Photoshop - Retouching

Editing - Retouching

In today's lesson, we used photoshop to retouch portraits. I retouched an image which I captured during my studio portrait shoot. I really liked this image as an original but think that it looks even more effective in the new edited version. Below shows a screenshot of my photoshop page during the editing process.

Firstly, we edited the basic flaws of the image. To do this I followed the below method -

1. Open the image and select Image, mode and then CMYK colour. 

2. When this has opened, go to channels and select yellow.

3. Press cmdA and then cmdC.

4. Then, go back to layers and press cmd alt Z and then cmdV.

5. Then rename the yellow layer 'Flaws' and press cmdV to invert.

6. Following this step, change 'normal' to 'soft light' and set the opacity to 50%.

7. Then, select the colour white and select the paintbrush tool and paint the desired areas of the image.

Then, we followed the previous method by altering any blemishes on the subject. To do this, we -

1. Press cmdJ to copy the background and rename the new layer 'Blemishes'.

2. Then select either the healing brush or spot healing brush which is on the menu on the left hand side of the screen.

3. Then select an area of clear skin and then paint over the spots or blemishes on which are in the image. 

Above is my original image.

Above is my edited image. I think that these edits are helpful when editing and photographing for the topic of portraiture as it helps to make adjustments and also allows imperfections to be fixed. In my opinion, the ability to edit out things like blemishes is helpful as it helps in the portrayal of the subject and gives a clear representation of what the individual is usually like and their appearance is therefore not altered by things which are not permanent and not usually there like spots and blemishes. In addition, I think that the image is more eye-catching and looks better due to the fact that the subjects skin appears to be clearer and the overall image is lighter than the original which I think looks effective. I also think that the edits help to make the image appear more professional and striking to the audience's eye.