Fashion retouch

auroraskye · #1 02-21-2007, 06:10 PM

I am working on this myself, but I wanted to get some hints from other people. (Note: This is a photo of me.. so feel free to do what you want!)

Here is what I am aiming to correct:

Less redness and pitmarks in my face.
Make that little fat pudgy mark near my lips at the bottom of my cheek go away.
Fix my crazy eyebrows (need a wax.. meep).
Fix the hair that is all over the place above/beside my eyebrow.
Remove the little hair sticking out on the black background along my eyes/eyebrow area.
One of my fingernails is chipped, going to fix that too.

Also, this one is more minor to me, but you'll notice my hair is lighter at the ends, I'm growing out many years of hair dying, but I wasn't sure of a good way to fix that.. Any tips?

And if you want to go a little crazier as well, go for it..

Please post techniques, as I want to learn more! I will post my edited version later on. I need to learn not to rush it.. I'm bad about that.

FULL SIZE GIGANTO IMAGE: http://www.auroraskye.com/LJ/IMG_7261.JPG

CathyH · #2 02-21-2007, 08:12 PM

Hi, thanks for providing a large version of this.
I had a go at it.

geru · #3 02-21-2007, 08:56 PM

curves and color balance
Clone - skin, eyebrows, some hair
Changed hair color to red using h/s/l layer then used brush to mask out the areas I didn't want changed.
color balance one more time
used virtual photo plug-in to add a minimal glamor effect.

irshgrlkc · #4 02-21-2007, 11:54 PM

This needs more work, but I thought I'd post what I have so far.

Cassidy · #5 02-22-2007, 06:12 AM

Byro's Degrunge x 2 (found in tutorial section here)
Clone for beneath lip
Clone for stray hairs
Clone for eyebrows
Clone for Nail chip
Selected colour from upper portion of hair, painted over discoloured hair in colour blending mode and then using Hue/Saturation/Lightness, dropped the lightness of the painted layer to blend with top better.
The purple distant glow is my choice of a blotch of purple heavily gaussian blurred.

auroraskye · #6 02-22-2007, 07:03 AM

Thanks for all the replies, these are helpful tips. Cathy, I like how painting-like yours looks, that's awesome.

DJSoulglo · #7 02-22-2007, 08:03 AM

Here's my version:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c9...Untitled-1.jpg

Not really a fashion version, but just a nice clean version.

enigmaphotos · #8 02-22-2007, 03:44 PM

I had a try too between work photos.

Heal brush for larger marks
My own blend of skin smoothing
Slight Liquify for eyebrows
Increased the eye colour, added higlights to them.
Pronounced make-up a bit more on eyes and mouth.
'Amy Dresser' highlighting and carving.
(slight) nose reshape.
Clone for nail
Mix of copy other hair and clone for hairs
Simple Dodge and Burn for hair colour
Added a Grad fill to add some interest to background

duwayne · #9 02-22-2007, 04:47 PM

Very nice photo. Bgggest corrections were to the hair and skin plus a number of smaller "adjustments".

Syd · #10 02-23-2007, 07:26 AM

Aurora

1. "Less redness and pitmarks in your face" I used the healing brush here - very soft brush, new layer, constantly sampling and the radius of the brush no bigger than the spot. If you don't like the result go one step backward, resample and try again until it looks natural. I also desaturated the image by about a third.

2. "Make that little fat pudgy mark near my lips at the bottom of my cheek go away" Dodge the shadow away, blend with the healing brush and use the Liquify tool if necessary.

3. "Fix my crazy eyebrows (need a wax.. meep)." I used the Liquify tool to lift up your eyebrow, dodged away the darker hairs and blended with the healing brush.

4. "Fix the hair that is all over the place above/beside my eyebrow" Again, dodge away the darker hairs and clean it up with the Healing Brush, dodge and burn again if necessary.

5. "Remove the little hair sticking out on the black background along my eyes/eyebrow area.
One of my fingernails is chipped, going to fix that too." Both of these are easily fixed with the clone tool. As the background is black and has no pattern you don't have to be particularly careful either.

6. "Also, this one is more minor to me, but you'll notice my hair is lighter at the ends, I'm growing out many years of hair dying, but I wasn't sure of a good way to fix that.. Any tips?" Open a new layer, sample your natural hair color and with a low opacity brush and the layer's blend mode set to color, paint away. Stop when it looks natural.

Sincerely Syd

madclark · #11 02-23-2007, 12:04 PM

So here's my try.

This is going to sound harsh, but it seems like a number of the issues with the photograph are things you could have taken care of before the photograph was even taken. We all like to think Photoshop can work magic, and in some cases it can really do some amazing things, but I always say you can make a good photo great and a great photo outstanding, but you can't make an average photo outstanding (at least without a LOT of work). You really should have taken care of your eyebrows and applied a better foundation before taking the picture. Lip gloss and some clumpy eye lashes ain't gonna cut it except for the masochistic of us. I had a good 15 layers of corrections.

I can go into detail if anyone wants more of the specifics of what I did. Just let me know.

auroraskye · #12 02-23-2007, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by madclark

So here's my try.

This is going to sound harsh, but it seems like a number of the issues with the photograph are things you could have taken care of before the photograph was even taken. We all like to think Photoshop can work magic, and in some cases it can really do some amazing things, but I always say you can make a good photo great and a great photo outstanding, but you can't make an average photo outstanding (at least without a LOT of work). You really should have taken care of your eyebrows and applied a better foundation before taking the picture. Lip gloss and some clumpy eye lashes ain't gonna cut it except for the masochistic of us. I had a good 15 layers of corrections.

I can go into detail if anyone wants more of the specifics of what I did. Just let me know.

Yes, I know. I'm aware of that. Hence the remark about getting my eyebrows waxed. I wasn't wearing any foundation, which I should have. But a little late now. So, it's just something to keep in mind in the future. I also think that you did mean to sound harsh, as I could have given the same "constructive" criticism in a much more polite way. But I appreciate it, none the less.

madclark · #13 02-23-2007, 05:35 PM

I'm sorry about sounding mean. Please understand it wasn't directed at you and I'm really glad you're working on your skills and I try to be supportive in this environment because we're all learning and growing. It's my cranky attitude and I apologize. :-)

However, you'll find, as you take on retouching more and more seriously, it's definitely an issue you're going to face. You'll be frustrated in that you could have done so much more, so much simpler, if only the subject was styled better or the photographer took a better shot in the first place. You'll have people that expect miracles, and if you put enough time in you could make some magic, but it's not an efficient workflow if you're doing 90% of the work to get a shot to look a certain way.

That's all, just some wisdom from someone a little further down the road. Happy retouching!

SMURPHY405 · #14 02-23-2007, 07:16 PM

Thank you for letting me play (learn) with your photo.
Used liquify for eyebrows
Healing brush for skin
Blur with mask for powder
Curves to creat color and darken/highlight areas
Added eye lashes
Hope the "make up" colors are not too bad.

stosh7 · #15 02-24-2007, 08:38 PM

Fixed those minor imperfections and also gave you a slight nose straigtening.

For some reason I couldn't download the giganto image from your link ... this is from the thumbnail.

Stosh