Hollywood Movie Retouching
Photoshop 911 calls are numerous wanting to know how to remove blemishes from photos, give skin the fashion magazine look, or just how to get that certain glamorous fashion look. Well, when so many people wanted the same advice we went straight to the source -- The Glitter Guru! We forwarded Suzette's directions to all those readers, and now present the full piece complete with pictures...
Beauty Retouching
By Suzette Troche-Stapp a.k.a. the glitterguru
I take a slightly different approach to retouching beauty. People I have taught in the past have found it difficult to distinguish where to start with the clone tool when retouching someone's face.
Step 1:
I came up with a different way of seeing the imperfections, which should help you think differently about the process of retouching. It allows you to ignore color momentarily and concentrate on shading, similar to the old Hollywood black and white style of portrait retouching.
First open an image of a person, preferably female. Then choose windows --documents-- new window. You will now have two versions of the same file on screen.
Step 2:
Choose the document on the right.
Go to your channels palette and turn off the eyeball on the red and blue channels so that you are only viewing the green.
Most of the skin imperfections on light to medium colored skin will show up in this channel and you will be able to see these imperfections more clearly by just viewing the green channel on its own.
Step 3:
Create a new layer called "retouch".
Begin with a large clone stamp at around 20%-25% and begin to smooth the skin. Use the color version on the left to monitor your work as you go along, and to make sure you are getting the desired result.
I tend to be quite heavy at this point and really remove all texture.
Step 4:
Once I have a smooth even skin tone, then I close the b&w version and go to the retouching layer and reduce the opacity.
It really depends on the image but I average around 50% opacity. This allows some of the texture of the skin to come back through.
Here is the original file and the final "point-of purchase" created for the client.
Good Luck and glitter, glitter everywhere!
If you need more advice feel free to write me through the Design Center, or Photoshop 911
About the Author
Suzette Troche-Stapp is one of the most sought-after photographer/digital artists today -- named one of the "Top 40 Photoshop Experts" by Wacom Inc.; a "Guru Award" for excellence in Photoshop design by NAPP; dripping with to-die-for clients like Brooke Shields, Jenny McCarthy, Kathy Griffin, Warner Bros., MCI, Honda, AOL, Lollapalooza '97 and others.
If you have need for real fashion photography savvy, run, don't walk to the nearest bookseller and pick up "the glitterguru" -- you won't be sorry!
The Glitterguru on Photoshop: From Concept to Cool
by Suzette Troche-Stapp - buy now and save: $16.00 (40%)
And that wraps up another case study from the emergency calls at Photoshop 911 dot com. To see more case studies, and tips generated from Photoshop911 just go to our Tips & Tricks department.
Check out iDigital Emotion for yet another "smoothing" tutorial.
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