Help needed for a newbie

[rebooto]

Hi Everybody,

I'm new here as i was recommended by Natalia Taffarel to see if people here can help me retouch.

I'm actually been trying out Photoshop so can be consider as beginner.

I've just took photos of my wedding and basically i want to retouch my photo especially on my face (lots of pimples and pores) and my wife shoulder is a bit big so need to reduce her shoulder size.

So to all the expert out there, please teach me or guide me on how can i do it myself the easiest way?? Probably there is no easy way but i will try anything if there is some guide given.

Thanks in advance.

Regards
reb

[Littlecoo]

Hello and welcome Reb,
Can you post some of your images so the folks here have a clearer idea of what you are working with and can give you more specific help. Since you are new to retouching, the last thing you'll probably want is to be swamped with the confusion of a thousand different ways to do the same thing

[Gary Richardson]

Flora has written some instructions on posting Images to the forums Here

[TommyO]

Reb,
We like that approach, we guide, you retouch.
You will certainly get lot's of completed work also.
To ensure you like some of the completed work, post a larger copy on an external site of your liking. But, also be sure to post the "less than 100K" version here as well.
We look forward to helping you !

[rebooto]

here are 1 of my photo that needed retouch...especially my face, her arm, my stomach...others not too sure...lighting?

Thanks in advance.

[rebooto]

Here are the link to the original files that i've converted from RAW.

Warning : Huge 6.5MB
http://www.thinkerzone.net/miri/my%2...etouch7294.jpg

Warning : Huge 37MB
http://www.thinkerzone.net/miri/my%2...etouch7294.tif

[rebooto]

Here are another 1. Luckily this one i've covered up my stomach but not the face...

Warning : Huge 6.5MB
http://www.thinkerzone.net/miri/my%2...etouch7668.jpg

Warning : Huge 37MB
http://www.thinkerzone.net/miri/my%2...etouch7668.tif

[hawkeye60]

I did this very fast so it's far from perfect, but you should get the idea. I simply used a black paintbrush to create a cumerbund and lapel over your stomach.

[TommyO]

Reb,
A quick note to say thanks for following up with the larger images.
I'm sure you will get some very nice retouches.
I intend to work on them as well. The second is very nice ! Where were these taken ?

[chillin]

First I opened the photo as a raw file & did some adjustments- "pic1".
Then using 2 curves, I've retouched the face a bit-"pic2".
...and had a little fun practicing "DH".-"pic3"

[rebooto]

Originally Posted by TommyO

Reb,
A quick note to say thanks for following up with the larger images.
I'm sure you will get some very nice retouches.
I intend to work on them as well. The second is very nice ! Where were these taken ?

Hi Tommy,

I hope i'll learn lots of stuff here....

All the photos are taken in Miri, which is in Sarawak Malaysia...all small town next to Brunei.

[rebooto]

Originally Posted by chillin

First I opened the photo as a raw file & did some adjustments- "pic1".
Then using 2 curves, I've retouched the face a bit-"pic2".
...and had a little fun practicing "DH".-"pic3"

Ok the curves seems really clear off my pores and stuff...how to do that?? Also what's a DH anyway....

[rebooto]

Originally Posted by hawkeye60

I did this very fast so it's far from perfect, but you should get the idea. I simply used a black paintbrush to create a cumerbund and lapel over your stomach.

nice idea...

[TommyO]

Reb,
You had asked for some advise/guidance. So, here is an easy way for a beginner to smooth skin. Again, an easy technique that does not require much experience.

(a) Open your .tif file in Photoshop and duplicate the background layer.
(b) Click on Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise.
(c) In the RN dialog, zoom into your facial area. Adjust the sliders as follows and click Ok.
Strength = 10
Preserve Detail = 50 (due to the high resolution)
Reduce Color Noise = 0
Sharpen Details = 10 (again, due to high resolution)
(d) To prevent the effect from affecting the entire image, create a black filled mask for this layer by Alt-Click'ing the Mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette.
(e) To bring back the effect on just your facial area, we will paint white on the mask with a large soft brush with high opacity. We don't have to be careful, as the filter preserved much of the fine detail.
(f) Select a 40 pixel, 0 hardness, 90% opacity brush. Ensure your foreground color is white (hit D, then X). Zoom into the facial area and paint all over your skin.

This will soften the skin, remove razor stubble, and many blemishes. The effect is more for the areas of similar tonality (your right side). The forehead will require further refining. (See before and after below.)

For the remaining blemishes, use either the Spot Healing brush, or the Clone Tool (use either in a darken or lighten blending mode, rather than the normal default). They go pretty fast after an initial Reduce Noise approach.

I, or someone else will post a guide for using the Liquify Tool to reduce her shoulder (although they don't really need it ). Again, this tool is easy. Much easier than masking, cloning, etc.

[TommyO]

Reb,
Here is an easy way for a beginner to reshape body parts. Again, an easy technique that does not require much experience.

(a) Open your .tif file in Photoshop and duplicate the background layer (or merge your work up to a new layer (Ctrl-Alt-Shft-E).
(b) Click on Filter>Liquify.
(c) In the Liquify dialog, zoom (bottom left) into the body part. Adjust the brush size to about 120 or 150 and leave the other settings as they are.
(d) Click with the cross-hair near the skin edge and drag to the inside very slightly, just a few mm's at a time.
(e) Move down slightly and repeat.
(f) When near water or that pole, always move horizontally to avoid tell-tale signs of what you have done.

If you move slow & slight, no-one will ever know !

Here is a quick sample of her arm.