Hello,

After many years in photography NOW I’m getting my hand on more photo retouch I’m kind of lost, I was wondering if someone was so kind and advise or guide me on how to clean up this photo. I usually send them out for retouch now I would like to learn how to retouch them my self.

On the image I want to do the following:
• Extend the background without cropping, basically how could I eliminate the wall showing?
• On the Woman how could I eliminate the shadow on her upper left face?
• Other how could I clean up the hair flakes on her right eye?

If someone would be very kind to help answer this e-mail I would really appreciate it.

Thanks....

Using Photoshop:

1. To remove the wall:
Use the clone tool. Sample a clean area of the background with the CLONE TOOL and then paint away the wall.

2. Eliminate the shadow on the woman's face.
You can select the area with the shadow and apply a selective curves adjustment. Or you could use the DODGE TOOL to lighten the area. You might want to duplicate the image before you apply the dodge tool. This will allow you to lower the opacity of the duplicate layer or use a layer's mask to bring back some detail from the original image below.

3. Remove hair flakes on eye.
At the current scale, I really couldn't see any, but the HEALING BRUSH or CLONE TOOL could easily remove any stray hairs. You would sample on a clean area on the eye then paint over the stray hairs on her eye. The sampled area will replace what you paint. The key is to keep resampling and do a little bit at a time. Also work with your brush size at the same size as what you are trying to remove.

4. There was a slight color cast so I removed it with curves. Then I finished with the Unsharp Mask (USM) to sharpen the image just a tad.


These steps may confuse you at first, especially if you are brand new to Photoshop. There are numerous tutorials on this web site and bit by bit you will get more comfortable using Photoshop.

RetouchPro Tutorials (http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?)

Very nice picture..
Cloned out left side of the image...large soft brush..cleaned some noise between the edge and the woman.
Cloned some of the shadow on the face. (set the clone to lighten 40%) sampled the area right around it...also selected the area after and lightened it with the level adjustment...just a bit.
I lightened the whole picture since I wanted to see their faces clearly..
Cloned out some spots on the hair. again clone tool set to a low opacity then build it up.
Hope it helps you.
Lasa

For lightening shadows you could use the dodge tool. I prefer to use selective curves layers as it allows for more precise control. I lightened the background so that it fades to white. That allows for a very easy ability to enlarge the canvas just using white. I also fixed the color balance and adjusted the curves a little.

This is my take on the picture. I used the patch tool to take out the area on the left. Lightened where I thought the shadow was on the lady's face as well as the young man. Did a little color adjustment. Was never really able to find the eye/hair problem. I lightened the image but still could not see anything. There appeared to be a slight line on the right cheek which might have been the hair which I cloned out. Also, ran it through Focus Magic which seems to brighten and sharpen images.

dc

In looking at the posted image I may have just a little too much red in the skin tone.

hi jr102801, and welcome to RP.

when you say you want to extend the background, do you mean horizontally, vertically, or by adding more depth? you could do all of these, but it would help to know exactly what you have in mind.

In CS3..

- used the patch tool to remove the object on her right;
- duplicated file, converted to LAB, selected the lightness channel in the channels palette, Apply Image, lightness channel/screen blending, activated the Lab channel in the channels palette and copied;
- pasted the LAB version over-top of the original RGB, applied a hide-all mask and with a soft white brush and low opacity setting, selectively brushed to lighten shadow areas;
- Hiraloam sharpen

by the way, i love those poses :)