The other more sensible option, which we’ll cover here, is to solve it in post, in this case using Adobe Photoshop. It isn’t difficult of course to clone out the odd scuff mark, but when you have hundreds of dirt marks or creases you need a slightly more heavy duty solution, and simply blurring can bring its own problems.

In this case I’ve already tidied up the floor, now it’s time to clean up the background.

Image copyright: Simon Newlyn

In some cases, a Crop will solve the edge problems, but in the interest of completeness I’m going to cover a method of extending the background over the problem areas when there are shadows and gradients to consider.

Make a selection along the edge, keeping close to the model to give us plenty of background to work with. We’re going to extend this piece to cover the problem area to the left.

Hit Cmd/Ctrl+C to copy the area and Cmd/Ctrl+V to paste the selection onto a new layer;

Now choose Edit>Free Transform (Cmd/Ctrl+T) and stretch the selection out to the left to cover the problem area. This will pull the right side of the selection with it a little so you may need to pull the right side back a touch.

Add a black Mask to the layer and we’re ready to brush in the areas we need.

With a large, very soft white Brush (0% hardness) paint over the problem area. This should blend nicely into the existing background. When you’re done, select the next part to cover and repeat the process.
Here I’ve selected the top, I’ll Edit>Copy Merged (Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+C), then paste the selection into a new layer (Create New Layer, Cmd/Ctrl+V), stretch it mask it and brush it in as before.

Here’s the result so far with each side carefully brushed in. You’ll note that this particular shot demonstrates a common problem well, sometimes an object or part of the model is too close to the edge as with her hair, and this gives us a hole. we have a similar problem around the legs.

There’s a really simple solution for this, just start a new layer and with Clone Stamp and/or Healing Brush set to Current & Below, clone out the problems. On this same layer, with a large healing brush, you can remove the larger wrinkles;

Now here’s the part where we remove the dirt and creases, if we get in close to this example you can see there are many;

To combat this we’ll need to stamp a new merged layer (Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+E) and run Filter>Surface Blur. Experiment with the settings with a high enough radius to remove the creases, but not too high as to blur the edges of the model;

Add a black mask to this layer as before, and using a white brush on the mask paint to bring back the blur where needed, getting close to the edges of the model;

Now the eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted that the grain no longer matches when viewed closely. There’s noise in the foreground model and none at all in the background. This is always a worthy consideration if you want your retouching to stand up to scrutiny, so we’re going to click on the layer tab (instead of the mask) and select Filter>Noise>Add Noise. In this case we’re only going to add 0.6 percent Uniform Monochromatic, but this may be more or less depending on circumstance.

If we zoom out look at the shot now it’s a lot neater than when we started, and as we’ve cleared up the background close to the model we can afford a slightly heavier handed method towards evening out the edges, so we’re about to use Filter>Gaussian Blur.

Stamp a new merged layer (Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+E), and select the Gaussian Blur Radius according to how much you want to smooth out the surrounding background. In this case I’ve used a Radius of 80;   Don’t forget to add the same Noise to this layer, using the steps as before.

Note on the mask, I’ve kept a good distance from the model to avoid colour bleed. I think we’d benefit in this instance from blurring the areas closer to to her a little more so I then stamped another merged layer, and added a lower Gaussian Blur of 20 and repeated the mask painting, this time note on the mask that I’ve just painted over remaining problem areas and been able to get a bit closer to the model;

Not bad right? As a finishing touch I’m just going to add a vignette and I think we’re done!

Today’s tutorial is courtesy of Daniel Meadows, a professional photo retoucher. You can see more of his retouching work at his website.

Using Curves in Photoshop

If you’ve ever struggled to get your head around curves adjustments in Photoshop, you found the right tutorial. We’re going to look at using different points on the curve, what they represent, and using the different RGB channels to make specific colour adjustments.

This tutorial is part of a PSDFan series on professional retouching, and as a digital retoucher I spend most days using curves in one way or another. Once you have a grasp of the basics, you’ll have at your command a seriously powerful tool for editing your photographs.

First, here’s what your flat, basic curve looks like before adjustments;

I’ve marked the curve to show what each point represents. It’s a scale that represents the starting exposure level of your jpeg or RAW conversion. the bottom left point is the blacks in your image, the top right is the whitest point and a gradual scale of everything inbetween. The middle point represents the ‘midtones’.

If we raise a point on the curve it becomes lighter, or more exposed. Pull a point down and we decrease exposure. Clicking the middle of the curve and pulling the midtones up or down will lighten or darken the whole image, but will keep the black and white points where they are;

If we pull the black point higher, we lose the pure blacks;

And pulling the white point down we lose the pure whites;

You can experiment to add more points, for example you can increase midtone contrast with an S-curve;

We don’t just have to stick to luminosity values, we can use the dropdown menu in the Curves dialog box to affect the individual channels of Red, Green and Blue (RGB).

Be aware that each of these channels has a friend in the CMYK colourspace; decreasing blue will introduce more yellow for example. These relationships are;

Red-Cyan
Green-Magenta
Blue-Yellow

So if we remove green, the same thing happens as if we increased the magenta curve in CMYK mode;

These relationships exist in CMYK mode of course, so if you’re working with CMYK curves for print, you can simply decrease Cyan to increase Red.

You might see a lot of this kind of processing in magazines at the moment;

Notice how the black point isn’t completely black? And how there’s a lot of blue in the shadows? I’ll let you experiment with it

This is the third in a PSDFan series of professional retouching tutorials aimed at teaching good practice for advanced photo editing. Please also see the other tutorials in this series:

Healing Tutorial (Part 1)

Dodge and Burn Tutorial (Part 2)

Be sure to look out for the next part in this series: Working With Local Tonal Adjustments.

Professional Retouching Tutorial: Dodge and Burn (Part 2)

If you’ve completed the Professional Retouching – Healing tutorial with your chosen image, you’re ready to jump into the next step in your professional workflow, Dodging and Burning. This is an advanced retouching tutorial, so stick with it and keep practicing!

You may know the Dodge and Burn tools (O) alter local exposure, lightening or darkening your image in brush strokes. By using Dodge and Burn we’re going to smooth and perfect skin while leaving texture intact, which is of critical importance in professional work. If you’ve ever followed those blurry skin tutorials on other sites, this is definitely the article for you. Some may have refined their understanding of blurring to a high level, which is fine but it’s like spending years becoming so good at pitching a ball you can hit a batsman right in the face 95% of the time. It’s a skill, sure, but unless you change your technique you won’t make the pro team

Here’s an example of skin retouching using dodge and burn;

Rather than use the standard tools, there is a better, more controlled and less destructive way to dodge and burn by using Curves, and we’re going to use that method in this second part of the tutorial.

• Open your chosen image and start a new Curves Adjustment layer and pull the middle of the RGB curve up as demonstrated below.

• Name the layer ‘Dodge’, click on the white mask tab and press Ctrl+I (Cmd+I on a Mac) to invert it, turning it black.

• Start a second Curves Adjustment Layer and pull the middle of the RGB curve down as demonstrated below.

• Name the layer ‘Burn’, click on the white mask tab and press Ctrl+I (Cmd+I on a Mac) to invert it, turning it black.

Alongside each Curve below I’ve added blocked in red how each layer should look in the Layers palette when you’re finished, named and with a black mask tab.

I’ll reopen the image I began in part one to demonstrate.

Select a soft Brush set to around 1-4% flow, with your foreground colour set to white.

On the black masks you’re going to paint with white, showing the effect beneath gradually.

Click on the Dodge layer’s black mask and paint an area lighter, or click the Burn layer’s black mask to paint an area darker.

Remember the dark area at the side of the mouth from the first part of the tutorial? Simply paint it out with the Dodge layer;

With your Flow set to 1% you won’t see a huge change with every mouse click, it’s a gradual, controlled build-up. Gently stroke your brush across all the problem dark and light patches, switching between Dodge and Burn until you have a beautiful, uniform skin texture.

If you’re having trouble seeing what needs dodging or burning, open a Black & White Adjustment Layer and pull the Reds down far enough to add contrast;

See them now?

The rest is just time, a keen eye and practice. Here’s the original side by side with what we can achieve with heal, dodge and burn;

It’s subtle, it takes a lot longer than quick-fix blurring, but remember the bus stop analogy from part one. Good retouching is invisible, cut corners and every waiting traveller, driver and pedestrian on the high street will find out about it.

Professional results take time, but it’s worth it. Web-sized images only tell a small part of the story, but in print, you need to be perfect.

If you have any ideas for future tutorials, please comment below and let us know, I’ll be happy to explain the techniques behind any popular suggestions.

Remember, you can check out Part 1: Healing

Professional Retouching Tutorial: Healing (Part 1)

Welcome to the first in a series of tutorials on professional retouching. Ever wondered how commercial and fashion photographs have that beautifully flawless look?

Final Image

This two part tutorial will work towards creating this professionally retouched result:

It takes a while to master, but here are a few things to consider;

• Keep as much texture as possible, this means keeping your brushes small and avoid any tutorial that tells you to blur huge sections of skin!

• Develop an eye for what is and is not a blemish. Beauty spots should in most cases be left well alone, keep the character of the model as well as the texture.

• Know when to be subtle, know when to stop. It’s disturbingly common to find beginner retouchers who absolutely will not stop until their 40 year old subject looks like Megan Fox.

• If you’re hoping to retouch photos professionally for other photographers, respect their work. This means not making changes for the sake of it, always remember that the model was chosen for a reason, as were the clothes, backgrounds, lighting, only make major changes on request. Be invisible.

For examples, feel free to visit my own beauty retouching portfolio.

With those points in mind, here is part one, and the easiest in the series; healing with minimal evidence

And here’s the starting image I’m using for demonstration;

Always start with a high resolution image. Politely ask a photographer if you need starting images, large JPEGS are fine for now (if they’re less than 1Mb in size they’re probably too small). Photography forums are a great place to find portfolio work when you’re starting out, try not to use the same photographs as a thousand other people on the web. Develop an entirely individual portfolio

When you’re retouching professionally, remember that your client might be using their images for large print, imagine every eyelash out of place or stray hair on a bus shelter poster. It may not be noticeable in a web-sized image, but just imagine dozens of people idling at that bus stop every hour. Your perfect work might go unnoticed, but any flaws will certainly be picked up on!

One of the fundamental parts of the retouching process is the healing stage, and we’re going to look into that with this first tutorial. Open your image in Photoshop, and drag your Background Layer to the New Layer icon to create a copy of your image. This new layer will be our working copy, saving the original so we can always pull parts of it back if we need to.

Here I’ve decided to retain these beauty marks, but it’s always up to you to decide which to keep or remove, or even move slightly to improve composition;

Select your clone stamp (C) and zoom in to 100%. Use the Lighten blend mode to remove darker blemishes and Darken blend mode to remove lighter distractions. This way your clone tool will ignore the ‘good’ texture and only alter the problem pixels. Keep your brush as small as the blemish and use a hard brush (around 90%) to avoid blurry edges, Alt-click to select a local sample of good texture of a similar tone and carefully paint out any major blotches.

Zoom to 200% and deal with any smaller imperfections, including stray eyebrow hairs;

Once you’ve imperceptibly removed all major distractions and stray hairs you’ll start to notice the next problem to tackle; shadows and highlights that betray wrinkles and deep pores, skin depressions and bumps, and even tonal variations caused by digital compression.

This is where we’ll start off in the next PSDFAN professional retouching tutorial, using Dodge and Burn to achieve flawless, magazine cover results. And absolutely no blur filters!

In the meantime, keep practicing, I want you to come back for Part Two as clone stamp ninjas Pride yourself on every seamlessly perfect removal and every pixel rescued from the fate of large-brush slap-dash cloning. Remember the bus stop and make sure Mr. Eagle-Eyed waiting traveller never even knows you were there…

Check out Part 2: Professional Retouching: Dodge & Burn

As a photographer or retoucher, you learn that not all images are perfectly sharp in all the right places straight from the camera. You might make adjustments in Lightroom, Camera RAW, or in Photoshop but it often takes a little post work if your otherwise perfect shot wasn’t right on the mark.

In this retouching tutorial we’re going to look at making Photoshop work for us in a way that wasn’t entirely intended, skipping the default sharpening tools and using the often under-utilised High Pass filter to create a completely independent and editable sharpening layer.

Open your image and drag the Background Layer to the New Layer icon to duplicate it;

Select your Background Copy and choose Filter>Other>High Pass

Here’s where, and how, we choose the radius in the High Pass dialog box; small sharp details will be of a low radius while larger or more out of focus areas will be higher. In this image, choose a radius of 3 and you will see the clear water over the sand in the very lower part of the shot but the clouds will be greyed out. A low radius will sharpen the small tight details. Drag the slider to right and by 20-30 Radius you’ll clearly see the cloud detail. This higher radius will sharpen the clouds. Using masks you can use a number of layers to sharpen different parts of your image.

We’ll start with the sky and cloud detail. Here I used a Radius of 30 and clicked OK. You’ll see that there is some colour information left in the grey High Pass layer, so click Image> Adjustments> Desaturate;

To apply our grey high pass layer as a sharpening tool we can use blend modes, either Soft light, Overlay or Linear Light. Test them out, in this case Linear Light was too strong and caused banding around the sun, so I went with the middle-strength option of Overlay;

You now have a completely independent sharpening layer that can be adjusted at any point by switching between blend modes or altering the opacity slider. As with any layer you can apply a mask to filter out unwanted areas, so click the Add Layer Mask icon and with a large soft black brush paint out the lower part of the mask, leaving only the sharpened clouds we wanted;

So the nearest point at the bottom of the image started out sharp, the sky looks great, let’s take a look at the band in the middle.

Dragging the Background layer to the New Layer icon again and choosing Filter> Other> High Pass I brought the slider up to a Radius of 15 this time;

I chose Soft Light blend mode this time for a subtle effect, desaturated and painted out the sky and immediate foreground with a soft black brush on a Layer Mask, the same as we did for the clouds;

You can do this with any image, and I’ve seen a number of tutorials for High Pass Sharpening that tell you to put the slider ‘somewhere’ or give you a number to input. Now you know how to choose your own Radius you can use it for anything. Skin is a good example, want to sharpen up tight detail pores and texture? Now you know you’re going to need a low Radius for it.

A larger radius for sharpening the contours of shadows and highlight on clothing might look great, but check what it’s doing to skin, it’ll probably be awful. Use your masks wisely.

Bonus advanced method: Sharpening with Apply Image

It’s usually quite enough to stop there, but I know PSDfan’s readers are always pushing for more than ‘good enough’, so the fact is High Pass isn’t 100% accurate. If you’re looking for an even more accurate method of sharpening read on and we’ll look at using the under-utilised Apply Image instead. Feel free to brag to High Pass users that you can go one better

Copy your Background Layer twice, and on the top layer use High Pass to choose your Radius, but instead of clicking OK, just hit Cancel;

Notice I’ve kept the High Pass Sharpening layers grouped in a folder for PSDfan VIP members who want to take a look at the file

Now you know your Radius (and didn’t click OK), select the bottom of the two layers and use Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur at your chosen Radius, in this case 15 (if the top layer is visible you won’t see the effect of course);

Hit OK and select the top layer again, then select Image> Apply Image. Use the following settings for accurate results, and notice that the Layer selected in the dialog must be the layer you blurred in the last step;

Working with an 8bit image I used the 8bit settings above and clicked OK. Notice how much it resembles a High Pass layer, yet when you study the results this method is quite noticably more accurate. Delete the Gaussian Blurred layer beneath it and treat the new Apply Image layer as you would a High Pass sharpening layer. Desaturate it and set it to Linear Light, Overlay or Soft Light to your taste. Add a mask and paint in or out whatever works for you.

Told you it was more advanced, and for most applications not entirely necessary to get your head around. But if like me a few more pixels of perfection is worth your time, I’d recommend spending some time getting used to the Apply Image method.

So there’s the full High Pass/Apply Image sharpening story in one tutorial. Share it around so more people stop using one arbitrary radius for the whole image

And We’re Done!

I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome.

Download Source File for this Tutorial

For this retouching tutorial Tom has asked me to provide an overview of a full retouching process. Most tutorials and indeed most tutorial sites will give you snippets of information, teaching a lot of bad habits and a few good ones, and it’s often difficult for the beginner or serious amateur to know when they’re following good advice. I’ve written three retouching tutorials for PSDFan so far, including healing, dodge and burn and using curves in Photoshop. These will continue to develop and you can use them alongside this professional workflow overview to get the best from your photographs, from start to finish.

As a freelance retoucher I’ve developed a regular retouching workflow that I adapt from job to job, and if you’re ready to do a bit of reading and a bit of research, bookmark this page and use it as your reference. Come back to it, master each section and ultimately adapt what you learn and develop your own retouching workflow. There is no right way, this is just one (for examples of work retouched using these methods feel free to view my beauty and fashion retouching portfolios).

But enough about me, let’s move onto you and what you need in your retouching workflow. Whether you shoot or retouch portrait, fashion, beauty, commercial, whatever the genre your work will benefit from an understanding of a good workflow, and there are few retouching tutorials that provide such an overview, which is where I applaud Tom’s thinking. I’ll try to keep it simple, but in the links provided you’ll find a wealth of invaluable information, how how much more you want to read and how far you want to push yourself is completely up to you.

Cropping

I recently discovered that the Crop tool in Photoshop CS5 has a really handy rule of thirds grid. To quote that Wikipedia article there, “The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.” Makes lining up your crop a little easier, although in earlier versions it can be done with Photoshop’s rulers.

It’s important to start with a good shot so the viewer’s eye is led to the correct focal points of your image. Try to crop to traditional print sizes.

There’s too much to go into in such a broad retouching tutorial, so for further reading see;

Photography composition – colorpilot.com

How to crop a photo for better composition – photodoto.com

Colour Correction

The camera doesn’t see what you see, and often you’ll need to correct an image to make it look more natural, closer to what the photographer saw. Have you ever looked at a photograph taken in a room lit with fluorescent lights and noticed it looks a lot yellower than you remember? That’s because your eyes compensate for colour casts and your sight adapts and changes constantly, whereas a camera is simply a tool that obeys its settings (most of the time).

It’s important to develop an eye for colour casts, note the common yellow cast problem in the image below. You’ll know if you read the Curves tutorial that this can be fixed by adding blue.

For further reading see;

Using Curves in Photoshop – PSDFan.com

Suggested Book: Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction (5th Edition) by Dan Margulis

Healing/Dodge and Burn

Once you have your perfectly cropped and balanced, colour corrected photograph it’s time to do the time consuming Photoshop work. Remember to retouch the whole image, most retouching tutorials will give you techniques for skin, or eyes, or hair; make sure you combine all your techniques (if in doubt, trust the Professional Retouching Series here on PSDFan) and retouch even the background. There might be a fly on the table, a shirt button missing and a ball of white fluff on the carpet, you’ll never spot them if you’re staring at the skin for too long, but be sure the viewer will see them.

For further reading on healing and dodge and burn techniques, see;

Professional Retouching Tutorial: Healing – PSDFan.com

Professional Retouching Tutorial: Dodge&Burn PSDFan.com

Retouching in Photoshop 1 &2 – Daniel Meadows

Sharpening

Once you’ve cropped your image, colour balanced it and completed your healing and dodge and burn, you’re ready to sharpen your image for print. Ignoring the default sharpen filters, I want you to take a look at using the high pass filter, you’ll find the basic method here.

Now as always with the PSDFan professional retouching tutorials we’re going to go one better. Notice how it is suggested to choose a radius from 0.5 to 1? In a future tutorial we’re going to look at using multiple radii and learning how to choose them, so stay bookmarked, stick around, we’ve a lot more professional photo retouching advice to come on the new PSDFan

Suggested Book: Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition) by Bruce Fraser

Skin tones are rarely even, as a retoucher it’s important to remember that after your healing and dodge and burn (click to read the previous articles) you need to even them out for good results. If we take a look at the following shot provided by Fantasy Fotos:

Notice that the model’s skin tones vary, if we focus generally on the legs you’ll see what I mean, there’s a little too much red in the knees and the feet are less saturated than the thighs. That needs fixing, and we’re going to do it with a Gradient Map.

Here we are after a little dodge and burn (just enough for the purposes of demonstrating the gradient map, it’s a super quick job to even out the luminosity and it deserves to be afforded a lot more time in this);

For the Gradient Map we need to sample an area of skin colour we’re happy with, and in this image I’m looking at the model’s left upper arm.

Grab your Eyedropper Tool (I) and sample a highlight from that area. Hit X to swap your foreground/background colours and choose an area of shadow;

In your Adjustment Layers Panel, choose ‘Gradient Map’ and those colours you selected will be mapped over the whole image, from the brown shadows to the peachy highlights;

Turn off the Gradient Map layer’s visibility for a moment (the Eye icon), select your working image layer and using the Eyedropper sample a mid range colour;

Turn the Gradient Map’s visibility back on and double click the Layer’s Icon;

Colours don’t realistically shift from one tone in shadow to another single tone in highlight, so we’re going to add a middle colour with our new sample. Click once on the gradient bar shown below;

In the Gradient Map dialog box that opens, we need to drop our middle colour into the gradient. Clicking in the middle of the bar will add that point. I decided after dropping the point to shift it a little to the left (further into the shadows). You can experiment and shift your middle colour further into shadow or highlight at any time to get the best result.

Click OK, and select the Gradient Map’s mask in the Layer’s palette;

The Blend Mode of the layer should currently be set to Normal, change it to Color, then hit Ctrl+I (Cmd+I on a Mac) to invert the mask, turning it black and hiding the effect;

Now with the mask still selected, take the Brush Tool, change your foreground colour to white (is it hasn’t by default), and paint those areas through that we identified as a problem earlier.

Set the Opacity as desired for the results that look best to you, I’ve settled at 60%. Here’s the effect of the Gradient Map with a comparison below:

The rest of the skin now more closely matches the arm. This is purely demonstrative, I’ve almost jumped straight into the gradient mapping to outline the technique, see my portfolio for examples where I’ve spent considerable hours tweaking from start to finish.

Download Source File for this Tutorial