Removing my beard using Paint Pro Shop 9

[topgun68]

I am new to Paint Pro Shop 9, had it a week. I change my eye color from brown to green. I been trying to remove my beard. I had no luck so far. I cant seem to find the right flesh tone to much the rest of my face. Could someone point me in the right direction ? Also, I would like to know how to change my hair color to blond. Here is little old me

[Kraellin]

hi topgun,

and welcome to RP.

boy, with that kisser why you want to even keep this photo? (j/k ). the beard is easy. i use psp 9 also. you use the 'clone' tool. if you've got the tool bar active and showing down the left side, it's about half way down and coupled with some other tools; i.e. push, smudge, sharpen, soften, and so on.

set the opacity fairly light to begin with, like about 30-40% or so. and set the 'hardness' to about 60-80% or so. pick up a nearby color/texture using a right click and then 'dab' it on the beard area. just keep repeating this till the beard is gone. adjust the opacity as you see fit, but dont try to get every dab as a straight 100% copy. it just wont look right. and when you pick up nearby areas, come from different directions to vary the color and texture a bit. to get in close to areas like the lips, use the push brush set at around 40% or so and a very small brush and just 'push' the color from one area to another. use small strokes or you'll get a streaked effect.

for the hair, because it's black and there's already a lot of other black in the picture, you'll probably need to duplicate the layer and then mask the hair on the duplicate. from there you can use hue/sat, channel mixer, color balance, paint it on with a light opacity or something like the fast fix plugin. you could also try making a new raster layer and paint the color you want the hair on the raster layer. then, erase the bits that dont overlay to the layer below and set a blend mode of overlay, screen, or maybe luminance....i forget, but it shld be one of those. just try em all you might also have to lower the opacity of the raster layer a bit.

Craig

[topgun68]

Hi Craig,
yeah I been called worst. Easy removing the beard huh ? Well I just gave it a go and here is my work. I did what you told me too do. I had no luck, maybe its this program Paint Pro Shop 9, I dont think its cut out for it.

[Kraellin]

ok, that's a decent start. psp does this just fine. lower your opacity and take just parts out at a time. overlap your dabs. dont try to replace one area with one dab. it just takes practice.

i've attached a partial. took about 10-15 minutes to get it this far.

Craig

[Nanls]

Well I attempted the left side, although I like your version, Kraellin, better. I also sharpened and filled in the eyes, so that "cataract" look is lessened.
~Nancy~

[topgun68]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

ok, that's a decent start. psp does this just fine. lower your opacity and take just parts out at a time. overlap your dabs. dont try to replace one area with one dab. it just takes practice.

i've attached a partial. took about 10-15 minutes to get it this far.

Craig

wow, dam nice job Craig! Looks so real! hmm only 10 minutes huh ? Dang, took me 45 minutes to make a mess of my picture. Ok I will work on the right side now and keep your posted. I might finish it tonight or sometimes tommorrow, but I will post my finish work. And big thanks for helping me.

[topgun68]

Originally Posted by Nanls

Well I attempted the left side, although I like your version, Kraellin, better. I also sharpened and filled in the eyes, so that "cataract" look is lessened.
~Nancy~

Hi Nancy,
Looks like we in the same boat when trying to remove my beard. Oh thanks for correcting my work on the eyes, I didnt notice anything wrong with them until you pointed out they had cataract look. You did a good job filling them in. Thanks.

[topgun68]

Ok Craig, here is my handle work. This the best I can do until I make it worst. Now I have no lips. Not really sure how to use the smurg tool yet.

[Nanls]

Had to have a quick go at the right side-lots more clean skin to clone from on that side. Now my question is, "what does that top lip look like uder all that hair?" ;-)
It might be easier just to shave!!!
~Nancy~

[topgun68]

Well Nancy, All I can say whats under all that hair is a great set of kissing lips. And for shaving it off, I dont want to look like a kid again.

[Nanls]

Too funny, I was referring to the shape your lips might be, not how they might be used-but you probably know that! I'm just guessing as far as shape, you would be the best for that task! As far as the eyes go, I sharpened them, to bring the colors out and on this version painted back in the black on the Iris of the right eye, that was missing. ~Nancy~

[topgun68]

Dam you good Nancy! Now I have my kissing lips again. Nice touch on the eyes too! Thanks again and I am learning as we go. I notice as each day passes, I been calling my Paint Pro Shop 9 less names. Which means, this old country boy is learning something.

[topgun68]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

hi topgun,

and welcome to RP.



for the hair, because it's black and there's already a lot of other black in the picture, you'll probably need to duplicate the layer and then mask the hair on the duplicate. from there you can use hue/sat, channel mixer, color balance, paint it on with a light opacity or something like the fast fix plugin. you could also try making a new raster layer and paint the color you want the hair on the raster layer. then, erase the bits that dont overlay to the layer below and set a blend mode of overlay, screen, or maybe luminance....i forget, but it shld be one of those. just try em all you might also have to lower the opacity of the raster layer a bit.

Craig

Remember Craig, I only had this program for a week and I didnt have a clue what you was talking about how to change hair color. Masking and dupicate is all new to me. Please explain it step by step.

[Kraellin]

hi topgun,

thank you for the kind words.

you've definitely improved. that 2nd picture is much better! just keep practicing. cloning is the one tool i had to master before i felt confident enough to start restoring pictures. it's well worth the time to learn.

nancy,
yes, it was no random choice that i started on his left side (our right). nice job, btw

and on the hair, topgun, do you have the manual for psp 9? i'm sure there is a chapter on layers in there. i'll explain it briefly, but you shld read the manual. all the good editors like psp and ps use layers. the idea is one of stacking things on top of existing things, thus, layers. if you look over on the right side you shld see what is called a layer palette. this is where you keep track of all your layers. normally, you start out with any image having just one layer. this one base layer is called the background layer. generally, you never work on that layer. you simply use it for reference. you can, but it's a good practice to never alter this base layer so you never overwrite and lose this base layer. so, what do you work on? well, you simply make a duplicate of the base background layer. if you RIGHT click on that base layer you'll get a menu. one of the menu items there is 'duplicate'. click on that and it will a complete duplicate of that layer you clicked on. and, it will now show up in the layer palette labeled a 'copy of....' whatever layer you made the duplicate of.

with me so far? so, basically you can make duplicates of any layer in the layer palette or even create new ones of different types and have them all stacked on top of each other in the layer palette. what this does for you is allow you to make copies of your work within your workspace so that you can make changes without destroying what you've already done. so, you could make a duplicate of your background in your beard picture, clone out the one side and have it look nice, make a duplicate of that, and clone out the other side so that if you screwed up the 2nd one and just wanted to erase the whole thing, you could by just erasing that layer. but, you'd still have the layer with the good work on it. there are other applications than this for layers, but that shld give you an example of the power of layers.

i also mentioned masks, but we'll take this one step at a time.

how's the cloning going?

Craig

[Nanls]

Thank you topgun and Craig for the nice remarks. Will enjoy seeing the final when you are finished, topgun... and then "the blonde look" should be an interesting challenge for you!
~Nancy~