[Hunch]

Anyone have any invaluable tips for retouching a model's face to perfect those little bits the make-up artist couldn't quite mask?

Someone has asked me to have a stab at it for a magazine cover, and it's not something I've done a lot of before. I'm tempted to go at it with the airbrush to just even out tones a bit, but I don't want to end up with something too fake or blurry.

I've had a look around on the 'net, but most of the so-called tutorials are written by bedroom designers who seem to believe they know what they're doing but produce hideous results.

I'm not interested in the clone, spot healing tool, or other tools Ps provides - I already know how to use them thanks. I'm more interested if anyone has an good tips or tricks of the trade that produce good results.

[Starbright]

When I retouch things like that, I always do it like this (or similar, depends on the pic):

I add a new layer. Use the normal brush tool with a low opacity (around 12 - 14%) and a low flow (around 30 - 40%). I then start patching over the skin using a 0% hardness brush.

A good thing to do is to press ALT while you're using the brush tool, that'll allow you to select the colour that you need to brush in.

Once I've done all that I usually lower the opacity of the layer.


Not sure how much help this'll be.


edit: Also just make sure you don't really go over any of the defining edges.

[Hunch]

Cheers - I think I'm going to just have to practice a bit. Good chance to dig out the Wacom for a change. Haven't used it in a while.

Edit: The things I'm most concerned about are the eyes and teeth.

[Starbright]

If you give up, feel free to send it over. I'm quite good even though my explanation is crap.

[Tom]

If you are willing to search around for 5 minutes, some great tips and tutorials to be found on here, the mother of all photography forums, nearly 200k members, many of which are semi or fully professional.

Picked up some great tricks on there.

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[Hunch]

Quality Tom - did a search, and the first one that came up was this

Retouching Breasts

[Tom]

Originally Posted by Hunch

Quality Tom - did a search, and the first one that came up was this

Retouching Breasts

Trust you to find that.

[RushNP774]

Originally Posted by Hunch

Anyone have any invaluable tips for retouching a model's face to perfect those little bits the make-up artist couldn't quite mask?

I have a post that rounded up some of the better post processing tutorials I could find. Check it out because it may help you.

I also made a post today about retouching eyes in Photoshop.

Hope those help!

[nudge]

this is what i do all day, feel free to pm me if you need a few more tips but just a few basics:

1. create a layer and make sure its a clipping mask.
--if you are using a pen tablet, go into your brush settings and click on "Other Settings" use the opacity jitter @ 0% and the control as pen pressure.
-- make sure "Airbrushing" & "Smoothing" are clicked along with 0% spacing
-- use a real low opacity like 20%-25%, and the same for flow. (this depends on personal preference and is something you can figure out from trial and error / exp.)
-- use 0% hardness, and a large brush to cover the entire area, this will give you good blending into the entire area. also, color pick from the skin tones so that you are using the actual images tones so they mesh better.
-- never retouch over adjustment layers, always retouch before colour correcting so you have the true images colours.


2. Create a copy of the image you are retouching & make a clipping mask.
-- gaussian blur it at 5%-10%
-- create a mask and fill it with 100% black
-- use your low flow airbrush with opacity settings on white to lightly paint back in the light blur over the skin.
-- adjust master opacity as needed.

[nudge]

as far as eyes & teeth go.

-create an new layer, change the blending mode to overlay.
-using an extremely low op./flow brush (i'd say 15% on both max) & your brush settings (opacity jitter on pen pressure, airbrush, smoothing, 0% hardness, etc) use white on the whites of the eyes & the colour part, use a fine black on the edge if you wish to give a very defined edge & black on the pupil to darken for contrast.
-use the same technique on the teeth, sans the black bit.

[sarajs]

Originally Posted by Hunch

Quality Tom - did a search, and the first one that came up was this

Retouching Breasts

"I'll just turn those on and off one more time" ... for the benifit of the viewer right?!

[w1sh]

YouTube has a lot of video lessons on retouching.

[Hunch]

Thanks nudge - I'm taking photos of the wife and practicing on her at the moment. Apart from occasional family portraits, I've just never really been asked to do this before. Time for the old dog to learn some new tricks.

I'm just a little concerned about this one, because it's an A4 head & shoulders shot of a politician, so if I fuck it up, it's not going to be good. The model in question is a youngish (early 30s) woman and the concept is specifically about the fact that she's attractive and doesn't fit the "old battleaxe" image of your typical political type, so they're really going to town on the glam.

If I really fuck it up, I'll just farm it out to a freelancer or agency, but it would be nice to be able to say I did this one. Magazine covers aren't a bad thing to have in the portfolio.

[nudge]

Originally Posted by Hunch

If I really fuck it up, I'll just farm it out to a freelancer or agency, but it would be nice to be able to say I did this one. Magazine covers aren't a bad thing to have in the portfolio.

I hope you don't fuck it up. retouching can be fun. But if it comes down to that feel free to pm me I can do it quick easy and dirt cheap.