Digital Face Lift

anonymouscuban

So last night, I heard back from one of the couples I shot on Saturday... they hated the photos. Just kidding. They loved them so I'm stoked right now. As I mentioned in my other post, he was quite a challenge to photograph.

I was surprised by the request I got though. HE wants me to heal out some of his wrinkles, his hearing aide and whiten his teeth in a couple of the shots. I was surprised because, as he put it when they came over for the photos... "Oh, this is her idea. I'm not really into pictures." :scratch I'm interpreting him wanting me to "fix him up" as a good sign.

Here is a before and after of one of the shots they specifically requested for me to heal a bit...

Before


After


I didn't go overboard on the wrinkles; just enough to make them less defined. Also whitened his teeth just a tad. Not as much whitening but more removing some yellowing he has in between the teeth. I tried several methods and what worked was to create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer with the yellow channel completely desaturated. I then applied an inverted mask to it and painted the teeth with a small soft brush so only the teeth had the desaturation effect. Lastly, I lowered the opacity down to about 40%. That step took me about 2 minutes and it seemed to do the trick but you tell me. :dunno Is there a better way to do this? :scratch

divamum

Go to http://www.thecoffeeshopblog.com/ and download "glamour glow". It's a free action for PS that does skin-smoothing and eye-defining in a manner very similar to your recipes. It also includes "eye brighten" which I've found ideal for slightly lightening teeth, too. I find that these actions are WAY too much used at full strength, but with a soft, low opacity brush and then dialling down the layer opacity, they can be wonderful timesavers - I use this particular action ALL the time as it's fast, adjustable, and reliable. Again, start with very light levels, especially the smoothing one (I usually apply it with a 10-20% brush, to give you some idea).

My VERY favorite skin-smoothing action is actually the one that comes with the TRA 1 set - it's excellent, and usually my final step (again, VERY low opacity).

For wrinkles like his, I would either patch on a separate layer then reduce opacity, and/or use the clone brush on "lighten" (low opacity) and/or possibly dodge/burn using Lee Varis's soft-light layer method. The former is quicker; the latter more accurate. I think you've done a nice job of them in the example above.

I know Zoomer and a couple of others like Portrait Professional - I will use it occasionally, but in general I prefer the results from my own cloning/patching and the actions above, which don't take me that much longer when all is said and done (with Port Pro I find myself spending ages tweaking the sliders, so there's no gain in speed at all).

anonymouscuban

Diva...

Thanks for the feedback. I have the TRA Actions and love them, although I never use the Pro Retouch action. I do use Portraiture but that doesn't really heal out large, defined wrinkles like these. It's more for general skin smoothing but it works great at what it does and very fast. You may want to check Portraiture out since I like it better than Portrait Pro.

As for the wrinkle work above, I used a duplicate layer and healing brush to remove the wrinkles all together. Then I adjust the opacity of the layer to reveal them again, but less pronounced. I think I left the opacity at about 40% or so. Again, I didn't want to go overboard since I think his wrinkles give him character. Without them, he looks like a different person. We'll see what he thinks.

divamum

I find the healing brush takes a little too much away for me - it "overblends", if you like. THat's why I tend to reach for the patch tool before the healing brush (although I do like to use the healing brush on small blemishes, pores etc).

So many different methods - whatever works is good!

Iirc Potraiture is super expensive - I think that's why I never tried it!

jiro

Alex, you can apply a desaturated layer on top of the background (original layer) and then use a mask to affect only the teeth area on the image. Dial in the result that you want by adjusting the opacity of the desaturated layer to whiten the teeth. Hope this helps.

For wrinkles, I use both the healing brush and the clone tool on a separate new layer and then like you I dial in the effect by adjusting the opacity to bring back the original layer to the adjustment. I think the technique here is to use a small brush so you are only affecting a small area to preserve the original skin texture.

zoomer

Looks good. Think you got the mix just right.
My way....clone tool the wrinkles at 20%, lighten, soft brush. Choose a like color spot that is smooth, couple clicks should do it.
Lasso selection on the teeth....go to saturation ....yellow....reduce the yellow.

No layers...

I never ever use Portrait Professional on a guy...never looks right. Guys I usually just leave as they are or very minor work as Alex has done here.

anonymouscuban

divamum wrote: »

I find the healing brush takes a little too much away for me - it "overblends", if you like. THat's why I tend to reach for the patch tool before the healing brush (although I do like to use the healing brush on small blemishes, pores etc).

So many different methods - whatever works is good!

Iirc Potraiture is super expensive - I think that's why I never tried it!

Diva... exactly, many ways to skin a cat. Portraiture was a bit 'spensive but I find I like the results best.

jiro wrote: »

Alex, you can apply a desaturated layer on top of the background (original layer) and then use a mask to affect only the teeth area on the image. Dial in the result that you want by adjusting the opacity of the desaturated layer to whiten the teeth. Hope this helps.

For wrinkles, I use both the healing brush and the clone tool on a separate new layer and then like you I dial in the effect by adjusting the opacity to bring back the original layer to the adjustment. I think the technique here is to use a small brush so you are only affecting a small area to preserve the original skin texture.

Jiro... that's exactly what I did as far as the desaturation layer goes. I guess I didn't splain that part correctly.

zoomer wrote: »

Looks good. Think you got the mix just right.
My way....clone tool the wrinkles at 20%, lighten, soft brush. Choose a like color spot that is smooth, couple clicks should do it.
Lasso selection on the teeth....go to saturation ....yellow....reduce the yellow.

No layers...

I never ever use Portrait Professional on a guy...never looks right. Guys I usually just leave as they are or very minor work as Alex has done here.

Agreed. Portraiture affects the entire image but the effect gets imported as a separate layer when you come back to PS. I add a mask and removed the effect from him since I also don't like the smooth skin look on men. We're supposed to be rugged right?