above the eyelids makes the face uninteresting. The lack of realism in flat shots makes such a photo pass by.
Matte leather. Beautiful skin matt color looks healthy, but if there are no single glare on it, it looks unnatural.
White proteins. The subject's eyes should have natural shadows. Natural color, glare in the pupils - all this adorns the photo.
Duplicate items. If a retoucher cleans the skin with a patch or stamp, it should not be repeated on the surface of the face (when a defective piece of skin is covered with a healthy one). All this gives out retouching.
Plastic. It is necessary to use this tool in retouching, but you should not overdo it. On human face and the body does not have perfectly straight contours.
Toning. The colors in the photo should be harmonious. Do not use complex filters in automatic mode to add emotion to the frame. Looking to improve colors? Try to do it manually using the settings.
Dynamic range. Retouching the face does not need excessive styling.
High contrast. Vignetting, sharpening and noise enhancement add texture to the photo, but add drama and deprive it of naturalness. Think about whether the portrait needs it?

Even a professional photographer is not always able to capture the perfect shot without flaws. In order to succeed Good photo, you need not only special skills in working with technology and talent, but also experience in using various programs for processing photographic materials. The environment, background features and appearance of the model are rarely ideal, so the photo is usually retouched in a photo editor.

There are many such programs that have different set functions: from ordinary color correction to a full set of tools that allow you to implement The most popular of them is Adobe Photoshop, in which retouching is available even to novice users and usually does not cause special labor... Thanks to wide choice various filters and tools that are easy to learn, even a beginner photographer can easily get a high-quality image without spending a lot of time and effort.

How to get ready to work in Adobe Photoshop

What is retouching in the program and where to start? Retouching means enhancing, correcting, and correcting an image. Before you start processing a photo in any photo editor, it is highly advisable to make a copy of it. To make the process easier, you can make a copy of the layer and hide it, so that if a mistake is made, you can restore the original image or compare the initial and final results in the process. It will be easier to retouch the photo if you enlarge the image several times - this will make small defects in the frame noticeable, after which the picture will look better. The easiest way to do this is by using the Alt + + key combination. You can reduce the photo using Alt and "-".

What are "actions" in Adobe Photoshop for?

Retouching tutorials and Adobe Photoshop training courses are widely available and widely available. What is retouching with "actions"? There are many free lessons and videos that allow you to step by step master the program, starting from the basics and gradually moving towards mastering professional skills. The existence of the so-called "actions" or recorded actions in Adobe Photoshop greatly facilitates the process of processing photographs, allowing you to do more work in a certain period of time, without manually repeating the same operations. They help to create various effects, resize photos, their color characteristics and other parameters. You can create "actions" yourself or download ready-made ones on the Internet and install them into the program.

Features of retouching in Adobe Photoshop

Aspiring photographers often hear requests from their clients to correct imperfections in their appearance. The model's face most often becomes the subject of retouching. In order to remove minor skin defects such as inflammation, acne marks or scars, two tools are most often used: "stamp" and "patch". In the first case, when you hover over the sample and hold down the Alt key, a section of the photo is captured, which can then be dragged to problem area and block it. When using a "patch", the cursor selects an area in the photo that needs to be retouched, and then, holding down the right mouse button, drag the area to where there are no defects. In the second case, it is possible to make the correction more thoroughly, since the edges of the area are slightly blurred and look more natural than when using a "stamp".

Blur retouching

Lessons and bodies are of interest to many, as this is one of the most demanded elements of professional photo processing. Sometimes skin imperfections are difficult to remove using only a "stamp" or "patch". If you need to process large areas, sometimes it is better to use another method: selecting problem areas with transfer to a new layer and blurring them using a special filter.

How to use blur correctly

Usually the forehead, chin, cheeks are highlighted, the nose is slightly captured and with the help of "Gaussian blur" the optimal radius is chosen and the result is admired. Sometimes the blur is too strong - then you can undo the action and reuse the filter with different settings. The retouching effect is immediately noticeable. This method allows you to get clean, radiant skin, but you should not be too zealous using blur - the face can become too smooth and look unnatural. The retouching effect should not be too noticeable. Sometimes it is better to keep minor skin imperfections to keep the face looking natural.

The Spot Healing Brush is an easy way to remove minor blemishes

Use the Spot Healing Brush tool to quickly hide minor imperfections, such as pimples or wrinkles. You just need to select the appropriate icon on the toolbar and click on the area that needs to be adjusted. But this method has its limitations: it cannot be used on dark areas, near the eyebrows or along the hairline. It is advisable to choose the size of the brush corresponding to the area that needs to be adjusted. Understand what is retouching with the "Healing Brush" and how to use it the usual way is simple enough.

But this tool has several additional parameters that significantly increase the scope of its application. Exists different modes overlays that allow you to lighten or darken, change the color and brightness of the selected area. Replace is a special tool that comes in handy when working with soft brushes. It allows you to partially preserve detail at the border.

Frequency decomposition method

What is Frequency Decomposition Retouching? This is a method in which the photo is decomposed into 2-3 frequencies. Skin tone and structure are separated into separate layers, as a result of which the skin structure is preserved and looks natural. For processing, you can record an "action", and then use it, retouching similar portraits. First you need to create two duplicate layers - call the top one “texture” and the middle one “tone”. At the first stage upper layer turns off, and the layer with the tone is blurred with a filter until all skin imperfections disappear. Usually a size of 20 pixels is sufficient. Then, having moved to the texture layer and making it visible, you need to select the "Image" item in the menu, and then - "External channel". In the drop-down menu of layers select "Tone", and in the blending modes - "Subtraction", the scale must be set to 2, the shift - 128. Now you need to click "OK", and in the window with the layers select the blend mode "Linear Light". Layers "Texture" and "Tone" need to be combined into a group. To do this, just use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + G. After that, you can work on the "Tone" layer, leveling the skin color using the "Healing Brush". This will not change the structure of the skin.

There are other ways to retouch photos in Adobe Photoshop. They are easy enough to master through online lessons and using various guides.

The pursuit of the perfect picture