Hi!
I am just wondering what is the easiest way to
reduce the shine on a forehead/nose.
The picture is an example of some
shine I'd like to reduce.
Any help any could give would be great!
Thanks in advance.
Amy

Hi Amy,
This is how i lowered the shine on the forehead and nose, there are many other ways and i'm sure someone else will jump in here soon if mine is not clear to you.
Duplicate Background Layer
Make a selection with the Lasso Tool on the forehead
Make a curves adjustment layer
Lower the top right hand side down to where it looks right to you, don't worry about the line at this point. Click ok
Go to filter, Blur, and then Gaussian Blur, and adjust it until the line is gone
I used the Healing Brush tool for the small part on the nose.
Let me know if this helps or you need more information
Wayne

Oh and welcome to RP Amy.
Wayne

To do this I duplicated the background, used the patch tool to patch very shiny areas with not so shiny areas. Duplicated layer gaussian blur 1.2, added a hide all layer mask then painted white on mask to reveal just skin areas to smooth skin.

Tried to not take all the shine out as that can leave the image looking flat.

Christine

Wayne and Christine:
Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!
You made it look so good
and sound easy. I hope
I can do it this well.....I am off
to try!!
Thanks again!
Amy

Amy,
Let us know how you did on the photo when you get finished with it.
Wayne

Hi Amy, had a go with your picture as well. Here's what I did.

1. Selected area on right forehead and pasted to new layer.
2. Horizontal flipped this and moved it over shiny area on left of forehead.
3. Adjusted levels of this "patch" to get lighting right.
4. Adjusted opacity of layer to get best look.
5. Blurred with Gaussian Blur (radius 9)
6. Added noise to give skin texture.
7. Blurred noise slightly (Gaussian Blur 0.6)

Repeated for area on left cheek with patch taken from right cheek. Sounds complicated, but whole thing only took about 2-3 mins.

Another way to do this is to make a Luminosity Mask.

• click ctrl+alt+~
• check feather settings (I usually put mine at 2)
• click ctrl+j to place in seperate layer
• add a layer mask (select the square with circle inside at the bottom of the layers pop up)
• change layer blending to luminosity
• add gaussian blur (I used 1.8 setting)
• click into layer mask square and use a black paintbrush to "erase" areas you want to sharpen (I set the opacity of my brush to 40% so I could blend them a bit)

I liked the way this evened out her skin tone and kept her skin luminious.

Hope this helps....at least now you have several different methods to use! (grin)

Thanks Donna and Gary!
I have several photo shoots
today and can't wait to get
back and play with you technicques, too.
I have only had Photoshop CS
for about 5 days now and you
have all taught me so much
already. I don't know how
I functioned so long without it.
Thanks so much!
I am very grateful for the help.
Amy
P.S. Any reccommendations on
a Photoshop book that might help
a photoshop rookie like me??
I am a photographer and I saw a
few books at my local bookstore but
they did not look very geared to
photography...more like grapic design.

Hi Amy,
Restoration & Retouching by Katrin Eismann is one of the best ones out there, check it out.
Wayne

Oh yes, the Eismann book is an absolute must-have for retouching work.

There is also a book called Photoshop for Photographers that is pretty good in general -- I don't know if they've brought out a CS edition yet, though.

Hi Amy, I recently bought...

The Photoshop Book For Digital Photographers
by Scott Kelby
ISBN: 0-7357-1236-0
RSP: $39.99 USA/$62.99Can/£30.99UK

...I can highly recommend it as a very straightforward tutorial style book of all the key Photoshop needs for digital photographers. Subject matters range from the basic through to some really cool advanced tips and tricks. There is even a tutorial for removing hot spots using the clone stamp tool (blend mode: darken, opacity: 50%), which works well.

Well, the easiest way, I find, is just to use the healing brush. I appraoch it the same way I was taught to do it with dyes: start at the edge, and work your way in. For example, with the specular highlight on the nose, I drew a circle around the outside of the highlight. Then I drew another circle just inside the highlight. Finally I just tapped the last of the highlight away. This turned the specular highlight into a mere highlight. The key, to keep from turning an image flat, is to remember Jane Ziser's "Five Lights of Nature:"


Specular highlight
Highlighted side
Base
Shadowed side
Reflected light


You take a specular highlight down to a highlight. You don't want to take it two notches down to the base. I know those five lights by heart, because I can look at an image that looks flat, and know exactly which light is missing. Every image should have all five of these (except reflected light, sometimes). The thing is about specular highlights, a photographer's lighting will put them in places they ordinarily wouldn't be (unless the person is greasey, I guess). Anyway, just make sure any specular highlight just gets toned down to a highlighted side, rather than the base, and everything will be cool.

I think I compressed my pic too much, but you get the idea.

Well, for me, the easiest way is to take the Cloning brush, set it for a fairly large diameter (in this case, about 45) and set it for anywhere from about 40% down to 15%, sample an area that has the tonality you want and then run it over the shiny areas a few times.