Create professional portraits using a combination of techniques we've invented and techniques commonly used in the photo retouching industry.
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1. Open the image for editing. |
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2. First, we will correct the colours and the exposure of the image. Duplicate the current layer (Ctrl+J) and rename the layers to the following:
Skin Colour
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3. We will start with correcting the skin colour. With the layer "Skin Colour" selected, use the "Marquee" tool (M) to select areas of the skin. |
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4. Apply an "Average" filter (Filter> Blur> Average). Use the "Eyedropper" tool (I) to select the colour in the selection. |
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5. Deselect (Ctrl+D) and fill the layer with the selected colour (Ctrl+Backspace). Invert (Ctrl+I) the current layer. |
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6. Change the layer's blending mode to "Soft Light" and add a layer mask (Layer> Add Layer Mask> Hide All). |
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7. With the layer mask selected, use the "Brush" tool (B) to paint over the areas that needs to be corrected. An example of an area would be the skin. |
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8. Now we will reduce the shadows and brighten the image. Select the layer "Reduce Shadow" and change its blending mode to "Screen" then add a layer mask (Layer> Add Layer Mask> Reveal All). |
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9. With the layer mask selected, use the "Apply Image" tool (Image> Apply Image) to apply the following properties:
Source: filename
Click OK. |
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10. After we've corrected the colours and exposure of the image, we need to work on the finer details. Select the canvas (Ctrl+A), copy merged (Ctrl+Shift+C), create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N) and paste (Ctrl+V) into the new layer. Rename the new layer to "Hair". |
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11. Lets first create more layers for the rest of the steps. Duplicate the current layer (Ctrl+J) five times and rename the layers to the following:
Sharp 1
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12. Select the layer "Sharp 1" and apply an "Unsharp Mask" filter. Select a value that will sharpen the image without creating halos then click OK. |
