Get the Goods: Photoshop Portrait Makeover Tutorials, Whitening Teeth and Eyes

Last week, Digital Photography School released some sorely sought after Photoshop tutorials to help portrait photographers makeover their subjects. I wanted to personally thank DPS forum member Yanik (image-y) for putting together these amazing series that will be exceptional additions to our post-processing workflows.

I often use plug-ins such as Portraiture to quickly do "glamour makeovers." But a little bit of these type of programs goes a long way -- sometimes too far, I think, leaving the subject looking over-processed and plastic unless you tone the opacity down on your glamour duplicate layer. Learning to do piecemeal techniques such as whitening teeth and eyes, removing pimples and wrinkles, creating makeup and changing eye color might take longer. But I think it could ultimately give you more control in your editing to create realistic makeovers that retain a client's natural beauty without making them look overdone. I can't wait to try these out. If you haven't joined the Digital Photography School forum and receive their update emails, this is definitely a great reason to do so because the school helps you stay on top of new technology and techniques that can make you a better photographer.

Part 1: Whitening Teeth & Eyes


New ideas I culled from this video:
1) use desaturation to tone back yellow teeth or red eyes
2) keep your selection feathered with at least a 1 pixel so your edges won't be hard
3) keep things natural by using a soft touch in your editing.
4) learn how to do both the "lazy" and "more precise" methods so you can use both depending on how much time you have to edit.

If you know of any other ways to do these techniques, please leave a comment here to "share your wisdom" as Yanik suggests. I will present each of these tutorials throughout the week, so make sure to come back!