Photoshop Retouching with Competent Tools

Retouching is an art of adding simple effects over an existing photo to augment the overall impact.  Photoshop is most preferred tool for retouching for its competent tools that can sculpt the creativity out.

Photoshop is boon to image editors across the globe. Image retouching is done in varied grounds and the application is vast ranging from personal portraits to political propaganda. The actual results of retouching will end up in enhanced beauty of the image. Let’s have a bird’s eye view of professional approach to this effect.

Digital nose jobs:

The trend of doing cosmetic procedures by A-list models has popularized digital nose jobs. Simple steps of marquee tool and masking effect do this. By using the marquee tool, the area which has to be worked upon will be clipped and done with the required changes i.e. increasing / decreasing sizes or changing the skin tone etc. Once the required changes are done, the modified body part is taken back to the source image and placed back. In order to reduce the size of the nose masking effect can be used to make the upper lips visible and thereby shortening the nose size. Photoshop retouching can be done with other body parts like hips, thighs, and calf and bicep muscles. It is up to the imagination and discretion of the customer as which body part has to be digitally worked upon. It is vital to make sure the angle in which the photo, it should focus the area that has to be processed.

The clone stamp:

There is clone stamp tool in image editing software like Photoshop. Photoshop retouching can effectively achieved by cloning part or complete portion of any entity in that image. Repairing photos include distorted digital images as well as historical snap photographs. For snaps, lay it as flat as possible and scan it. Place a white paper as the background and scan. Once the image is converted to digital image format, use the clone stamp to erase of the distortion in the portion that doesn’t contain the main subject. These distortions could have been caused due to wear and tear. Press the ALT key and click on the place where there is no distortion.  The software will use the area surrounding the point where the mouse is clicked to create the clone in the affected area. Drag the mouse over the affected area. The software will replace the damaged part with undistorted portion.

Representations:

Hardcore implementation of retouching is done in the field of model photography manipulations. The models are being captured in high end digital camera and then fed into computers to make the necessary changes in the face of the subject to make it attractive. Retouching is implied to remove scar, tans, pores and other undesirable points from the face. It is now need of the hour for a model portfolio to be “photoshopped”. Retouching need more patience and equal measure of skill. This technique can be used to correct facial anomalies, damages caused in the bygone photo snaps, create copies of same entity multiple times, and erase an entity off from the image etc. The art of Photoshop retouching is a great gain for digital image editors. Well, with various features retouch remains a blessing for image editing.

Retouching My Portrait – Is Not a Flash in the Pan!

Portraits have a longer history like photography itself. This shows the interest of humans getting their images live with time. The art of portrait have long grown and the enhancements have evolved through technologies.

Portraits started as a royal service traveled with time and technology and became a common activity. With the invasion of digital cameras, capturing portraits is as simple as that. High-end cameras have capture settings like face detection to take portraits with more accuracy. Today retouching is not a flash in the pan.

Close look:

Retouching portraits require immense skill. This is because the editor has to change very minute details to look the image different. The responsibility is more on the shoulders of the artist as the customer feels “retouching my portrait is enhancing my facial attributes”.  Apart from the regular skin tone, one needs to give close look at eyebrows, dark shades below the eyes, eyelashes, lips and other microscopic details of the face. Retouching such parameters will boost the beauty of the face.  One needs to understand the amount of light that falls on the subject, and reduce it at desired scenarios. Reducing the light on the face doesn’t darken the image, instead increases glow when applied with hue and saturation slider.

Light and Flash:

This competitive scenario will force the photographer to use high-end cameras. The snapper will have his camera settings done to capture the face of his subject with highest clarity. To achieve this, it is important to make the background blur and thereby increasing the sharpness of his subject. The shutterbug will need to take a great care in lighting effects and flash settings. The camera should flash only when necessary. The photo will be pleasant, if natural light is used in maximum. Setting the light for a photo is just another art. It should be done with excellence to make it more adorable than an amateur capture.

Contrast the Backdrop:

The foreground entity will look finer when the backdrop contrasting. Handle dodge and blur tool to wipe off the sharpness in the background. Try to lessen the striking colors at the back settings in the back settings to hike the charm of the portrait. This is a mandate technique used along with other procedures while retouching the portrait. Retouching my portrait involves a lot of input from my end as well as from the editor’s perspective. The combined inputs will narrow down to the best possible correction and lead to the spangled output.

Cleaning the skin and retouching hair property will make the portrait fantabulous. The hair color can be treated in a way that it looks blending with the skin tone. The black spot on the face must be erased off using clone tool and skin color should be maintained even across the face. Brightening up of eyes and teeth will add more color to the photo. Retouching my portrait is not complete without adding twinkling effects to my eyes. The editor must take immense effect to zoom in and implant effects into the lens in the eyes. The artist should work on the color of teeth. It is not necessarily to be bright white; however various shades of white will do the job. Snap a shot and give it a try. The social networking site needs a new profile picture!!

Retouch Photos and Reincarnate Their Personality

At times, a normal picture will never strike any attention; retouch photos and it will give a piquant punch and make them more prominent. Retouching is undoubtedly treated as a technique to reincarnate the photos personality.

Digital captures are always stunning when captured at effective lighting and angles. This, of course, is not enough in the new era of digital manipulations. One can spend worthy time in retouching obligatory areas of the image to make it look more focused depending on the content. Let’s peep into some of the techniques that create magic in not so exquisite photos.

Thump the spirit:

There are few images that are very motivational in their ingredients. Photos like the winning shot of a high-tension final match can bring mixed emotions among the supporters. When such captures are treated with special retouch methods, they will look legend and unforgettable among enthusiasts. Retouch photos with simple Photoshop techniques like stroke and outer glow will create an illusion that the sporting hero is powered with magical influence.

It requires an efficient digital device to capture a sporting event. The output should be void of shaggy trails and blurred portion. Concentrate now on the protagonist of the photo and draw the path with the pen tool covering the athletic act of him. Clip him off and paste in a new layer to add the desired effect. Apply stroke effect with an apt color that can match the background contrastingly. Use the outer glow to enhance the colored border of the athlete. Decorate more with blurring parameters and make him a super hero. An outer glowing effect spiced with blur will create a thump in the image.

Digital Flashback:

Retro images have a cult following. People in general have an obsession towards period photos. Those pictures talk a lot about the time and culture in which they were captured. Use the hue and saturation effect to increase the retro color contents. Slide the saturation bar to make the image look more like a single colored either beige or grayscale to get the desired effect. Retouch the photos with more filters of brushes and light effects to make photo look retro and legendary.  

Color precision:

Retouch photos to create new and vibrant colors that actually not captured in the photos. The technique is used to remove the inglorious look and spice up the image with sparkling toppings. Does the color of the t-shirt bringing down the feel of the photo? Never mind, just change it to a beautiful shade with photo retouching. Use hue and saturation slides to change the color of desired choice. Make use of the color balance to recommend a vivacious color of choice. Use brightness to hide other portions of image and mask it with the source photo.

Retouch photos to achieve scores of effects. From colors to lights, from futuristic to retro and what not? Imagine and unleash with high-end tools to accomplish the dreams. Invent jaw-dropping effects, as image editing is not bound to rules but to innovations.  The superiority of the photo lies in the hands of editor who chooses the right effect to add the zest to the illustrations. Glanced some of the many retouch effects; one can’t deny that retouching is reincarnation of the photo.

Skin Retouch - Unglamorous Job for Glamorous Faces

The skin retouch is the one of the most requested during any photo shoot. The skin retouch can be in the form of removal of acnes, freckles, or any random spots on the model or person's skin.

Photoshop provides the Healing Brush tool, which is a powerful and simple tool that can be used to remove imperfections in the skin. The tool is present in almost all version of the Photoshop. There are a number of options available for the use of this tool. To select the healing brush tool, select the image, which looks like a bandage icon in the toolbox. The tool can also be selected by using the shortcut key by pressing the J key on the keyboard. When the icon is clicked a number of options are revealed, including the spot healing brush tool, the healing brush tool, and patch tool.

The spot healing brush is the simplest of the three options and is used to take care of small imperfections in which there is an even area around the mark. The tool takes the sample from the pixels around the mark and matches it in terms of texture, lighting and the tone. After selecting the tool select a brush that is larger than the mark and simply click on the mark to remove it. For large marks or scratches, the brush can be dragged across the area.

The second tool, the healing brush allows the user to select the sample from which the marks can be blended to remove them. In this tool the user can select a sample or a preset pattern to remove unwanted marks. For example, there is an image in which there is fine detail of the imperfections. Now to remove this imperfection, first select the healing brush tool and press alt and click to select the source sample. Make sure to select the sample area that closely resembles the area around the imperfections. The things to look in while selecting the source include the texture, the tone and the shadows. After finalizing the source, click on the imperfections similar to the previous method used in the first tool. That’s it after some trail and errors, the mark will be completely removed.

The third and the most complicated one is the patch tool. This tool can be defined as a combination of the lasso tool and healing brush. The tool is good for correcting large areas of the image. The healing brush allows correction in the image based on the source or a pre-set pattern; the patch tool provides a number of different options. One of the most used one is to select the area of imperfection by dragging around it, similar to the lasso tool. While doing this, make sure to select the Source Mode in the option bar. Now drag the selection to an area where Photoshop can blend the imperfection and release. Like other Photoshop techniques, correcting marks using the tools need a lot of patience and attention to details.