Reducing 5 o'clock shadows

[LDJones]

Anyone have any tips/tricks for removing/reducing a 5 o'clock shadow guys?

Thanks in advance.

[Duv]

Hi Loren

Here's something straight from the master, Katrin Eismann, Photoshop Restoration and Retouching.
Duplicate the background layer
Select Filter > Noise > Dust & Scratches and use a radius setting high enough to obliterate the beard.
Choose Edit > Define Pattern and name the new pattern.
Select Edit > Undo to undo the Dust & Scratches filter
Set the Healing Brush to Pattern and Aligned, and make sure that the correct pattern is selected. Reduce the duplicated layer's opacity to 50% and then brush over the man's beard.
Thanks Katrin! Loren, let me know how this works.

Cheers
Duv

[LDJones]

Thanks, Duv. I'll give it a try. Experiementing, I duplicated the layer, heavily applied the healing brush (which looked very "plasticky" when done), then reduced opacity. I then merged down, duplicated again and repeated, again taking down the opacity. The end result wasn't too bad. I'll see how it campares to the results of this method.

Thanks, again.

[Paris]

Hi,

Total newbie here, first post and all. Thanks for some great advice. Tried this method on a 5 o'clock shadow photo I have and it worked a treat.

Turned the same method on a very grainy image and achieved similar results. WOW!

Thanks

[Duv]

Hi Paris!!

Welcome aboard! Glad you got some good results. Get the book. Tons of good stuff in it. Also, if you have grainy images, download trial version of Neat Image and see what happens.

Cheers
Duv

[gho64]

Re: Reducing 5 o'clock shadows

Hi DUV,

I tried your detailed instruction on removing the 5 O'clock Shadow and it worked perfectly. It removed every hair but it also reduced the skin texture. Is there another step that will restore the skin texture???

Thank You for posting this great detailed information.

Have a great holiday season,
Hersul