Photomanipulation/touchup - Portrait

Before and after of a photo manipulation/touchup.


For those who have a background in Photoshop, this will be an easy one to get as i wont be going into detail about what each tool does but rather the step i usually take to make adjustments.

There are times where your models feature might be distorted by the angle or the pose that she does. in such cases where the distortion makes the face looks weird, its best to do some photo manip to make it look it look balanced again. Such poses include sleeping, bent over, etc.. anything where gravity or pressure is present there will be slight distortion. well sometimes it could just be a plumpish model with not so perfect body/face. This trick works either way ^__^

Tools/filters i will be touching on are:
1) Stamp tool - Found in the tool box. Looks like a rubber stamp icon.
This will be your best best friend. Forget about the amateur blur tool. The blur tool should be used sparingly as it doesn't help much other then make your photos a blurry mess. To use stamp tool, zoom in, don't be lazy. copy similar coloured schemed patches relatively close to the area u wish to cover. use about 20-30% pressure with as feathered round brush. Select an average sized brush for the work. not too small as it will cause spotting n not too big or the shadow/contour will be lost.

2) Liquify filter - Found in the list at top of screen under Filter>Liquify
After selecting Liquify a new window will pop up. Now select a suitable sized brush and pressure. this filter allows u to somewhat reconstruct the image. use carefully and sparingly or u will get very obviously altered edges. Takes practice and experience to know where to start pulling from and how much to pull. Once done, ok and exit. u can 'undo' n 'redo' to see the difference. i enjoy doing this to see the before and after effect XD.

3) Burn tool - Found in tool box. Its just bellow the Gradient tool. It might be hidden in the list along with the 'dodge' and 'sponge' tools. The burn tool is the shape of a pinching hand. Adjust it to about 30% on shadows located at the top of working window. Run brush over eyebrow and lashes that have been washed out by the flash and to give the face a more defined look. This tool can also be used to create shadows and contouring. Careful though as too much makes it fake. The 'dodge' works in the opposite of this 'burn' tool.

Below is an example done in 4 steps. This obviously doesn't include the optional colour adjustments and other tweaking like sharpen and etc.

1) This picture is taken in a pitch black karaoke room and the only light was from the flash. Do note the flash tends to washout things like hair,eyebrows and lashes. it also makes oily skin look more obvious. Notice how gravity and pressure on the left side of the cheek has made it somewhat distorted? That's what u will have to clean up.

2) Clean up of pimples, uneven skin tones and discolouration around eyes using the stamp tool. Side of face fixed and lips have been pulled down a little to compensate for the initial gravity pull using the Liquify filter.

3) Use the Burn tool to run over eyelashes and eyebrows that have been washed out by the flash.

4) Use stamp tool to clean up lines on neck. Dont clean all off!! Use the burn tool to add back some shadow to compensate for the lost ceases. You should have some understanding of a human figure structure (muscle/bones) and how it affects shadows being cast or this step should be skipped.

There are many other steps to get the finished product but im just gona stop here.

nice tutorial butta~!

This guide helps a lot

thanks but i think its only IF u know the basics of photoshop or its probably gibberish XD. Didnt have time to do shots n stuff.

Magic!!!! Thanks!!!! hahaha useful knowledge

Very useful information to all of use in post processing process... thanks for sharing~

oh cool fel... thanks...
will practise...

most welcome