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Help me with my portrait workflow
yoyoma
Registered Users Posts: 77 Big grins
Hey guys, I am relatively new here, and essentially everything I know about photography I've learned from the internet. That said, I'd like to painstakingly go through my normal portrait work flow and ask if there is anything I am doing wrong or technique I am missing out on. Here is my original (actually I did crop it a touch):
The first thing that I do after cropping is adjust levels. Then I go through and either clone stamp tool with about a 50% blend, or use the spot healing brush to remove blemishes, etc. I still get very mixed results between these two tools, it's rare that I only use one.
After that I tweak the color to my liking using curves, although I am still fairly clueless about how to do this systematically, and I can't seem to understand Lab color despite having read several tutorials.
I usually always do a hue and levels adjustment on another layer solely to get the irises looking just the way i like them (which is dark and rich, no matter the color), and often times tweak each eye separately because i find that in my originals the eyes never seem to 'match' like they should. Then i mask the irises through to the top layer. On this particular picture I darkened the pupils just a bit because they seemed hazy due to the lighting. I also detest seeing my own reflection, though I love seeing the umbrellas and stuff.
Sometimes I will use gaussian or lens blur on the whole image and then mask different parts of the face through so I can fake a short depth of field, though I didn't find it necessary on this photo. I am not sure which filter is best for faking this effect, but I am interested in anyone's thoughts.
After that I drop all my layers down so that I have two identical ones. On the top layer I run a median blur at around 30 pixels and drop opacity to 50%. Then I mask through the parts of the face that need to be sharp; this is eyes, eyebrows, lips, nose, ears, etc. I find this gives me really soft and smooth skin, but you can tell me based on my example.
Then I look at the whole image again and make any final tweaks. Here is my finished image:
I also made a black and white from this one. First I use the channel mixer to experiment with different filters until I find the look I like. On this one it was orange, I believe.
Next I create a new layer on top that is a jpg I have that is merely a high-res image I have of film grain, which looks like this:
Usually I have to free transform the grain layer to get the size of the grain where it works for the image. I set it's opacity to 50%, and turn the blend mode to 'overlay'. Here is the finished black and white:
Do you like the black and white better? Do you like the grain? I'd like to get better at black and white conversion to get richer textures and shine from th hair. Help me get better at this, I am passionate about it.
Thanks.
The first thing that I do after cropping is adjust levels. Then I go through and either clone stamp tool with about a 50% blend, or use the spot healing brush to remove blemishes, etc. I still get very mixed results between these two tools, it's rare that I only use one.
After that I tweak the color to my liking using curves, although I am still fairly clueless about how to do this systematically, and I can't seem to understand Lab color despite having read several tutorials.
I usually always do a hue and levels adjustment on another layer solely to get the irises looking just the way i like them (which is dark and rich, no matter the color), and often times tweak each eye separately because i find that in my originals the eyes never seem to 'match' like they should. Then i mask the irises through to the top layer. On this particular picture I darkened the pupils just a bit because they seemed hazy due to the lighting. I also detest seeing my own reflection, though I love seeing the umbrellas and stuff.
Sometimes I will use gaussian or lens blur on the whole image and then mask different parts of the face through so I can fake a short depth of field, though I didn't find it necessary on this photo. I am not sure which filter is best for faking this effect, but I am interested in anyone's thoughts.
After that I drop all my layers down so that I have two identical ones. On the top layer I run a median blur at around 30 pixels and drop opacity to 50%. Then I mask through the parts of the face that need to be sharp; this is eyes, eyebrows, lips, nose, ears, etc. I find this gives me really soft and smooth skin, but you can tell me based on my example.
Then I look at the whole image again and make any final tweaks. Here is my finished image:
I also made a black and white from this one. First I use the channel mixer to experiment with different filters until I find the look I like. On this one it was orange, I believe.
Next I create a new layer on top that is a jpg I have that is merely a high-res image I have of film grain, which looks like this:
Usually I have to free transform the grain layer to get the size of the grain where it works for the image. I set it's opacity to 50%, and turn the blend mode to 'overlay'. Here is the finished black and white:
Do you like the black and white better? Do you like the grain? I'd like to get better at black and white conversion to get richer textures and shine from th hair. Help me get better at this, I am passionate about it.
Thanks.
0
Comments
I don't see a B/W version.
This is THE book on the subject you raise, if you buy it and read it and do the examples you will learn a TON and save yourself months in self-training.
Photoshop Restoration & Retouching (2nd Edition)
by Katrin Eismann, Doug Nelson
http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Restoration-Retouching-2nd-VOICES/dp/0735713502
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=22524
In the black and white in the OP, I would make use of shadow/highlight type tecnniques - to lighten the shadows and darken the highlights (done in full colour before converting to gray). The sheet to the lower left is too distracting for me personally and even though increased contrast in black and white is common, I don't like detail in hair disappearing. One does not have to go this far in lightening the hair or bringing out detail, but you should get the idea from the quick sample attached. The whites of the eyes and the earings can then be made a lilttle lighter, to draw foucus there instead of the sheet. I also added a little contrast in the midtones, as similar to the shadows this will likely be lacking in print and look flat when compared to the monitor.
Sample attached, original left side/edited right side.
Hope this helps,
Stephen Marsh
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
http://prepression.blogspot.com/
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
http://prepression.blogspot.com/