Despite the fact that the concept of "Photoshop" sometimesuse with a touch of negative meaning (unnatural, artificial, embellished, strained, etc.), face retouching remains one of the most popular topics related to image processing.
Искусством компьютерного макияжа занимаются many programs, but the "Photoshop" image editor has, perhaps, the most extensive arsenal of retouching tools that not only can correct the skin flaws with a few clicks, but also turn a not very attractive person into a handsome man (which many glossy magazines are engaged in).
It will be like an amateur level of correctionphotos with the use of destructive tools or methods, as well as a professional technique when the face retouching in Photoshop is performed filigree - absolutely without disturbing the structure of the layers and, accordingly, the texture and texture of the skin.
How can I correct a person's shortcomings with the help of Photoshop's retouching tools?
Tools that are used for retouchingphotographs, are provided mainly to eliminate all kinds of defects and artifacts. If it comes to the skin, it can be moles, acne, wrinkles, scars, swelling under the eyes, bright glare or sharp shadows, pores, pimples and other troubles. Let's give a brief information about what the tools described below can do while performing face skin retouching.
- Stamp tool (ClonestampTool).Clones the skin with a sample fragment, which is selected on the face by clicking the left mouse button along with the Alt key, closely watching the cross that moves parallel with the main cursor, indicating where the sample is coming from at the moment.
- "Pattern stamp" (patternstamp) does not clone, butdraws with textures, and if you add the necessary texture to the standard set, the stamp will draw it, but it will not be a retouch, but rather a virtual “skin graft”.
- The Patch (PatchTool) also knows how to clone, butnot by a point pattern, but by whole areas that are moved to the necessary places, where they take root. Depending on the settings, either the contents of the selected area are transferred to the desired place (“Assignment” mode), or an empty selection is dragged to the place of the desired content (“Source” mode).
- Spot Healing Brush(SpotHealingBrush) requires the user to only set the appropriate size, before simply clicking on an objectionable spot of any origin, so this tool is simply indispensable when you need to make a detailed face retouching in Photoshop.
- Восстанавливающая кисть (HealingBrush) работает according to the principle similar to the stamp algorithm, only here the color and texture of the retouched area is taken into account when cloning, and the user is allowed to independently adjust the brush parameters, including not only the size, but also the shape, stiffness, angle, movement intervals and pen pressure.
All listed tools are applied onlyto eliminate basic skin problems, and for glamor delights, use the commands from the Filter menu, lightening / darkening tools, variations of the Fill command, and some other means.
Let's look at how to make a face retouch in Photoshop, using only the dimming and lightening features.
“Curves”: retouching with corrective layers
This method is used by professionals and its essence.It consists in correcting (leveling) the skin tone on the auxiliary layers by darkening the light areas highlighted (jutting out) on the middle tone background and lightening the dark areas (shadows).
To do this, you must create a higher background layer withThe image of the face that is subject to retouching is two adjustment layers - “Curves”. One of them will be lightening - a symmetrically convex curve to the level of the lightest part of the skin of the face, and the second one is darkening, that is, a symmetrically concave curve to the level of the darkest part of the skin of the face, and the masks of both adjustment layers must be converted (Ctrl + I).
Теперь желательно обесцветить изображение, since in the black-and-white version, retouching of the face is easier to perform, since all the irregularities and roughness are more contrasting. To do this, create an auxiliary new layer, fill it with black and change the blending mode to “Color” (Color), and even better if we make a copy of this layer and set the blending mode (blending) to “Soft Light” (Reducing) the need for opacity.
Next, go to the mask brighteningadjusting layer (or dimming first - there is no difference), take a soft brush (the first color is necessarily white) with opacity no more than 10%, set the required size (the smaller, the better) and, having greatly enlarged the image, we begin to lighten the darkened areas around the unwanted skin relief.
Then go to the mask of the darkening layer andwe persist in dealing with light areas of the skin with the same stubbornness, periodically overlapping black and white layers in order to control the result on a color image. The work is scrupulous, but the result is worth it.
Retouch using lightening or dimming tools
This method is not destructive correctionphotos called Dodge-Burn are often resorted to when you need to do some work using Photoshop. Face retouching (in Russian, the name of the method sounds like “Dodge Burn”) is performed with its help.
In essence, the method is similar to the previous one.using Curves, but here only one layer is used for lightening and darkening, which create above the photo layer and fill it with a neutral color of 50% gray (Edit → Fill) by changing the blending mode to “Soft Light”.
Then you can safely retouch the skin on this.auxiliary layer, aligning its texture using the Dodge Tool and the Burn Tool, or using a soft brush (white for lightening and black for darkening), selecting the necessary opacity.
Retouch: tools of the "Filter" group
For a relatively quick and effective result.Glamor photo processing in Photoshop most often involves blur and noise cancellation, the analogs of which almost every photo editor uses. A face retouch made in such ways rarely corresponds to a professional level, because blurring, one way or another, leads to a violation of the skin texture, the degree of which depends on the art of a virtual makeup artist.
In essence, the method consists in “smoothing out” irregularities and smoothing the skin tone. Below are the options for such processing.
Smooth skin with the Noise tool
First of all, on the duplicate layer of our photoyou need to highlight your skin using a suitable selection tool, including “Pen” and a mask, or, on the contrary, remove everything except the skin with an Eraser from the face area with a soft (about 50%) “Eraser”, including the eyes, eyebrows and lips .
Закончив выделение (или отделение) области кожи Go to the "Filter" menu and select either "Retouch", where you have to repeat the effect several times (Ctrl + F) or "Median", in which the radius value is selected experimentally for a particular image. If the face has become too artificial, you can add a little “noise” to it and then blur it “according to Gauss”, but you still cannot avoid significant loss of skin texture, which is the main disadvantage of this method.
Blur face retouching
This retouch tool is generally the same.the previous one, only in this case, the corrected image of the face (or a selected area of the skin) is conditionally divided into two layers (duplicate images or secretions): on one of which the skin is smoothed, leveling the tone and softening the contrast, and on the other (above the first), the texture .
The tasks of the smoothing layer are solved (withclosed visibility of another) using the “Surface Blur” command (Surface blur) with a radius of about 7 pixels and a threshold / isohelium within 10-11 levels, or “Gaussian Blur” in the “Filter” menu.
If after applying the effect on the “smoothed”unwanted elements remain in the layer, they can be carefully painted over with a soft brush, choosing the appropriate color on the face by clicking the mouse at the desired point together with the Alt key.
To layer (second copy of image or selection),responsible for the texture, that is, for restoring (returning) parts lost upon blurring, the Noise Ninja noise-canceling plug-in justifies itself, but you can also use the “Reduce Noise” filter from the “Noise” group, adjusting the required effect parameters basically, then in additional mode, having worked there with the most problematic channel.
Having got rid of excess noise, the texture can be shown by slightly reducing the contrast and having worked with the Unsharp Mask settings.
Now, to complete the retouch of the face, it remainsjust merge the contents of both layers into a single whole, for which, standing on the texture layer, go to "Filter" → "Other" and choose "Color contrast" (High pass) with a small (no more than 8) radius, so that only the contours of the elements remain faces.
Then we go to “Hue / Saturation”, whichlocated in the menu "Image" → "Correction" and completely remove the saturation (-100). Finally, replacing the blend mode with “Overlay” on this layer, we will return the lost texture to the skin, which, if necessary, can be enhanced by slightly increasing the brightness.
In addition to the main graphic editor,donated to the world by Adobe companies, today the Web has many other programs, including those specializing in virtual make-up, each of which is a full-featured photo editor. Face retouching in them is performed almost automatically.
Plug-ins for retouching in Photoshop
One of the most powerful and popular among“Photo shoppers” plugin for photo retouching, including face care operations 2, is considered to be the Nik Color Efex Pro Complete 3.0 plugin, which contains more than fifty filters and about 250 effects.
The efforts of these filters are aimed at improvingphotos as a whole and adding artistic effects, but “glamorous questions” are solved by such plugins as Dynamic Skin Softener, Glamor Glow and Tonal Contrast and some others.
Popular among users and ArcSoft pluginPortrait + 3.0.0.402 RePack / Portable. He, in fact, is a photo editor, in which face retouching is possible in a matter of seconds. The program automatically assesses the condition of the skin of the face and adjusts the image by 17 parameters, after which it is difficult to find fault with anything. The plugin skillfully copes with skin imperfections, preserving its texture and not affecting the main elements of the face.
Retouching online
Сегодня, чтобы без хлопот придать лицу natural attractiveness, no need to understand the intricacies of the art of retouching, and even install special programs. Many online resources, for example, gde51.ru/services/retush-photo or makeup.pho.to/ru/ offer to retouch photos absolutely free of charge, including makeup.
There will help achieve such visual effects,such as smoothing and removing wrinkles, ridding the skin of dermatological imperfections, removing red-eye effect, eliminating oily shine, and leveling the skin, adding a glamorous effect. Among other things, such programs can stylize an image using dozens of ways.
