Even a professional photographer is not always able to take the perfect shot without flaws. In order to get a good photo, you need not only special skills in working with equipment and talent, but also experience in using various programs for processing photo materials. The environment, background features and the appearance of the model are rarely ideal, because the photo is usually retouched in a photo editor.
There are many such programs that have a different set of functions: from ordinary color grading to a complete set of tools that allow professional photo processing. The most popular of them is considered Adobe Photoshop, in which retouching is available even to novice users and usually does not cause much difficulty. Thanks to a wide selection of various filters and tools that are easy to learn, even a novice photographer can easily get a high-quality image without spending a lot of time and effort on it.
How to get ready for work in Adobe Photoshop
What is a retouch in the program and where to start it? Retouching means improvement, correction of imperfections and image correction. Before you start processing the photo in any photo editor, it is very advisable to make a copy of it. To facilitate the process, you can make a copy of the layer and hide it, so that if an error is made, restore the original image or compare the original and final result in the process. Retouching a photo will be easier if you enlarge the image several times - this will make small frame defects noticeable, after which the picture will look better. The easiest way to do this is by using the Alt and + keys. You can reduce the photo with Alt and “-”.
What are the “actions” for in Adobe Photoshop?
Retouching lessons and training courses in Adobe Photoshop are widespread and accessible. What is retouching with action? There are many free classes and videos that allow you to step by step to master the program, starting from the basics and gradually moving towards mastering professional skills. The existence of so-called “actions” or recorded actions in Adobe Photoshop makes photo processing much easier, allowing you to do more work for a certain period of time without manually repeating the same operations. They help to create various effects, resize photos, their color characteristics and other parameters. You can create "actions" yourself or download ready-made ones on the Internet and install them in the program.
Retouch Features in Adobe Photoshop
Novice photographers often have to hear requests from their clients to correct appearance flaws. The face of the model most often becomes the object of retouching. In order to remove minor skin defects such as inflammation, traces of acne or scars, two tools are most often used: a stamp and a patch. In the first case, when you hover over the sample and hold down the Alt key, a portion of the photo is captured, which can then be transferred to the problem area and overlapped. When using the “patch”, the cursor selects the area in the photo whose retouching is to be done, and then, holding the right mouse button, drag the area to the place where there are no defects. In the second case, it is possible to make the correction more carefully, since the edges of the area are slightly blurred and look more natural than when using the "stamp".
Retouch with blur
Face and body retouching lessons are of interest to many, as this is one of the most sought-after elements of professional photo processing. Sometimes skin imperfections are difficult to remove using only a “stamp” or “patch”. If you need to subject large areas to processing, sometimes it is better to use a different method: highlight problem areas with transfer to a new layer and blur them using a special filter.
How to use blur
Usually a forehead, chin, cheeks are distinguished, they grip the nose a little and with the help of “Gaussian blur” choose the optimal radius and admire the result. Sometimes the blurring turns out to be too strong - then you can cancel the action and use the filter again, setting other settings. The effect of retouching is immediately noticeable. This method allows you to get clean, radiant facial skin, but you shouldn’t be too zealous using blur, the face may become too smooth and look unnatural. The retouching effect should not be too noticeable. Sometimes it’s better to keep small skin imperfections so that the face looks natural.
“Spot repair brush” is an easy way to eliminate minor defects
Using the Spot Repair Brush tool allows you to quickly hide minor imperfections in your appearance, such as pimples or wrinkles. Simply select the appropriate icon on the toolbar and click on the area that you want to adjust. But this method has its limitations: it can not be used in dark areas, near the eyebrows or along the hairline. The size of the brush is desirable to choose the appropriate area that needs to be adjusted. To understand what retouching is with the help of a “restoring brush” and how to use it in the usual way is quite simple.
But this tool has several additional parameters that significantly increase the scope of its application. There are different blending modes that allow you to lighten or darken, change the color and brightness of the selected area. Replace is a special tool that is convenient to use when working with soft brushes. It allows you to partially preserve detail at the border.
Frequency Decomposition Method
What is frequency decomposition retouching? This is an image processing method in which a photograph is decomposed into 2-3 frequencies. The tone and structure of the skin are divided into separate layers, as a result of which the skin structure is preserved and looks natural. For processing, you can record an “action”, then use it by retouching similar portraits. First you need to create two duplicates of the layer - the top one is called “texture”, and the middle one is called “tone”. At the first stage, the top layer is turned off, and the layer with a tone is washed out with a filter until all skin imperfections disappear. It’s usually enough to use a size of 20 pixels. Then, moving to the layer with the texture and making it visible, you need to select "Image" in the menu, and then - "External channel". In the layers drop-down menu, “Tone” is selected, and in the blending modes - “Subtraction”, the scale must be set to 2, the shift - 128. Now you need to click “OK”, and in the window with layers select the blending mode “Linear light”. Layers “Texture” and “Tone” need to be combined into a group. To do this, just use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + G. After that, you can work on the “Tone” layer, aligning the skin color with the help of the “restoring brush”. The skin structure will not change.
There are other ways to retouch photos in Adobe Photoshop. They are easy enough to learn from online lessons and using various guides.