Get the Job Done: Creative Post Processing with Photoshop

I recently posted about getting more adventurous in my photo post processing now that I've got several Photoshop classes under my belt. Here is the final composite of the family portrait shot I took of the Newell Family at the South Platte River in Denver. I want to thank Armando Martinez, owner of the Mando-Matic retouching studio, for walking me through the steps to correct some issues I had with the original image, including a distracting background element (a bridge) and faces turned the wrong direction when I pushed the shutter.



Here is the BEFORE, RAW unprocessed image. After I carefully posed the family on the rocks near the river, Tristan got distracted and turned his head:


Here is the MID-AFTER processed shot where I copied a portion of Tristan's face from another photo looking straight ahead at me and placed it on top of the other image. This shot also includes some normal curve adjustments and portrait glamour work to even out the skin tones, brighten eyes and whiten teeth.



I carefully selected a portion of Tristan's face that included his eyes, his noise, lips and rosy cheeks, feathering the selection so the edges would blend in seamlessly and copied it. Then I dragged that selection onto the other original photo, which automatically created a new layer.

As it turned out, the new image of Tristan's face was much larger than the original, so I had to use the Free Transform mode (under "Edit") to reshape the face and fit it smoothly over the original. I combined the layers and healed the edges of the new selected face to make sure it blended with the existing head. I also replaced the bridge in the upper left hand frame with more autumn leaves.



As I thought, I still wasn't done with the image. I needed to get rid of that bridge and the more I looked at Liam's face, the more I realized that I wanted his eyes looking at me. I used the same steps to replace Liam's face. I "pulled down" Tristan's pants, so to speak using the clone and heal tool. Then I used some of the techniques I learned during Armando's Photoshop 2 class to blend aspects of images using quick mask selections and the darken mode.

Armando allowed me to use this image he took of a blue sky with puffy clouds:


1) In a new layer, I selected the background behind the family with a quick mask. I tried using the magic wand at first, but it was too difficult to select around hair. Using the brush in the quick mask mode gives you more control. I used the clone tool to copy portions of the sky into my image. Then I used the "darken mode" on the entire layer to help the sky blend in more.

2) To keep the sky in perspective to distance from the subjects, I used guassian blur to fade the sky a little bit, making it appear further away from the subjects.

I am glad I put so much effort into this image because as it turns out that is the one they want for their holiday cards! :)
To learn more about how to use Photoshop to enhance your pictures, take a class with Armando at Illuminate Workshops.

In My Library: Takegreatpictures.com Newsletter

Copyright © Image by Tim Grey

Last week's issue of my takegreatpictures.com newsletter had a great article from digital photography guru Tim Grey sharing step-by-step instructions for adding a dreamy infrared effect to a regular photograph.

Infrared is a hot look right now in digital imagery, but this article proved that you don't need costly software to achieve the effect. Some simple steps in Photoshop will simulate it equally well using adjustment layers and channels. I have yet to truly venture into Lightroom as I'm still having so much fun learning insider Photoshop tricks just like these. Try using this technique on greenery and other foliage in some of your landscape photography.

Copyright © Image by Tim Grey

If Photoshop isn't your bag, try using an IR filter such as a HOYA R72, which was used to capture this image from discoversomething.com.



Copyright © Image by discoversomething.com

Get more inspiration from checking out this gallery, "The Beauty of Infrared," by J. Andrzej Wrotniak. It was fun for me as a portrait photographer to learn from Wrotniak that the technique can also be used when shooting people, transforming skin into blemish-free porcelain.

Copyright © J. Andrzej Wrotniak

Get the Goods: Photoshop Portrait Makeover -- Digital Makeup

Here is the third and final part of the portrait makeover tutorial videos crafted by Digital Photography School forum member Yanik (image-y). Thank you again Yanik for sharing your knowledge.

I was looking forward learning how to use Photoshop to add eyeshadow, blush and lipstick to portrait subjects. Some of my clients cannot afford to upgrade their packages to include a personal session with a make-up artist before the shoot. So it will be good to know that I can add a little more life and color to their portraits myself if necessary without overdoing it.

Important tips from this lesson include:
1) always working on a duplicate layer
2) keep your brushes soft with a 0 hardness
3) use dodge or burn to add contrast
4) lower opacity on your layers to keep the adjustments soft and natural

As usual, Yanik explains there are many different ways to do the same action in Photoshop, so if you have any other great techniques that you use during your editing process, please share them here in the comments section. And if you need some more ideas, YouTube has plenty of similar tutorials that can help you.

Get the Goods: Photoshop Portrait Makeover Tutorial -- Removing Pimples and Reducing Wrinkles

Yesterday, Digital Photography School forum member Yanik (image-y) introduced us to Part 1 of his Photoshop Portrait Makeover tutorial dealing with whitening teeth and eyes.

Part II teaches us how to remove pimples and diminish wrinkles. Yanik explains why he chooses to "lessen" rather than "remove" wrinkles because he wants to make sure his subject's remain realistic and not overprocessed.

Here is a summary of the basic steps in the tutorial:

1) Duplicate Layer -- to avoid making adjustments to the original image
2) Use spot or regular healing, remembering to use a small brush to remove blemishes
3) Flatten image and then duplicate layer again. This was a new step for me. Usually I just keep adding duplicate layers, but I think flattening one step will save me a lot of effort later when I need to change opacity or use some other type of blending mode to adjust a specific layer without affecting the entire image
4) Lower the opacity of the layer to 50 percent to bring back some of the wrinkles.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's post about using Photoshop to add makeup to a subject's face, including eyeshadow and lipstick, as this is a technique I've never tried before.

Get the Goods: Photographer Reveals Photoshop Secrets

While trolling on Blogrush's "Blogosphere" updates, I happened upon this wonderful blog by Amy-Rose King Photography that I couldn't wait to share. It's rare when you can find a professional who is willing to share intimate details about how they achieve photographic glory. King's secrets revealed blog is a special gift for all newbie photographers like myself. Her transparency is refreshing, infinitely helpful and gives me hope that the photographic techniques that continue to amaze me are well within my reach.

Here is an example of the jewels inside King's blog:

"Photoshopping EYES:
My favorite secret that photographers hate to tell!
Take the above image you are working on (if it is a portrait and you like the color) and compress it using ctl+shift+E. Now ctl+J to copy the layer once.
Go up to the Filters and scroll down to Sharpen. Go to smart sharpen and click. Increase the slider to your desired level looking only at the eyes on the portrait. Once they appear bright click OK. Now you need to cover this layer with a mask by pressing alt+the mask button (next to the adjustment layer button ... at the bottom of the layers box). This should cover the layer with a black mask making the visibility of the sharpen gone. Now go to your brushes and click. Adjust the size of your brush and zoom into your picture around the eyes. Color with white on the adjustment layer and you should start seeing the sharpened eyes come through. Only do this to the iris of the eyes as it will look funny around the rest of it by possibly adding noise to your picture... just color within the lines! Or it can make the eye look red too if you stray into the white of the eye. When you have it like you like it you're done with this! The eyes should be brighter already. If you don't think they're quite sharp enough press ctl+J and see if that looks better. Adjust the opacity of this layer if too much."

Now for a romantic blur...
Compress this layer when you have it like you like it by pressing ctl+shift+E again. Now ctl+J to copy it.
Go to the top and select filters and go down to blur and then choose gaussian blur. Increase the strength until you have a nice blur, but not too terribly much. Click ok. Now decrease the opacity of that layer to about 30%. This should give it that romantic blur seen in the old movies. I like to bring out some of the sharpness now of the layer underneath. We're going to do the same method as before by except we're going to cover this layer with white and paint with black. To do this hit the mask button by itself (the circle within a rectangle at the bottom of the layers box next to the adjustment layer button). Now get your brush and paint with black over the eyes, lips, fingers, etc. However you like it. Play with it and see what you think."

She also includes valuable information about using adjustment layers and masks to do selective and global edits, something I am only recently learning and practicing myself after attending a Photoshop class with Armando Martinez of Illuminate Workshops.

Check out before and afters of King's images:

BEFORE



AFTER