Fixing flat looking faces

rutt

Here is another trick from Dan Margulis. This one is very different from the CMYK contract enhancement + cast removal usuallly associated from Dan.

Here is a portrait that came out underexposed and missing depth in the face:



and here it is after photoshop postprocessing:



Here is what I did.

1. Start in RGB
2. Make a duplicate layer
3. Apply image, green channel to RGB composite of duplicate layer, resulting in a black and white image.
4. Change blending option of duplicate layer to Luminosity.
5. Flatten image
6. Move to LAB
7. Curves, steepen A+B channels, move light endpoint of the L curve a touch toward darkness.
8. Sharpen the L channel.
9. Back to RGB, Done!

This is a lot of steps, but not actually hard. No backtracking. it just works.