Following my query for the above, I attach the sample photographs which I have been struggled with.
The female tommy is really tough one.
The final tommy need to be really flat, and I can not figure out 'how to'.
Is it matter of 'removing' or 'adding' shadow?

Not that there's anything wrong with the poor woman's tummy in the first place...

I tried a mixture of the two - adding some shadow and taking some away - and also moved her two sides in slightly to slim down her hips. Again, there was nothing wrong with them but they are the hips of a curvy person and we want to make this model look like a less-curvy person.

This is about the best I can do -- I hope someone else will have some suggestions for you.

Actually, this is a good example of when something should be considered at the stage of taking the photographs -- some careful attention to lighting would have made much less work for the retoucher.

I just used the pinch tool and liquify filter.

1. Selected tummy and placed on new layer
2. Used the pinch tool Filter>Distort>Pinch to reshape the stomach
3. Then I merged the layers
4. Next I used the Liquify Filter to push in the waist a bit.
5. Used the dodge/burn tool to soften shadows and add shadows where needed.

The second version I added some height to improve the proportions.

6. Copied half the girl and placed on a new layer and shifted it up a bit.
7. Used clone tool to match.

Selected bottom half of the image, slightly feathered, and copied selection to a new layer.
Free transform, made the new layer slimmer and merged layer down. Used the clone tool to smooth the merged edges.
Selected tummy and placed on new layer, used filter, distort, pinch to slim the tummy a little more.
Used the clone tool again to reshape hips as best I could. Dodge and burn tool to try to fix the shadows so they look natural.
Think maybe now she's too skinny, though

Sorry, nothing to add here. Except that you all are awesome. This is one little trisk with which I have little experience. I am now off to try to re-create these myself. Because as soon as I don't I will have a customer who wants just this and have to spend several all nighters learning it and perfecting it and ... well you get the idea. Thanks for posting this. lol Ya'll so totally rock.

Dawn

Hi,

I tried to use the liquify command on the man's chest but the texture of the sweater got too distorted, so I used dodge/burn layers to minimize the shadows.

For me, I used Kai's Goo on the girl's tummy using the Magnet tool to bring the tummy and arms in on each side. I then used USM to re-sharpen some of the blurred details. On the guy, I used only the Clone tool. On the left side I used the "if darker" merge mode to reshape the shadow and on the right side I used the "if lighter" merge mode to remove some of the shadow. I then used the "if darker" mode on the right side again to bring back some darker tones to the sweater. I then created a rough mask around the sweater, created a new object from it and applied some noise to it. Created a clipmask to the noise and erased areas I didn't need and then dropped the opacity down to about 50%... this was just to add some texture back to the sweater.

Lynn. I think you did a very nice job. My effort was perhaps a little more crude and hurried. I primarily reduced by using the Lasso and cloning in the background. I lightened the background on the left to better define the torso. On the right, I selected the fingers and Skewed inward. Along with the fingers, the dress also moved in. Then I just selected the bottom part under the hand and cloned out. You also really hit on the key which is the lighting on the tummy. I tried a different shading.

Cheers
Dave

For me, I used Kai's Goo on the girl's tummy using the Magnet tool to bring the tummy and arms in on each side.

I'll have to experiment with Kai's Goo as you got nice results.

Thanks Duv : )
Seems there are at least 10 different ways to do things. No wonder I'm always confused!

Umm..what is Goo? <lost look>

Lynn

Thanks Duv : )
Umm..what is Goo? <lost look>


"Goo" is one of the tools from various iterations of Kai's PowerTools. I believe it may have been marketed by itself at one time, possibly as Kai's Power Goo. Kai Krause sold his PowerTools kit to MetaCreations years ago, which was then sold to Corel a couple of years ago. Corel has now bundled together effects from KPT5, 6, and KPT Effects and call it Corel KPT Collection. It's a set of effects that work with Photoshop, Photopaint, PaintShopPro... you can find more info on the product(s) here:
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel2/Products/Home&pid=1047022702225

The package contains:
KPT® Fluid™ – treat your entire image as a fluid to create and animate a variety of distortions, including controlling the thickness of the liquid and the size and speed of the brush stroke

KPT® FraxFlame II™ – create stunning fractals such as crystal clouds, with an improved rendering engine and increased navigational control

KPT® Gel™ – use realistic 3D paint tools to synthesize photo-realistic materials, and apply lighting, reflection, refraction and transparency

KPT® Goo – smear, smudge, twirl, pinch or "finger-paint" an image to produce stunning liquid distortion effects or short animations

KPT® Ink Dropper™ – add drops of liquid to a surface to create everything from water spots to smoky swirls

KPT® Lightning™ – customize and create realistic lightning effects by controlling every aspect of the bolt and path, including its color, the number of forks, and attractor and generator points

KPT® Materializer™ – create dynamic surface textures using bump maps and advanced controls, or "bend" an image over the contours of a surface texture

KPT® Scatter™ – import a particle or grid of particles and scatter them over your original image to create complex patterns and textures. Control how the particles fall – in a grid, in spirals or at random – customize their density, size and opacity, and change the hue, luminance and saturation of their color

KPT® ShapeShifter™ – create limitless shapes and objects with refracting glass edges, 3D light sources on beveled metallic surfaces, curved and lit Web buttons, UI gadgets and text

Plus!
KPT® Blurrr™
KPT® Channel Surfing™
KPT® Equalizer™
KPT® FiberOptix™
KPT® Frax4D™
KPT® FraxPlorer™
KPT® Gradient Lab™
KPT® Hyper Tiling™
KPT® LensFlare™
KPT® Noize™
KPT® Projector™
KPT® Pyramid Paint™
KPT® RadWarp™
KPT® Reaction™
KPT® Turbulence™

Thanks, Hunter! : )
I'll check it out and most likely add it to my growing 'wish list'
: )

Lynn

Sorry for the delay to thanks everyone, thank you - Leah, T Paul, Lynn, freelancer, Hunter, and Duv.
Appreciate this site, and very respectable talented people.
This is the most useful site of entire planet.