Portrait in Photoshop before and after. Lesson: Easy handling of a portrait in Adobe Photoshop. Red channel curve settings in ACR

Portrait is considered the most popular type of photography. Every novice photographer, sooner or later, will have to conduct a portrait photo session. In addition to the basics of photography, every self-respecting photographer should be able to process a picture, being able to deftly remove facial imperfections and imperfections made in the process of photography.

The work on processing a portrait includes three main stages:

1. Removing flaws. The flaws include all kinds of pimples, wrinkles, moles that can disfigure the face. This does not apply to mimic wrinkles, without which the face will turn into plastic, as well as moles, which give the face a certain charm and zest.

2. Lightening of eyes, teeth, make-up correction.

3. Retouching the skin. It will help to make the skin smooth and radiant, and the picture will become very attractive.

Beginning of work.

So you've uploaded your photo to Photoshop. Create a new layer with the model by pressing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + N. On the left side of the program there is a vertical toolbar, where you need to find and activate the Spot Healing Brush tool. Above the photo itself, a horizontal panel of settings for this tool will appear, on which you must put a checkmark in front of the "Sample from all layers" item. Set the tool settings as in the screenshot below.


For each skin defect there is 1 left-click. Change the brush size depending on the size of the defect. Do not try to make the skin too perfect, remove only the most prominent blemishes.

Now press the rather long keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E, which will merge the two layers into one and place it on top of the existing layers.


Now let's move on to working with teeth and eyes. To lighten the eyes and teeth, you will need the Brighten tool. By choosing this tool, you need to adjust it by setting the "Midtones" parameter in the "Range" column, and 20% in the "Exposure" column. Now brush over the iris and teeth. If, as a result, you got excessive lightening, then press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + F, which will reduce the lightening effect of the last action.


Try to match the brush size to the area to be treated, otherwise the image may be damaged. But if you went beyond the established boundaries, for example, you accidentally lightened your eyelids, it is easy to fix it with the Eraser. Use this tool and erase the highlights from the areas of the face.

When processing teeth, go over each tooth separately, but without painting over the smile with a brush, which will turn it into a solid "mono-tooth".

As a result, the smile will turn out to be attractive and snow-white, and the look will be clearer and brighter.

You can notice that in addition to the defects that we have already removed, red vessels are visible on the white of the eye, which noticeably spoil the whole impression of the overall picture. Use the Brush tool and turn on the Mask mode at the very bottom of the vertical toolbar.


Select the whites of the eye and by pressing the icon again, turn off the "Mask" mode. You may notice that it is not the proteins themselves that are highlighted, but the entire image, excluding them. Therefore, go to the "Image" menu and select the "Inversion" item, which will change the selected object exactly the opposite.


Now open the menu "Image" - "Adjustments" - "Hue / Saturation". Reduce the Saturation to -49 and increase the Brightness by 10-15. If you are satisfied with the results, click OK. If that's not enough, try lowering the Saturation and increasing the Brightness even more until you get the perfect result. Do not overuse these parameters, otherwise the eyes will become unnatural.


And finally, after all the flaws have been removed, you can proceed to the correction of skin color. In the photo we are using, the skin tone fades into redness and oversaturation. For correction, you need to open the menu "Image" - "Correction" - "Levels" and adjust the first channel "RGB", and then "Blue".




Now you need to even out the skin tone, because it differs significantly in different areas. To do this, create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) and use the Eyedropper tool to click on the area of ​​the skin that looks the most appropriate in your opinion. It is with this color that the entire surface of the skin will be covered.

Use the Brush tool, decrease its hardness and set the Intensity parameter to within 10%. Start painting over the surface of the skin, being careful not to go into the areas of the eyes, eyebrows and lips.


And the finishing touch will give the skin a smooth effect. Press Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E to merge the layers, and then go to Filter> Blur> Surface Blur. Adjust the values ​​so that the skin is smoother, but does not lose its texture, and the eyes remain clean and clear.




Ready!

Portrait is one of the most popular genres in photography. Anyone who starts to get involved in photography takes portraits.

But with the processing of these portraits it turns out worse. The percentage of well-processed portraits is very small, which cannot but be frustrating, given the number of photographers per capita in modern Russia.

In this post I will show you how to process portrait photography in Photoshop. To be more precise, I will tell you my method of processing.

Where to begin

The first thing to start with processing is the analysis of the photo and the development of a work plan. As a rule, when opening an image, the processor immediately looks at the face, eyes, skin imperfections and thus pays little attention to the overall picture.

Begin your analysis by looking at photography as a whole. To accustom yourself to this - reduce the photo with a zoom so that the details are not read and do not distract you.

What you need to pay attention to when studying the photo (the order does not matter):

• Is the image balanced in tonality and colors?
• How do the contours of the figure and clothing look?
• Are the proportions of the body preserved and is there deformation?
• Are the lighting and exposure correct?
• Is the image in focus correctly?
• Are there any defects in the background?

After that, you can conduct a detailed examination of the photo and identify the following questions for yourself:

• Do I need to remove dust from the photo?
• What skin and body imperfections need to be removed?
• Do I need makeup treatment?
• Do I need to correct the shape of the body.
• Do you need to correct lips and other facial features?

In principle, everyone should develop their own algorithm of work, I am currently adhering to the above.

Advice: Flip through magazines, study classics, and not only photos, but fine arts in general. This will contribute to your overall development as a photographer and retoucher.

Treatment

Let's analyze it and decide how we want to handle it.

First question- what do I want from this photo and how do I want to see it? In this case, you need to show a gentle girl with a flower. The main work was done on the set. I will make the skin smoother, more delicious in contrast to the picture. We turn specifically to the analysis of the photo.

For details:

• The face is clean, there are almost no defects. It is necessary to remove moles and slightly smooth the skin while maintaining the texture. Remove wrinkles above the left eye.
• The eyes are very red. Remove redness and wreaths.
• Facial features do not need to be edited.
• Slightly reshape the hair above the head.
• Saturate the color of your lipstick

Step-by-step processing

Any processing begins with the fact that I duplicate the main layer and hide it. This gives me the ability to undo any change, even if it is no longer available in the History panel, this time. I can always hide the changes, look at the original and see if I did anything worse than it was, these are two.

note- it is very important to make a new layer after each processing step. And leave the previous one as insurance. For example, if you blur the skin and start working on, then with any error you will not be able to return to the original, because the original contains an image with unprocessed skin.

Thus, you always have 2 layers - the original photo and the last processing option to which you can roll back. If you think this is superfluous, then you can delete the original and just have the last option in which you are sure.

First step- we remove all skin defects, moles and wrinkles. This is done with the Healing Brush tool, and the Clone Stamp (but there should be a brush with an opacity of 20-30%) and forward.

Advice: When you read lessons, watch a video or sit at a master class - do not get tired of the numbers that are used in the settings. Try to understand what values ​​are needed for what and experiment on your images.

It remains to process the eyes. To do this, take a Clone Stamp with an opaque brush, increase the image to 300% and carefully remove the wreaths. The eyes remain a little darkish, but we'll fix that in the next steps.

Next, I want to fix the hair, reshape and remove the strand that stands out. This is best done with the Liquify tool, it's in the Me Filter. In order not to load the entire photo into Liquify, we need to select the area that we need to process.

Leather processing.

Now we are ready to make the model's skin look more glamorous and even. To do this, you need to do the following:

• • A copy of the layer, this will be our main layer, which will not be touched.
  • Apply Gaussian Blur to a new layer, with such a radius that the edges of the dark and light areas are blurred. In my case, this is approximately 20 pixels.

• • Duplicate the blurred layer, we get two blurred layers on top of the normal one.
  • The first layer is set to Blending Mode Darken, Opacity 50%, the second Lighten and Opacity about 60. The higher the opacity of the Lighten layer, the more the skin will glow as a result.
  • Copy the normal layer and merge both blurred layers with this copy. This leaves one normal layer and one blister layer.

• • Now we need to add noise, which will be analogous to the skin texture. Create a new layer through the menu Layer -> New -> Layer .. select the Overlay blending mode and check the box below to fill the layer with 50% gray. We get a new layer that does not affect the picture.
  • Filter menu -> Noise -> Add noise, the value is such that the skin becomes a little rough, in my case it is 1.2% and the checkbox so that the noise is monochrome. Merge this layer with the blair one. And in order to slightly nip the noise - we do Gaussian Blur again with a very small value, I have it 0.3

• • The most interesting thing is to hold down alt and click on the key to add a mask to the blurred layer. We get a black mask. On which we already draw with a translucent brush all those places where the skin is contained, so that only the skin is projected from the blair layer. This must be done very carefully.

Nraitsa .. But you can make it even more interesting. For example add volume using Photoshop. As you can imagine, volume is just a light-shadow. To give the photo additional volume, you can create a new layer and work on it with the Dodge and Burn tools, we wrote about them in the article Effective photo processing in Photoshop. Now I will tell you about one more method.

Draw volume and work with light and shadow.

Working with Dodge and Burn is not convenient because you paint both highlights and shadows on the same layer. To separate the light and shadow into layers, do the following.

Duplicate the main layer two times. Assign a black mask to each layer. One layer with Multiply blending mode, the second one with Screen blending mode.

Without going into details, Multiply darkens the entire image and Screen lightens it. Drawing with a semi-transparent brush on the Screen layer, we lighten the necessary areas, and darken it with Multiply. This can be done not only to create volume, but also for any correction of highlights and shadows.

To increase the volume, we will lighten the highlights and darken the dark. In our case, we will lighten the prominent areas of the face - the forehead and cheekbones, and darken the lips and cheeks. I painted a little more through the hair to lighten the roots and darken the highlights.

It is difficult to notice changes in such a photo, but believe me, they are also very significant.

It remains only to add sharpness and contrast. There are a lot of ways, in this case I use the High Pass filter

• • But everything is not enough for me, I added an adjustment layer with Curves on top, made it an S-shaped curve, with strong enough values ​​and reduced the opacity. But the curves change the color of the picture, make them more saturated, or, in simple terms, overcooked. To avoid this use the Luminosity blend mode. This mode carries only information about the brightness of the pixel, without affecting the color.

• As a result, we get such a card

And the final touch is to duplicate the layer, blend mode Overlay, black mask and paint with a brush through the hair to give it a little gold.

Let's see what happened in the end in layers.

Side-by-side comparison, you can click for a higher resolution.

And the result

Video

If you want to consolidate the material, I highly recommend watching the following video tutorials made specifically for this article. They explain everything in the most detailed way. You can choose a high resolution and enlarge the video to full screen to see all the details of the work.

Outcome

This processing takes about 20-30 minutes. Depending on customer requirements, automation using actions and other nuances.

Naturally, all of the above can be done in a variety of ways and I do not pretend that the option I proposed is the best.

We readily admit that with all our efforts and in this work, as in all human affairs, of course, there are many shortcomings; therefore we ask pious readers to cover these shortcomings with Christian love and to accept this work favorably.

In this tutorial, we will look at several techniques for creating a dramatic portrait in Adobe program Photoshop. The tool will be actively used here Mixer Brush(Mixing brush) as well as retouching technique Dodge and Burn(Dodge and Burn) to accentuate the main details and get a dramatic effect.

To complete this tutorial, you need the version Adobe PhotoshopCC, since it was in it that significant updates took place. We will be using an adjustment layer Color Lookup(Search for color), retouch the skin of the model, and also try out a new filter Camera Raw, which has become available since version CC... But one way or another, if you have a different version of the program installed, you will get a similar result.

The translation is based on the lesson posted on the YouTube video portal, so we will do everything to make it clear and easy for you to follow.

Step 1

First, you need to separate the model from the background. For this, the author used the tool Pen(Feather) (P), for more precise selection. After the model is completely selected, press the right mouse button and select Make Selection(Form selection). Radius (Feather) put the shading - 1 px... Then apply a layer mask to the selected model. If there are still some errors, you can remove them with a black brush on the layer mask.

To make the edges of the model look more neat, you can use the function Refine Edge(Refine Edge) with settings as in the screenshot.

Also, the author advises to pay attention to the remaining contour around the model. It can be darkened with Layer Style(Layer style) Inner Shadow(Inner Shadow) with the settings shown in the screenshot.

Name the model layer « Model».

Step 2

Now let's open the background image (Ctrl + O) , or just transfer the picture to the program. Blur the background with a filter Gaussian Blur(Gaussian blur). Blur the background in such a way that no details are visible. The author used a filter with a radius 106 .

Step 3

Let's start removing defects on the face. Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N). Name it fix. Let's apply it as Clipping Mask(Clipping Mask) to the model layer « Model» ... Also, you must check the box next to Sample all Layers(Sample from all layers).

Now, with the tool Healing Brush Tool(Spot Healing Brush), remove some blemishes on the face.

Next, let's create a new layer. (Ctrl + Shift + N) and let's call it soft... Apply it as a Clipping Mask to the layer. fix... With the help of a tool Mixer Brush(Mixing Brush) with the settings shown in the screenshot, smooth out the model's skin. Also, don't forget to check the box next to Sample all Layers(Sample from all layers).

The result you should get:

Step 4

Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N). Let's call it R... Let's use the tool again Pen(Feather) (P). In the settings, on the options panel at the top, instead of Path, put Shape. Thus, the new path will be automatically filled with fill. Create an outline around the right (away from us) lens on the glasses. For ease of selection, it is recommended to slightly reduce Fill(Fill), this layer, up to 64% .

Now let's start selecting the second lens. Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) and name it L. Also select the contour of the lens and slightly reduce Opacity(Opacity) of this layer, up to 64% . (Translator's note) For a closer acquaintance with the instrument Pen(Feather) (P) you can study this article https: //site/articles/tools_a/kak-rabotat-s-perom.html

Once everything is ready, go to the layer R and apply for it Layer Style(Layer style) Gradient Overlay(Gradient overlay) (or by double-clicking on the layer with the left mouse button) with the settings as in the screenshot.

Use a gradient from #2 f2368 To # ffffff. The result that should be:

Now let's just transfer Layer Style(Layer Style) (while holding down Alt) from the layer R per layer L.

This is how the model's glasses should turn out:

Create a group and move both layers there. Name the group « Glasses».

Now let's create an adjustment layer. Hue / Saturation(Hue / Saturation) and apply it as Clipping Mask(Clipping Mask) to the lens group.

Move the slider Hue(Hue) to the value -37 .

Step 5

Now we need to create a small shadow from the glasses. To do this, you need to create a new layer under the group. « Glasses» ... Name it « Glass Shadow» .

Next, with the key held down Ctrl, click on layer L... This will create a circular selection around the lens. Go to Select(Emphasis) - Modify(Modification) - Expand(Expand). Set the expansion radius 5 px... The selection will become wider. Next, go Select(Emphasis) - Inverse(Invert) (or right click on the selection and Select Inverse) (Alt + Ctrl + I). Now, with the tool Brush(Brush) (B) with Feather(Opacity) and Flow(Push) by 50% and low stiffness , Leave a small shadow around the outline of the frame, leaving a shadow behind the glasses.

Then, do the same for the right frame.

If you have any extra shadow marks, just remove them with the help of the tool Eraser(Eraser) (E).

If the shadow seems unrealistic to you, i.e. too dark, you can apply the filter Gaussian Blur(Gaussian blur).

Translator's note: to highlight the shadow, you can use any selection tool. The author used Rectangular Marquee Tool(rectangular selection) (M)).

Leave the blur radius in the area 3 px... Drag the final variation to the group « Glasses» .

So, the result of the actions performed:

Step 6

Gradient Fill(Gradient fill) on top of all layers. Make the gradient from white to transparent.

Note. author: The pink light hitting the model on the left is shown in a way that makes it easier to see. Also, for this layer the blending mode was used.Soft Light(Soft light). DowngradeOpacity (Opacity) this layer until you are satisfied with the result.

Subtract Opacity(Opacity) of this layer to 30% and change the blending mode to Soft Light(Soft light).

Step 7

Create a new adjustment layer Color Lookup(Search for color). In subsection 3D Lut File choose Edgy Amber 3 DL. Reduce Opacity(Opacity) of this layer up to 15%.

Step 8

Create a new adjustment layer Curves(Curves). Switch to the blue channel in this layer and tighten the bottom point to tint the image in the shadows and highlights, thereby adding a split toning effect, as in the screenshot.

And the top point.

The result you should get

Step 9

Create an adjustment layer again. Gradient Fill(Gradient fill) with color from f6dfb2 to transparent with the settings as in the screenshot.

Now move the gradient to the top left corner like in the screenshot:

Also, there is another alternative way.

So we have a portrait. And we are happy with everything in it, except for some imperfections on the face (moles, bruises under the eyes, an unsuccessful hairline that crosses the cheek, etc.) and some blurring along the contours. Not a big problem, actually. So, we need Photoshop CS and patience, because on the first try everything may not work out at once.

First, scale the image up to 100-150% and find the area we are going to work on. For example, the eye, under which we have small bruises (photo 0_1).

Select the Healing Brush Tool in the toolbar (photo 1) and set its values ​​(photo 2) Hardness 5-8%, Spacing 4-10% (depending on the intensity of the bruise or skin defect). Choose the diameter (brush size) according to the scale of the picture. It should be 3-5 times smaller than the size of the treated area. With the Alt key pressed, we find the place on the model's face that, in your opinion, should be the same with the area we want to get (usually this is the area just below the bruise itself or around the defect). Now, releasing Alt with a neat brush stroke, draw along the bottom edge of the area you want to get rid of. The main thing here is not to overdo it and not gloss over everything entirely in a fit of enthusiasm. We look at the result. If you did everything correctly, then the lower part of the damaged area began to correspond to the desired result by 50%, i.e. the border “acceptable” has shifted. We make the next stroke, then another ... and so on until we get rid of the bruise altogether. When rubbing these unwanted little things under the eyes, you do not need to get carried away and forget that there are no people without bruises at all. One way or another, we will always have a shadow under our eyes. So don't scrub everything - you will end up with a doll. Just make it a shadow from eyelashes and eyebrows, and not a print of sleepless nights or some other misfortune. The first time it will hardly work here, but in the process of mastering and daring experiments, it is easy to quickly learn to feel the power of your stroke and the desired diameter of the brush at one time or another.

By the way, for simpler procedures (removing a scar, pimple, mole) it is easier to use the Spot Healing Brush Tool (photo 3), located in the same menu. It is necessary to carefully select the point that you are correcting with this brush - everything else will be done by Photoshop itself, and based on the texture surrounding this very point.

Note that unlike using the Clone Stamp function, these brushes more accurately preserve the texture of the skin and convey its sharpness, while modifying and changing them with each other, so that the skin looks native and natural. This method is better suited when processing a portrait in Photoshop.

So, we made the "cosmetics", now everything suits us, only the sharpness along the contours is not enough. It would be more feasible to emphasize thick areas and a little less - areas of hairs, and in some places not at all. Easily.

Create a duplicate of the layer. Go to Filters - Other - High Pass (photo 4) and set the Radius (photo 5) from 1 to 2. It all depends on the number of lines in your picture and how much you want to sharpen the contours. In a portrait, this is usually 1.6.

Next, go to the layer blending mode and set the mode (photo 6) to Overlay or Soft Light for our gray outline layer. And it depends on how intensely you want to influence and on which areas; try one first, then the other and choose the one that you like best.

Now, if you want to make a certain area even less sharp or do not want to sharpen at all, then you can walk over the top layer with an eraser with a transparency value of 20-30% and control the intensity of sharpness in certain areas with your hands.

Well, everything is ready. We have a big, beautiful picture, the texture of the skin is in place, there are no bruises or flaws, the sharpness suits us, it remains only now to squeeze it in order to expose and show it somewhere, and at the same time leave all this sharpness and texture of ours.

The first and easiest way to do this right there is to resize to the size we need, make a sharp and enjoy the result. Unfortunately, in this case, in 80%, if we had a portrait that was not very close-up, that is, initially the texture of the skin was not visible very clearly, then the small size will be blurry plastic. And if we did software or glamor, then the small size can be safely called a barbie doll made of polished plastic and enjoy life.

And you can not be lazy and spend the extra three minutes on the correct compression.

So, zoom in to 1600% and find the eye area. Since we are working on a portrait, this is the most important part of our shot. Go to Filter - Sharpen - Unsharp Mask (photo 7) and set the values ​​(photo 8) Radius to 0.2 or 0.3 pixels, set Thereshold to zero. And now the main rule for your picture to be sharp enough at your 1600% zoom, the borders of the pixels must be clear and even. Pull the Amount float at 0.2 pixels near the Radius forward until the effect is achieved, and only if you do not have enough value for the required definition, change the radius to 0.3. Usually, after applying the Hight Pass filter, you don't even have to touch anything.

Now start resizing the picture correctly. The smaller the step for resizing (photo 9) you choose, the more clearly you will be able to control the process and influence the result. Typically 20% or 300 pixels wide steps are sufficient for adequate control. So, we reduced the picture by 20% and returned to the Unsharp Mask. Again we adjusted the sharpness until the pixel boundaries appeared (even, but not too high-contrast) at a scale of 1600 and resized again ... And so on until the desired size was reached.

Now compare the results.

Not only that, compared with the first reduction option, the picture did not lose its sharpness and texture, it also acquired in some cases the effect of a photo printed on glossy paper (the smaller the resize step, the more gloss you will get in the end result) ... By the way, this is also one of the only ways to preserve the texture of the noise in its original form when resizing from a large format (photo 0_2).

Go for it! All ingenious is simple.