Eyes correction

[skauskas]

Hi everybody.. yesterday I was retouching my friend portrait and had some problems with eyes.. particularly under eyes areas.. she has some non attractive dark areas with wrinkles.. what is the best way to correct these? I tried my best to correct it but still not satisfied with the result.. the skin under eyes looks like after plastic surgery

here is the link for raw file if somebody needs
http://rapidshare.com/files/121422063/IMG_1252.CR2.html
and here are before and after

[Dave.Cox]

The skin looks like plastic surgery, because you over did the look. You need to some of the shadows under the eyes to show the contours of the eyes. Try adding some of the shadows back in, or reducing the transparancy on your retouch in that area, so some of the original shadow can show through. It's best to reduce it, not delete it.

[skauskas]

Thank you for your adviсe Dave.Cox.. I forgot that I can reduce opacity in selected areas too not only for the whole picture
but what is the best tool to correct this kind of problems?

[Dave.Cox]

It really depends on your approach. One way you can reduce the opacity in just a selected area is: Add a layer mask to the area. Paint with black on the layer mask with a soft low opacity brush.

[skauskas]

I think you misunderstood me.. I wrote it unclearly
I didn't mean tools for reducing opacity.. I mean tools for correcting eyes dark circles, wrinkles etc.. is it healing or cloning or anything else? or all of them?

[SilvaFox]

I clone with a percentage. Say, 30%. Do it in a layer so if it's too much, you can reduce the opacity or brush some out with a layer mask.

Circles under eyes are like crows feet and smile lines. They make us who we are. It doesn't take much to look fake, or like someone else.

[skauskas]

Originally Posted by SilvaFox

I clone with a percentage. Say, 30%. Do it in a layer so if it's too much, you can reduce the opacity or brush some out with a layer mask.

Circles under eyes are like crows feet and smile lines. They make us who we are. It doesn't take much to look fake, or like someone else.

Thank you for advice.. I was trying cloning and patching in some areas.. but to reduce an opacity didn't come into my mind

[Steve Payne]

Retouching around the eyes often involves removing wrinkles and lightening the dark areas or bags under the eyes. But all too often I see people get way too heavy handed with their retouching and end up completely removing the natural bulge of the lower eyelid.

I see so many beauty/glamour retouch shots where people clone the skin right up underneath the eye, effectively removing any sign of there ever being an eyelid there.
This will often make the image look a little odd and leave you wondering if they can close their eyes or not.

[skauskas]

yeah I know.. but I'm doing it only for couple of months so it's kinda my first "normal" try))) I'll try to improve next time

[Wolfman]

You could use the clone stamp on lighten mode and about 15% opacity with a 75% hardness and go over the area until you have reduced it to your liking on a layer of course.

Or use the D&B method on a 50% gray soft light layer.

[crazyfly1]

Definatly the quickest and easiest and many say the best is to use the patch tool on a dup layer set to lighten.
This one is set to 62% opacity.

[skauskas]

Originally Posted by crazyfly1

Definatly the quickest and easiest and many say the best is to use the patch tool on a dup layer set to lighten.
This one is set to 62% opacity.

I love the patch tool the most.. and not only for eyes
Today will try another portrait with lower opacity

[sabine_monica]

Here is my retouch of the picture

Skin correction ( incl. the area under the eyes)
-copy of background layer
highpass/blur, layer set to linear light, set to a low opacity
- healing tool
- then D/B

[Rayman006]

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