Retouching a Studio Portrait

This Photoshop tutorial is written for experienced Photoshop users and will show you unique techniques for retouching photos. You’ll learn how to enhance backgrounds, dodge and burn, brighten eyes, and add hair shine while keeping a low count of layers. The techniques you learn from this tutorial can be used for other portrait photos.

Before and After

Retouching a Studio Portrait Photoshop Tutorial

Retouching the background

Here is the original image. As a photo it looks fine but it looks flat and boring. This Photoshop tutorial will show you techniques used to make the photo have a stronger impact. You can follow this tutorial with one of your own image or you can use the image below:

Creating the mask

The first step is to isolate the model from the background. I used the extract and color range tool to create this. First I used the extract tool (Filter > Extract) but it didn’t work very well for the hair.

I then use the color range tool (Select > Color Range) to select the areas that were hard to extract using the extract tool.

Now we have a mask in it’s own layer.

 

Adding a gradient to the background

With the mask created, I can add a gradient to the background. Adding a gradient to the background is a simple and effective way to enhance a boring background. Here is a preview of what the layers will look like in the end.

To create a gradient background, we’ll be adding a gradient fill layer using the mask that we just created. To do that, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the layer thumbnail of the layer “Mask”. It will load the selection of the layer. Choose Select > Inverse to inverse the selection. Then, choose Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient.

In the Gradient Fill tool, move the center of the gradient behind the head. You can do this by clicking and dragging on the document window.

To increase contrast, you can change the gradient so that it is like the image below.

Finally, adjust the opacity of the Gradient Fill layer. I set mine to 50% opacity.

 

Tone

Begin by creating a new layer for dodging and burning. Position the layer above the gradient fill adjustment layer. Then, change the blending mode to soft light.

Choose Edit > Fill and use the settings below.
The layer should now be filled with a 50% gray.

Add a layer mask using the shape from the Mask layer. Hold down the Ctrl key and click on the layer thumbnail of the Mask layer . Then, click on the   in the layers palette to add a layer mask. 

Click back on the 50% gray layer thumbnail and use the dodge and burn tools. For the image below, I used the burn tool to darken the models right side of the face, hair, top, and her arms. Then, I use the dodge tool to brighten the other side of the models face.

Here is a before and after effect of the dodging and burning.

 

Eye Brightening

Brightening the eyes will have a dramatic effect. It can be easily done by using a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer. Choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast to add a new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer. Rename this layer to Brighten Eyes.

For now, set the brightness to 50 and contrast to 33.

  

Select the layer mask and choose Image > Adjustments > Invert. This will invert the layer mask from white to black.

Using the brush tool, paint the layer mask where the eyes are. You should see the eyes brighten as you paint. Then, go back into the Brightness/Contrast settings and readjust the settings.

Hair Shine

Finally, we’ll add a shine to the hair. Start by using the quick selection or magic wand tool to create a selection of the hair around the area where you want the shine to appear.

With the selection, choose Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient. Position the layer above the Brighten Eye layer. Change the blending mode of the Hair Shine layer to overlay. You should have a layer like the image below.

Go back into the Gradient Fill settings. Set the gradient to white to black and style to reflected. Checkmark the reverse option then click and drag on the document window and position the gradient where you want the hair shine to appear. Adjust the scale.

In the Gradient Fill window, click on the gradient to edit it. You should have a window like the image below. Create a gradient like the image below. To do this, click and drag the top left input slider to the middle of the gradient bar. Do the same with the bottom left input slider. Then, click on the individual input sliders and adjust the settings as shown in the image below.
We now have a hair shine but it does not match the color of the hair. We’ll add back a little of the hair color to the shine.

1. Click on the bottom left input slider.
2. Click on the color setting and a color picker window will appear.
3. Click on the hair to capture the color of the hair.
4. Move the color picker towards the top left until the hair color looks natural.
5. Click OK three times to exit out of the gradient settings.

We have added the hair shine but if you look closely, you can see some artifacts.

We can easily fix this by blurring the layer mask. Select the Hair Shine layer mask then choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Adjust the settings until the unclean edge fades.

If the hair shine is overlapping the skin, use the Minimum filter to hide it. Choose Filter > Other > Minimum and adjust the slider.

Here is the before and after effect of adding hair shine. You can add emphasis to the eyes by aligning the hair shine with the eyes.

Final Results

 

source: photoshoptutorials.ws

Subtle Changes with the Liquify Tool

If you have a nice photo of a model, but she or he wasn’t smiling and you want the photo to feature a smiling face, or vice versa, you can use Photoshop to slightly tweak the facial expressions. The key is to be subtle in your approach, unless you are creating a caricature or cartoon. With the Liquify tool, we can create some subtle changes to model photos that can affect the overall mood of the face and therefore affect the mood of the photo.

 

 

 

 

 

Step 1

Open up an image of a face. You can save this JPEG image as well to use.

© ISTOCKPHOTO / JOEY NELSON

Step 2

Go to Filter>Liquify.

Step 3

Click the Forward Warp tool, which is the top tool on the right-hand side of the liquefy screen. This tool lets us move pixels slightly in order to produce certain effects. Notice at the bottom of the screen, the Hand tool is available for moving around the view of the image, and the Zoom tool is available to zoom in to the image.

Step 4

Notice on the right-hand side of the Liquify screen, we have some more options. After selecting the Forward Ward tool, there are some brush settings there we can change. I have mine set to the default, but it’s a little bit too big of a brush.

Step 5

We could change the size there, but let’s use a shortcut. The brush is too big as we see here. Just press the left bracket [ to make the brush smaller. Press it a few times. Press the right bracket ] to make the brush size larger.

Step 6

Press the left bracket [ until the brush size is set to about 30. Position it at the corner of the model’s lips, and we’re going to click-and-drag it gently upward.

Step 7

By clicking-and-dragging then letting of at the corner of the lips, we’ve added a slight smirk to the model.

Step 8

If you want to zoom in, try the Zoom tool or use the shortcut Cmd and the + or - sign (PC: Ctrl and the + or - sign). Press the space bar to use the Hand tool to move around the image as well. Now let’s change the nose slightly. The nose looks perfect to me, but let’s change it for learning sake. Choose the ASDASDSA tool from the left-hand side of the Liquify screen.

Step 9

Hover over the nostril and click-and-hold for a second, which will make the nostrils slightly smaller. The key is subtlety.

Step 10

If you don’t like the modified look, just press Cmd-Option-Z (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Z) to step backwards a step. Here’s a before and after look. In the first one the model looks more serious, and in the second one she has a slight smirk. Again, the key is subtlety, unless you want a cartoonish and unrealistic look.

Step 11

Notice with this example, I created a slight smile with this model as well. But I also used a slight modification with the Twirl Clockwise tool, the third option from the top on the right-hand side of the Liquify screen, to not only lift her smile but twirl it a little.

source: photoshoptutorials.ws

Foreground Lighting

Improve your portraits with this easy and effective foreground lighting effect. In this Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how to dim the background to add focus to the subject. This effect may sound simple, but it does an exceptional job fixing portraits with busy backgrounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foreground Lighting Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1: Open a portrait photo

First, open an image of a portrait with a busy background that you would like to apply this effect to. This effect will make the background darker to add focus to the subject.

Step 2: Add an adjustment layer

Now we'll need to add an adjustment layer that will make the image darker. In the Layers palette, click on the New Adjustment Layer button.

There are many ways to darken the image, but the simplist methods are shown below. We don't recommend using the Brightness/Contrast tool in Photoshop CS2 or older because they produce poor results. The Brightness/Contrast tool has been greatly improved in Photoshop CS3, but if you're an experienced Photoshop user and you want more control, we recommend using the Levels or Curves tool instead.

If you picked the Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, simply reduce the brightness and increase the contrast. As you adjust the settings, focus on the background instead of the subject because this effect will only be used to darken the background.

If you picked the Levels adjustment layer instead of the Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, start by moving the middle input slider towards the right. You may play around with the other input sliders and adjust the output levels to get the effect that you like. Remember to focus on the background instead of the foreground because this layer will only be used to darken the background.

Step 3: Mask the adjustment layer

The adjustment layer darkened the entire image. Now we have to mask out the areas that we don't want to be darkened - the subject/person. In the Layers palette, you should now see a new adjustment layer with a layer mask. Make sure that the layer mask is selected by clicking on the layer mask thumbnail. It should have a white border to indicated that it is activated.

Now select the Eraser tool from the toolbar. Also, make sure that your foreground and background colors are set to the default. Simply press the D key on your keyboard to reset the foreground and background colors to the default colors.

Once you have the Eraser tool selected, the option bar near the top will show you the settings you can set for the Eraser tool. Set the Opacity to 50% and adjust the brush size and hardness.

Using the Eraser tool, erase the foreground to make it brighter. If you make a mistake, you can switch back to the brush tool to paint back the areas that you want to reverse.

Here's what my image looks like after erasing the foreground.

Erase the foreground or just the subject again. This time, I ony erased the subject to keep the rock a little darker.

In the option bar, set the Opacity of the brush to 100%.

We'll apply one more layer of erasing to the layer mask. This time, I only erased the face. In the image below, you can see the areas that I erased. If you look closely, you can see a halo around the subjects head. This is because I was being sloppy and my brush hardness was too soft. I can fix this by switching back to the brush tool and using a stronger hardness (50%) to paint back the background.

Final Results

Dimming the background is a simple, but truely effective way to hide busy backgrounds and increase focus to the subject.

source: photoshoptutorials.ws