Basic Portrait Retouching Step By Step

Hi All,
Mr. Farmer asked that maybe I could share some retouching, so I'll start with the basics (as I use them) and move up from there.  I'm a firm believer that Post Processing is vital in photography today.  It's expected.  Everyone wants to be like a magazine ad.

This example was taken from an engagement shoot I processed yesterday.  I'll break down the steps with before and after examples.  To start off, the before and after:

Before: White Balanced and Exposure corrected using Capture 1 Pro (But can also be done in a multitude of programs)


And After:


The very first thing I do it crop the image to the size the client has requested.  In this case a 20x24.  If no size is requested, as in a wedding shoot, I would crop to actual image size, if cropping needed to be done.
But that's not enough.  People have a tendency of not knowing their own body image.  Not only that, you want this to be the best photo ever taken of them.  All of a sudden, they are a lifetime client, and will promote you better than any ad ever could.
See below for breakdowns.

His skin had a slightly different but common problem......the shaving rash.  On guys I use the same steps as above, but much lighter on blur.  You want your guys rugged.

before:


and after:

The final thing I retouch, and the thing I believe makes the photos, is the eyes.

Studio Photographers are blessed with great light, but all my work is done on location.  Preferably I pray for an overcast day.  If not, I pose the person in a nice flat light.  I can paint light in later if need be.

The guy has a slightly smaller back eye.  I liquified it GENTLY by pulling up the eyebrow, thus raising the eye.  The liquify (also called the lipo tool) is located in your CS2 filters, and can really amp up your photos, but it has to be used with great discretion.

Before:


After:


As you will see in the above and below example, I had horrible catch lights from an attempt to blow out shadows.  The light appeared right in the middle of the pupil, and is a photography disaster.  I used a 100 percent shadow burn to get rid of the bad catchlight.
Step One
On a dupe layer (a reoccuring theme in my processing) I first enhance the eyecolor by a slight sat amp, and then a light dodge in the midtones. (5 percent or lower)
Step Two
Continuing on the same layer, I burn the outside of the Iris using a very small and soft airbrush, with tiny TINY inward strokes all the way around.
Using the same settings, I also slightly burn the eyelash line, create more eyelashes, and darken eyebrows if need be.
Step Three
Because I have removed the crappy flash catchlight, and have them sitting in flat light, I need to add the light back in.
Using the still open layer, I come in with dodge at 97 percent, and a tiny tiny brush, and create a small (pixel or so) catchlight just inside the pupil.  To do this correctly you have to see where the light is coming from.  If the light is coming from the left, this small dot, should be on the upper right of eyes at about the 1 o'clock area.
Step 4
On the same layer, paint a small dodged cresent  just cattycorner of the catchlight and close to the Pupil.  You want to do this at a MUCH lower opacity, such as 5 percent or less.
Step 5
Now, go back to your layers pallet and lower it to zero.  Slowly move the slider up just until you get a "kiss" of light in the eyes.  Stop and smash the layer.
Step 6
Using the dogde tool at 30 percent on a new dupe layer, and alternating with the clone tool at 40 percent, lighten the eyes.  Again adjust until it's realistic.
Smash layers.  The faces are done.

Before:


After:

Cindy, a  quick look shows me it is rather similar to my own processing an image. Wonderful stuff, but how do we tell people not to overdo it. Just recently I saw a prize winning image with an awful plastic skin and teeth that yelled from miles away: "I am supposed to be white!!!!!!!!!!!!!".

Leen

Thanks Cindy for sharing this step by step (along with the photos)!  I am a visual learner and your posts make it very easy to follow along.

Catherine Gardner
www.pbase.com/catherinegardner

In the UK there is a serie of books from Focus guide on several Retouch topics.
I thought it was not availbale anymore but there I found a new issue number 48.

It is published by Future publishing

http://www.futurenet.co.uk/futureonline/

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Excellent work.

The eyes though you did well, have not retained the natural colors, they have been changed. It's the blue that has disappeared.
Another way to "Pop" the eyes is by using Curves, it could be a process of two or three times. First by lighting, each time (command I for mac or Control I for p.c. then you use the brush tool to paint in the curves.

Anyway, nicely done.

i tried checking this out but i am visual person and none of the photos are showing up..they are all boxes with x's in them