Professional processing of a portrait in Photoshop. Lesson on effective processing of a portrait in Photoshop. Group of layers with additional retouching

Final result:

Step 1
Open the girl's photo in Photoshop. Double click on the background layer to unlock it. Name it "woman". Create a new layer (Create New Layer) under the photo layer and fill it with black using the tool Fill (Paint Bucket Tool).

Step 2
This step is very important, we will create shadows on the girls. This will help create a focus point and define the illuminated area. To the layer with the girl add a layer mask (Layer Mask), select the tool Brush (Brush Tool) with soft edges and opacity 50%. Draw black on the edges of the canvas on the mask as shown below. The mask will hide the girl's layer pixels and reveal the bottom black layer.

Lower the opacity of the brush to 20-25% and paint on the left side of the face, arms and shoulder. Don't worry if you over stroke the layer mask, we'll fix that later.

Set the fill color to white and lower the opacity of the brush to 10%. Paint on the mask the areas of the canvas that were overpainted earlier. If you want to create a smoother transition from shadows to light, apply a filter Gaussian Blur (Gaussian Blur Filter) to the mask.
It took me 30 minutes to achieve the desired result, although this is not a very difficult process.

Step 3
Since we did not reduce the size of the photo, all the imperfections on the face are visible. Now we will do a little retouching. Select the Spot Healing Brush Tool, create a new layer (Create New Layer) and in the tool settings set the value Sample from all layers (Sample All Layers). In the screenshot below, I marked the areas that need to be processed.

Step 4
Now we will work on strengthening the shadows and highlights of the girl. Create a new layer (Create New Layer) and fill it with 50% gray (Shift + F5). Set Blending Mode – Overlay (Blending Mode – Overlay). Use the Dodge Tool and Burn Tool to paint over the layer as shown below.

The result before and after changing the blend mode:

Step 5
Now let's move on to color correction. Create an adjustment layer Selective color correction (Layer – Selective Color). Adjust Neutrals and Black tones.

Step 6
For greater effect, you can create glows on the colors of the girl's rim. Create three new layers with Blending Mode – Lightening basics (Blending Mode – Color Dodge). With a dark brush, paint over the marked areas in the screenshot below. On the "Lights 3 Color Dodge" layer, I used a large soft brush and a green brush on the eyes.

Step 7
General lighting can be adjusted using the Lighting Effects Filter. First you need to merge all layers into one (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E) and then apply a filter.

Step 8
Now let's create the light rays. Tool Polygonal lasso (Polygonal Lasso Tool) create triangular shapes on a new layer. Then apply the Motion Blur Filter several times. Offset (Distance) depends on the size of the photo, I used a value of 999 pixels. After that, apply a filter Gaussian Blur (Gaussian Blur Filter) to make the light rays softer. Lower the Opacity of the layer to 20-25%.

Step 9
Now let's create particles. Select a tool Brush (Brush Tool) and go to the brush palette (F5) and set it up like this:

Shape Dynamics: Size Jitter - 90:
Scattering: Scatter - 1000%, Count - 1
Double brush (Dual Brush): choose Spatter 14 as the second brush, you can experiment with other settings.

Professional photo retouching in Photoshop

1. Open the source file. In this case, we will be retouching a photo I took in the Beauty style. 2. First, let's define all the "jambs" that we will need to fix:

1 - circles under the eyes 2 - asymmetry of the eyes and face in general 3 - chubby cheeks (although there is a taste and color, I personally like "cheeky cheeks") 4 - a wide chin 5 - a wide nose (also IMHO) 6 - hair on the forehead 7 - dust on the matrix 8 - nasolabial folds 9 - pimples, blackheads, and various skin irregularities 3. Make a copy of our background. Let's call it "face". We take the Patch Tool and begin to “remove” the jambs on the skin (circles under the eyes, pimples, wrinkles, mustaches, etc.) For those who do not know how to use, we take the tool and select the area that we need to fix, then drag the selection to a clean area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe skin, thereby replacing the bad with the good. The same tool can get rid of the dirt on the background

6. We get:

6. The patch that we used is a very rough tool, and after itself it leaves the so-called “scars”, which we also need to get rid of, we will return to this, but for now we will “change” the shape of the face, add a thinner look to it, and try to achieve symmetry. Go to Filter - Liquify. We need to make the left eye a little larger, so we take Bloat Tool, brush parameters (on the right): Brush Size – 736 Brush Density – 66 Brush Rate – 18 Point the brush at the pupil – and press 2 times. Our eye caught up with the second one With the same brush parameters, but with the help of the Pucker Tool we will reduce the nose, including the bridge of the nose, make sure that the diameter of your brush does not touch the eyes and lips. Press no more than three times. 6. Let's move on to the cheeks. To reduce the cheeks and stretch the chin, we need to use the tool Forward Warp Tool (Top left on the toolbar). But in order not to capture the hands and hair, we will cover them with a mask. Take the Freeze Mask Tool. By changing its diameter, paint over the area of ​​​​the arms and hair near the cheeks. If you accidentally got the mask on your face, then you can erase it with an eraser, which is located below the brush of the mask itself:

Now take the Freeze Mask Tool and “drag” the cheeks. Same thing with the chin. The brush settings should remain the same, only the diameter will change (Brush Size). It’s really convenient here, I like to work with a large diameter.: We get:

7. Now we will "smooth" the skin. We will do this in a completely primitive way, since there are a lot of methods on the forum, but I have a difference. That we first “kill” the skin texture completely, and then we will “restore” it with someone else's. This can be done with a blur or a well-known portraiture. Make a copy of the Face layer and name it "blur". Go to Filter - Imagenomic - Portraiture. We find a pipette (Pick Mask Color) on the skin of the face. We press OK. Here we have such a "blurred" person:

8. But we don't want to leave her like that, do we? Take the eraser Opacity 100% (hardness - 0%) And "erase" the hair, necklace, eyes, lips, eyebrows, nails, edges of the nose, fingers and the edges of the whole body. Then change the Opacity to 30% and "show the texture of the skin" a bit, erase a little on the cheeks, décolleté, shoulder and forehead. After these steps, press "Alt + Ctrl + Shift + E" (merge all layers), we get:

9. The resulting layer will be called "color correction". Go to Image - Adjustments - Selective Color and set the following values:

Click "OK", Go to Image - Adjustments - Color Balance

11. Now we will add contrast and volume to the picture using the inverted layer mask as well as burn and dodge. Create a copy of the color correction layer. Click on the Add layer mask button, which is located at the bottom of the Layers tab:

Go to Image - Adjustments - Invert. Select the tool “Brush Tool” (brush), it should be white, with soft edges, you will adjust the diameter yourself “along the way”, just like Opacity, but approximately my transparency is always at the level - 10-15. Set the layer's blend mode to Screen. Now we will "lighten" different areas of the skin. To begin with, let's go over a brush with a large diameter all over the face and body in order to set the "tone". Make sure that the layer mask is always active, and not the layer itself, otherwise you will not succeed. I have selected the areas of the skin that we need to go over with a white brush, make them lighter (forehead, nose, hair, collarbone, etc.):

Do not be afraid to brush several times over the same place, but also be careful not to overdo it. We get:

12. Now we will "darken" some areas of the skin:

Press "Alt + Ctrl + Shift + E" (merge all layers), and again create an inverted layer mask as in the previous step, only the blending mode is set to Multiply instead of Screen. The brush settings are the same and it is also white. If you accidentally hit the background or unwanted skin with the brush, you can always use the eraser. We get as a result:

13. But the Mask does not always save. There are other tools like Dodge Tool and Burn Tool. With their help, I "paint" small details, the so-called "highlights" on the skin, which adds "glosiness" to my pictures. Press "Alt + Ctrl + Shift + E" (merge all layers) and select the Dodge Tool (Parameters: Range - Midtones, Exposure - 10, the diameter is always different). To begin with, let's draw “beautiful eyes” for them (I have highlighted the area over which I have already walked the dodge).

In this tutorial, we will look at several techniques for creating a dramatic portrait in Adobe program Photoshop. Here the tool will be actively used mixer Brush(Mixing brush) and retouching technique Dodge and Burn(Lighten and darken), to emphasize the main details and get a dramatic effect.

To complete this tutorial, you will need the version Adobe photoshopCC, as it was in it that significant updates took place. We will use an adjustment layer color lookup(Search for color), retouch the skin of the model, and also try out a new filter Camera Raw, which has become available since version CC. But one way or another, if you have a different version of the program installed, you will get a similar result.

The translation is based on the lesson posted on the YouTube video portal, so we will do our best to make it clear and easy for you to complete.

Step 1

First, you need to separate the model from the background. For this, the author used the tool Pen(Feather) (P), for more precise selection. After the model is completely selected, press the right mouse button and select Make Selection(Create selection). Radius (feather) put feathers - 1 px. Then apply a layer mask to the selected model. If there are still some errors, you can remove them with a black brush on the layer mask.

To make the edges of the model look more neat, you can use the function Refine edge(Refine Edge) with the settings as in the screenshot.

Also, the author advises to pay attention to the remaining contour around the model. It can be darkened with layer style(Layer style) Inner Shadow(Inner shadow) with the settings shown in the screenshot.

Name the model layer « Model».

Step 2

Now let's open the background image (ctrl + O) , or just transfer the picture to the program. Blur the background with a filter Gaussian Blur(Gaussian blur). Blur the background so that no details are visible. The author used a filter with a radius 106 .

Step 3

Let's start removing defects on the face. Let's create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N). name it fix. Let's use it as clipping Mask(clipping mask) to the layer with the model « Model» . Also, check the box next to sample all Layers(Sample from all layers).

Now, using the tool Healing Brush Tool(Spot Healing Brush), remove some defects on the face.

Next, create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N ) and let's call it soft. Apply it as a clipping mask to the layer fix. With the help of a tool mixer Brush(Mixing brush) with the settings shown in the screenshot, smooth out the skin of the model. Also, don't forget to check the box next to sample all Layers(Sample from all layers).

The result you should get:

Step 4

Let's create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N ). Let's call it R. Let's use the tool again Pen(Feather)(P). In the settings, on the options panel at the top, instead of Path, put shape. Thus, new contour will be automatically filled with fill. Let's create a contour around the right (from us) lens on the glasses. For ease of selection, it is recommended to slightly reduce Fill(Fill), this layer, up to 64% .

Now let's move on to the selection of the second lens. Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N) and call it L. Also select the lens along the contour and slightly reduce Opacity(Opacity) of this layer, up to 64% .(Translator's note) For a closer acquaintance with the instrument Pen(Feather) (P) you can study this article https://site/articles/tools_a/kak-rabotat-s-perom.html

Once everything is ready, go to the layer R and apply for it layer style(layer style) Gradient overlay(Gradient overlay) (or by double-clicking on the layer with the left mouse button) with the settings as in the screenshot.

Use a gradient from #2 f2368 to # ffffff. The result you should get:

Now let's just move layer style(Layer style) (hold down the alt) from layer R per layer L.

This is how the glasses of the model should turn out:

Create a group and move both layers there. name the group « Glasses».

Now let's create an adjustment layer Hue/Saturation(Hue/Saturation) and apply it as clipping Mask(Clipping Mask) to the lens group.

Move the slider Hue(Color tone) to value -37 .

Step 5

Now we need to create a small shadow from the glasses. To do this, create a new layer under the group « Glasses» . name it « glass Shadow» .

Next, with the key pressed ctrl, click on layer L. Thus, a circular selection will appear around the lens. Go to Select(Highlight) - Modify(Modification) - Expand(Expand). Set the expansion radius 5px. The selection will become wider. Next, go Select(Highlight) - inverse(Invert) (or right click on selection and Select inverse) (Alt+Ctrl+I). Now, using the tool Brush(Brush) (B) with Feather(Opacity) and flow(Pressed) by 50% and low hardness , leave a slight shadow around the outline of the frame, leaving the shadow behind the glasses.

Then, do the same manipulation for the right frame.

If you have extra traces of the shadow, just remove them with the help of the tool Eraser(Eraser) (E).

If the shadow seems unrealistic to you, i.e. too dark, you can apply a filter Gaussian Blur(Gaussian blur).

Translator's note: to select the shadow, you can use any selection tool. The author used Rectangular Marquee Tool(rectangular selection) (M)).

Leave the blur radius at 3px. Drag the final option to the group « Glasses» .

So, the result of the performed actions:

Step 6

Gradient Fill(Gradient fill) on top of all layers. Make a gradient from white to transparent.

Note. author: The pink light falling on the model on the left is shown in such a way that it can be seen better. Also, the blend mode was used for this layer.Soft light(Soft light). LowerOpacity (Opacity) of this layer until you are satisfied with the result.

Turn down Opacity(Opacity) of this layer to 30% and change the blend mode to Soft light(Soft light).

Step 7

Create a New Adjustment Layer color lookup(Color search). In subsection 3D Lut File select Edgy Amber 3 DL. Reduce Opacity(Opacity) of this layer up to 15%.

Step 8

Create a New Adjustment Layer Curves(Curves). Go to the blue channel in this layer and drag the bottom point to toned the image in shadows and highlights, thereby adding a split toning effect, as in the screenshot.

And the top point.

The result that should be

Step 9

Create an adjustment layer again Gradient Fill(Gradient fill) with color from f6dfb2 to transparent with the settings as in the screenshot.

Now move the gradient to the top left corner like in the screenshot:

Also, there is another alternative way.

Portrait - probably one of the most popular genres in photography. Everyone who starts to get involved in photography shoots portraits.
But with the processing of these portraits it turns out worse. The percentage of well-researched portraits is very low, which is frustrating, given the number of photographers per capita in modern Russia.
In this post, I will show you how to edit a portrait photo in Photoshop. To be more precise, I will tell you my processing method.

Where to begin

The first thing you need to start processing with is the analysis of the photo and the development of a work plan. As a rule, opening the image, the processor immediately looks at the face, eyes, skin defects, and thus pays little attention to the overall picture.
Start your analysis by looking at the photo as a whole. To accustom yourself to this - reduce the photo by zoom so that the details are not readable and do not distract you.
What you need to pay attention to when studying the photo (the order does not matter):

• Is the image balanced in tone and color?
• How do the contours of the figure and clothes look?
• Are the proportions of the body preserved and is there any deformation?
• Is the lighting and exposure correct?
• Is the image properly focused?
• Are there any defects in the background?

After that, you can conduct a detailed examination of the photo and identify the following questions for yourself:

• Do I need to remove dust from the photo?
• What skin and body defects need to be removed?
• Is makeup treatment necessary?
• Whether it is necessary to adjust the shape of the body.
• Do I need to correct the lips and other facial features?

In principle, everyone should develop their own algorithm of work, at the moment I adhere to the one described above.
Advice: Flip through magazines, study the classics, and not only photos, but in general fine Arts. This will help your common development as a photographer and retoucher.

Treatment

We opened the photo after converting from RAW.

It remains to process the eyes. To do this, take the Clone Stamp with an opaque brush, increase the image to 300% and carefully remove the wreaths. The eyes remain a bit dark, but we will fix this in the next steps.

Next, I want to straighten the hair, reshape and remove the strand that stands out. This is best done with the Liquify tool, it's in my Filter. In order not to upload the entire photo to Liquify, we need to select the area that we need to process.

Leather processing.

Now we are ready to make the model's skin more glamorous and even. To do this, do the following:
Nraitsa.. But you can make it even more interesting. For example, add volume using Photoshop. As you understand, volume is just a light-shadow. To give the photo additional volume, you can create a new layer and work on it with the Dodge and Burn tools, we wrote about them in the article Effective photo processing in Photoshop. Now I will tell you about another way.

We draw volume and work with light and shadow.

Working with Dodge and Burn is not convenient because you draw both highlights and shadows on the same layer. To separate the light and shadow into layers, do the following.
Duplicate the main layer twice. Assign a black mask to each layer. One layer set to Multiply blending mode, the second layer set to Screen blending mode.
Without going into too much detail, Multiply darkens the entire image, while Screen brightens it. By painting with a semi-transparent brush over the Screen layer, we lighten the necessary areas, and darken them using Multiply. You can do this not only to create volume, but also for any correction of lights and shadows.
To enhance the volume, we will lighten the light areas and darken the dark ones. In our case, we will lighten the protruding areas of the face - the forehead and cheekbones, and darken the lips and cheeks. I painted a little more on the hair to lighten the roots and darken the light areas.

It is difficult to notice changes in such a photo, but believe me, they are very significant.

It remains only to add sharpness and contrast. There are a lot of ways, in this case I use the High Pass filter
And the final touch is to duplicate the layer, blend mode Overlay, black mask and paint over the hair with a brush to give it a little goldenness.
Let's see what happened in the end layer by layer.
Visual comparison, you can click for a larger resolution.

The article describes the whole process of photo processing including image analysis, working with Liquify, using layers, Dodge & Burn, color correction and final sharpening.

The material is designed for users who are familiar with the Photoshop program, namely: they know how to change the blending modes of layers; remember where the standard filters of the program are located and how these filters roughly work; guess where to find and how to apply adjustment layers. If possible, the Russified names of some tools and blending modes will be duplicated in English.

The article describes the retouching process using tools and methods that seem convenient and optimal to me at the moment, but this, of course, does not mean that the described method is the most correct one. And one more addition: this is more the logic of the process than a description of the exact values ​​of the brush and the parameters of the tools, since it is difficult to use specific settings in the work: it is more important to simply understand what needs to be done in each individual case and at each stage of work. Let's take this portrait of a girl as an example of processing.

Principles of portrait retouching

It is advisable to try to take into work frames that are initially successful in their performance (composition, light, etc.). If you are a novice photographer and do not yet know how to take pictures at the level required for high-quality retouching or a novice retoucher who does not have access to quality materials, be sure to look for suitable sources on the Internet for training and train your hand and eye on good work.

The main principle of processing that should be followed is that retouching is needed in order to make a good frame more expressive, and not to redraw and redo an image from scratch, which is initially no good. From the first principle follows the second: do not overdo it. If we have already chosen a high-quality frame for work, then it cannot be redone indefinitely. Sometimes it's better to do something a little less than to completely change the picture.

A few words about conversion.

Before opening an image in Photoshop, it is often necessary to pre-process the raw file in one of the converters. The default is Adobe Camera Raw (ACR for short). There we can immediately correct the exposure, white balance, image contrast and other indicators. This is what my settings looked like in ACR.

The peculiarities of preparing an image for processing in Photoshop is a separate topic for conversation, so I will only note that my main goal when converting a photo was to bring out as many details on the skin as possible by moving the exposure and highlight sliders to the left, and the shadows to the right, in order to reduce the overall contrast Photo. In addition, in the same place, in Adobe Camera Raw, I moved the white balance to a less yellow color, and using the curves tab, I added a reddish tint to the shadows. The last manipulations are completely optional at the beginning of work, as some people prefer to do color correction after technical retouching, but it is more convenient for me to work with an image when the main color solution has already been determined.

Red channel curve settings in ACR:

Now pay attention to the line at the bottom of the Adobe Camera Raw dialog box with image options:

Convert photo in Adobe RGB color space, 8 bit. For high-quality retouching, it is usually advised to convert an image with an indicator of 16 bits, but 8 bits are usually enough for my work. Keep in mind that despite the fact that we have now selected the Adobe RGB option, after processing for use on the web, a photo must always be converted to the sRGB color space.

At the end of the work with the converter, click the "Open Image" button in the lower right corner of the dialog box, and the photo opens in Photoshop.

Photo analysis

In working with this photo, we set ourselves the goal of “combing” the picture and making it more expressive, while leaving the image as natural as possible.
As usual, we start any work with image analysis. For training, you can create a separate “photo analysis” layer (it doesn’t matter if it’s an empty layer or a copy of the background), on which we will literally mark everything that we want to correct with a brush.

In our example, these are the usual skin imperfections, uneven transitions of light and shadow on the forehead and chin of the model, blood vessels on the whites of the eyes. I also want to smooth out the hairs that are knocked out of the hairstyle. We will slightly correct the shape of the hairstyle, slightly open the eyelid of the left eye, lower the left shoulder, which is too raised. Additionally, we will clean the background from a dark spot in the corner on the right. When we have decided on the main tasks, the "photo analysis" layer can be turned off and returned to it during the work to see if we missed something.

Photo analysis layer:

Filter "Plastic" (Liquify)

We create a copy of our original image, and with the help of the “plastic” filter we correct the shape of the hairstyle, lower the left shoulder and slightly adjust the shape of the left eye.

You can read more about the Liquify filter in the article Using the Liquify filter in Photoshop.

Auxiliary layers

At the beginning of work, create a group of auxiliary layers:
1) The first adjustment layer of curves: bend the line down until there are enough contrasting details in the lightest significant areas of the image (in our case, this is the skin on the forehead and on the nose). Let's give it the name "Blackout". For now, turn off (!) the visibility of this layer.

Darkening curves layer and its effect on the photo:

2) The second adjustment layer of curves. Let's call it "Lightening": we bend the line up until details are visible in the darkest significant areas (shadows in the hair). Also make this layer invisible.

Lightening curves layer and its effect on the photo:

3) Another auxiliary adjustment layer "Black and White". It is also disabled after creation.

Fold these three layers into a separate folder and place it above all other layers:

We will use the auxiliary layers in the process of processing in order to better see the flaws, additional details, as well as the transitions of light and shadow. Try turning them on and off one by one now to see how they change the image and what details appear when using each of them.

Working with the Healing Brush.

Let's move on to retouching.

Create three layers for retouching and combine them into the "Healing brush, skin" group:

1) A new clean layer with normal blending mode to remove visible small skin imperfections.

2) A new layer with a blending mode of "blackout" (English "darken") - In order to clean the skin from spots that are lighter than the general surrounding background.

3) A new layer with a blending mode of "light replacement" (English "lighten") - In order to remove spots from the image that are darker than the general surrounding background.

By the same principle, we create a group of “Healing brush, hair” from three layers.
This is what our adjustment layers look like this stage works:

Select the bottommost transparent layer “Normal” (Normal) in the folder “Healing brush, skin” and take the tool “Spot Healing Brush” (Spot Healig Brush Tool). The hardness of the brush is minimal (during the process, the hardness, as well as other parameters of the brush, can and should be changed).

We select the image scale large enough (up to 100-200%) to see all the nuances on the skin. The main rule is that the size of the brush is slightly larger than the spot that we are removing. We constantly change the size of the brush using square brackets on the keyboard, undo unsuccessful actions with the key combinations Ctrl + Z or Ctrl + Alt + Z.

During retouching, it is very useful to turn on and off auxiliary layers, which we have in a separate folder above all other layers. The most important thing in such retouching is to fill your hand and eye with pinpoint hits of the brush on imperfections, since working inaccurately can only aggravate the situation.

When finished on the first layer, move on to the next "Lighten" to remove small dark spots on the surface of the skin. After it seems to us that everything is ready here, go to the "Burn" layer and darken all the small light spots that we see. As a result, each individual layer with retouching will look something like this:

We work with the “Healing brush, hair” layer group in the same sequence as with the previous layers, only there is one caveat - it is more convenient to work with hair on an enlarged image fragment with a very small “stamp” tool (optimally - a little thicker than a hair, which trying to delete). We remove stray and too contrasting hairs. Here it is also useful to practice and use all the possibilities of our auxiliary layers. After retouching, our image looks neater than it was before:

Further, if we notice some details that require mandatory adjustment, we create the “Additional retouching” group, where we add as many new layers as necessary. For example, with the tool “stamp” / Clone Stamp Tool (select the “sample layer” parameter with the value “active and below”, English “Sample” - “Current & Below”) I removed dark spot in the lower left corner of the photo and with the same stamp on a new layer, I cleaned the whites of the eyes from red vessels (we do this very carefully, with a brush transparency of about 20-40%).

Additionally, on a separate layer, with a brush with a minimum diameter and a suitable color, I drew a few new hairs on the eyebrows and along the contour of the hairstyle, so that everything looked more natural (although hair processing, again, is a separate topic, which we will not delve into now).

Group of layers with additional retouching:

Additional changes to the scale of the entire image may seem very small, but it is important for us to remember that it is the little things that give our work a finished look.

Dodge & Burn method

The Dodge & Burn retouching method in various variations is used everywhere, and now we will not be an exception either. Let's create two adjustment layers with curves. We do this in the same way as we created the auxiliary layers before:

- first we will call “Lightening” (Dodge), extrude the curve up so that the picture is lightened, invert the layer mask.

- Lower the curve of the second layer “Burn” so that the image becomes darker. Also add a black mask.

I do not have specific parameters according to which any curves need to be bent. We do everything by eye, so that both when darkening and when lightening, details remain in the photo. This is how all the layer groups that we currently have look like:

Now we begin a long and rather monotonous job of smoothing out various spots on the skin. Take the tool "Brush" / Brush Tool.

We set the value of the parameters "Opacity" / Opacity about 6-10% and "Press" / Flow about 20%. Constantly during retouching, we change the value of these parameters and the image scale. It will be equally bad if, instead of smoothing out the spots, you build them up even more, or if you perfectly even out the surface of the skin, leaving a flat pancake in place of the face.

Hence the conclusion that, in addition to mastering Photoshop tools, it is good to have at least a superficial understanding of the anatomy of the face and the human figure in general. We begin to carefully draw on the masks of the created layers where we want to lighten or darken areas of the image, respectively.

Once again I remind you that here again our auxiliary layers will help us a lot and, of course, some practice is needed in such a difficult matter as Dodge & Burn. This stage can take a very long time (from half an hour to a couple of days), so you will need perseverance, attentiveness and, which is very desirable, the presence of a graphics tablet.

At the end of the work, when you decide that everything is done neatly enough, try lowering the overall opacity of the "Dodge & Burn" layer group to about 80%. Perhaps this will make your photo look more natural and hide some of the flaws you may have made during the hard work of lightening / darkening. At least, this technique often helps me.

As a result, our adjustment layer masks might look something like this:

Let's compare our penultimate version of the image after additional retouching and the version after Dodge & burn.

Color spots. Desaturate or layer in "color" mode. Working with masks

We are done with the main retouching. Let's pay attention to the color. After intensive actions to smooth the skin, too saturated in color or, conversely, discolored spots could appear in the photo. Here is a suggested way out:

1) To desaturate too saturated spots, create a black and white adjustment layer with a black mask and a white brush with low opacity settings, paint very carefully on the mask over areas that we don’t like.

2) In order to give the desired color to the discolored areas or places that significantly changed the hue during our retouching, create a new transparent layer, change its blending mode to “Color” / Color. Then select the brush tool with a small transparency (10-15%). Now, when we, armed with a brush, hold down the alt key, our brush turns into an eyedropper, and we can take a sample of the desired color in order to gradually paint over spots that differ in color.

Again, caveats: firstly, it is better to take a color sample near the place where you are going to work, and secondly, you do not need to cover large areas of the skin with one color, as this looks very unnatural. It’s better to call the pipette more often and take new shades, again, next to the area where you are working.

There were no obvious color distortions in our photo, and I limited myself to light correction with the layer set to the "Color" blending mode.

A separate lesson dedicated to the Dodge / Burn technique "Retouching a female portrait - working with shadows and highlights".

Refinement of the portrait on additional separate layers.

To smooth the structure of the skin on the neck, create a new empty layer and draw a stamp with a transparency of about 10% over the desired areas several times. From repeated movement in the same place, the texture of the cloned area is blurred, and we get the effect of softness, but we have the opportunity to preserve the naturalness of the image, since we act on a separate layer (if necessary, the transparency of the layer is reduced).

On a new layer, with the help of a stamp, we will work on the eyes again. Additionally, add an adjustment curve to this layer to delicately brighten the eye area.

Color correction

Next, two layers of adjustment layers were created: a black and white layer with 10% opacity to slightly reduce the overall saturation of the image, and a curves layer, where I slightly increased the contrast of the image and slightly changed the tone of the image by arbitrarily moving the points on the curves in different channels. As a result, the transparency of the layer with curves was lowered to 40%, since the adjustments seemed redundant.

Group of layers "color":

Adding volume.

After all the above steps, I had a desire to emphasize the volume of the image a little, especially to increase the depth of the model's eyes. To do this, create a lightening curve already familiar to us, curved upwards, add a black mask and draw rough strokes of a white brush with an opacity of 10-15% over the eyes, lips and highlights on the hair.

Let's apply another way to make facial features more expressive. Select our topmost layer and merge all layers into one new one using the key combinations Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E. Convert it to black and white using the keys Ctrl + Shift + U and go sequentially to the menu “Filter” - “Others” - “Color Contrast” (Filtr-Other-High Pass). Select a radius so that the volumes of the black and white image are visible, agree with the filter value and set this layer to blend mode Soft Light / Soft light. On the black layer mask, draw the eyes, hair and lips.

Applying the "Color Contrast"/High Pass filter to get local volume:

Adding sharpness

After technical retouching, when the main flaws in the photo are removed, it is possible to add sharpness using the High Pass filter.

We repeat the same steps that were listed in the previous step when adding a local volume: merge everything into a new layer on top, convert the image to bw, go to the High pass filter, only now we take a small radius so that only the outlines of the image remain.

Set the blending mode to Soft Light and see how the sharpness increases. You can leave the sharpness on the whole image, but I separately masked the eyes and lips to keep the skin softer.

As a result, we can compare the image we got with what we had originally:

Also, for clarity, let's consider an enlarged section of the photo to make sure that the skin structure was preserved during processing without adding additional textures and noise:

General characteristics of the described processing method

Let's briefly summarize our work:

1) The described method is far from the fastest, but very accurate and allows you to achieve naturalness in processing.

2) With this method of retouching, it is possible to make corrections at almost any stage of processing, since only corrective and transparent layers are used. The exception is the “Plastic” layer, so you should think about when it is more expedient for you to do it: at the beginning of work or at the end.

List of all layers used in the retouching process:

3) The Dodge & Burn technique requires some experience. It is advisable to work with a graphics tablet.

4) As in any other processing method, the main thing is not to overdo it so as not to change the geometry of the face and body, adjusting the cut-off contour.

 

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