Awareness of Advance Skin Retouch Techniques for Digital Darkroom Editors

Rich textured skin always scores high on the digital platform.  Every editor should be concerned with developing advanced skills for it.

Skin retouch is a common requirement for digital darkroom editors of all levels.  Making the skin look flawless while keeping the original texture is a skill learn with years of experience. It can be done with extensive pixel-based retouching available with imaging software.  With varied brushing techniques and a bit of color, tweaking the photos, editing can be spiced up to make the visuals look presentable to the viewer. It is not the mere cosmetic modification that lures the viewer but also the overall quality of the snap.

Photoshop offers many features for advanced skin retouch. It is also possible to give the photo a healing touch, add a matt finish or gloss and airbrush the skin. Even the delicate area around the eyes can be brightened with contrast. Clients who work for high-end fashion magazines, billboards, fashion house and printed media value such advanced skills of editors.  It is of a very high caliber and done by experienced editors only.  The fashion industry sells grand dreams and requires perfect images each and every time.  Flawless skin advertisements bring in more consumers and this has been achieved with the latest imaging equipment. Every single skin retouch is done in a complete manner.  A high-end camera like a Phase One P45 or P65 can produce a perfect shot.  Then the editor does a series of steps to create a striking portrait, to improve skin tones, modify shadow and light patterns to increase the effect and enrich the eyes and skin.

One of the keys to have a clear image with a skin retouch is with the magic wand tool. With the clear color background, the magic wand can design miracles. The editor zooms on the edit 200% and using a small soft brush like 21px/0 hardness he can get rid of the small imperfections.  Using smart filters to soften the skin gives the professional editor the ability to create the magic in the photo while maintaining its flexibility.

For altering and smoothing the skin color, one easy method is selecting a color as per the color channel to get the required shade.  Another method is to create an empty layer fill with a tan skin color set, then mask and reduce its opacity to suit the image. These techniques will give a smooth and even skin color while retaining its originality and natural shading. With the help of layers it is done. Try also some frequency separation with the help of two duplicate layers in the background. It can improve the color and texture of the overall edit.

This can be applied to highlight even the lips, the nose, the chin, the cheek, forehead and eyes.  Apply a blur with the magic wand tool in order to get the desired effect.  Leave the blending mode on normal and reduce the opacity of the layer according to the desired effect. Always learn to satisfy yourself with the image first before pleasing the client. Skin retouch maybe a deceptive art but convinces viewers if done rationally.

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.