Hey guys
I did a basic skin retouching tutorial via screen capture for Kate (Disconnectyourbrain)
Download here from my Skydrive account:
https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=08feba089e6416b0&page=play&resid=8FEBA089E6416B0!122It's a ~15 minute mp4 (1280x720) video where I spot heal, smooth skin, dodge/burn (the right way) and do a little cosmetic surgery.
Here are the before and afters:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b252/mustangnicko/IMGP3972.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b252/mustangnicko/IMGP3972_finished.jpg
I wasn't able to record sound as I have nothing to record with but I made some rough notes of what I did and why (below) I go back and forth adjusting things slightly but I think it's pretty easy to follow.
Skin Colour/Smoothing- To start off I maximise the window theni pressed F to go into fullscreen mode.
- Control + L for levels adjustment, I held ALT while moving the right slider to see if the highlights were clipping
- I dragged the middle pointer down a few points to drop the midtones
- Control + B for colour balance and added one point red and one point yellow to give her skin a little more warmth (subtle)
- Zooming in (Space+Control+Left click to zoom in, Space+Alt+Left click to zoom out)
- Then used spot healing (zero hardness) and stamp visible to clean spots on face/chest/arms
- Created a new layer in the layers palette and set the blend mode to lighten (this means whatever i paint on, it will only lighten values on the image higher to what I have on my colour swatch, anything lighter it wont touch)
- Paint brush, hold alt for eyedropper on the image and click a part of the skin get a skin tone which is a nice warm and pink value (I already had one preset)
- Drop opacity to like ~10%, 0% hardness, ~25% flow
- Paint over parts that need some smoothing (I click on and off every now and then to show what the layer does)
- I merge all layers (my shortcut is Alt+Control+Shift+Z)
- Channels next to layers and grab red and drag onto the selection button. This selects red values via channels which is basically skin colour
- I get the lasso tool and put the radius to like 80 or so, this depends on file size, if it's high res, around 150-200 is better as it will feather out better and wont be a rigid selection.
- Then i add selections of skin by holding control and clicking (brings up a little + symbol) and dragging into the areas to make the selection of skin larger around arms and face
- When I'm happy with the area selected I make the selection into a new layer by pressing (for me) Control + L (new layer in Layer menu) which will load selection into a transparent layer above background
- Then I go to filter>Gaussian blur and add 5ish pixels of blur this depends on file size and how close the subject is. Larger resolution and close up shots will require more blur.
- Select eraser tool and around the parts that need definition ill slowly brush back with 40ish percent opacity (flow is always Low and hardness generally always 0)
- Then ill go 100% opacity around other areas
- I then reduce the overall layer opacity until it looks a little more natural. This depends on file size aswell.
- When I'm happy I add noise (filter>noise) I use monochromatic and Gaussian.
- 0.07 is enough because its a small file, this brings texture back to the skin. Resolution/close up determines noise amount. Choose what's natural looking.
Surgery- I noticed because of the angle (close and wide) her forehead seems quite large so I decided to drop her hairline.
- Now i make a 0 pixel selection with lasso of her hairline, do Control+C to copy, then make a new layer in the layers palette and hit Control+V
- Selected the move tool and dragged the layer down
- Control+T to Free Transform and move it and alter it into place. Use the corners to change size and rotate.
- Eraser tool now to gradually brush places back and blend it in (changing opacity of the tool to make a smoother transition)
Final touches and Dodging and Burning (the proper way)- Duplicate the background by dragging background into new layer and do some spot healing (I duplicate so it's easy to go back if I stuff up)
- Make a new layer, change blend mode to overlay, fill with 50% gray (Control+Z for me but it's in Edit>fill)
- Select brush tool, use a ~5% opacity brush for dodge or burn (low flow, 0 hardness)
- Change foreground to black to darken the layer and white to lighten the layer
- Here i did under her chin and cheek bone (this has given more definition) I also burn eyebrows and dodge white in eyes These are very gradual changes and shouldn't be done heavily in one go. Nice and slow. Remember black = darker, white = lighter.
- Like earlier, merge visible, create new layer, change to lighten blend mode, pick a skin colour, then brush under eyes lightly with paint brush
- Lasso tool + 10 pixel radius and selected lips roughly. Then Control+U for hue/saturation and adjusted red to make lips brighter.
- Control L for levels and brought up highlights and dropped midtones for some contrast in the skin
- I noticed a blue/cyan cast in her dress and the background so I did another hue/saturation adjustment (Control+U) and selected Cyan and Blue and dragged them both down.
Hope this wasn't too confusing and I really hoped it helped!
If I had a high res version I would go into way more detail in the retouching and I would Dodge and Burn her whole face instead of a Gaussian blur but it works well.
Thanks