Photo Processing

Today I wanted to go over how I process images. I generally use Photoshop CS5 and a few actions that I've developed myself. I will go over creating those actions so that you can have them as well. I'll be using the image from my previous post. Just to let you know this was an instructional shoot with another photographer. This image is from some of the ones that I took. I know it's not the best image in the world but it is very useful for what I want to show you here. Below is the original unedited version of the picture. I did some minor adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw before bringing it into Photoshop. Mostly I adjusted the Exposure, Recovery, Fill Light, Blacks etc. on the "Basic" panel and I applied some minor sharpening on the "Detail" panel. This image is after these adjustments.

Unedited Picture

Cleanup

 

Once Open in Photoshop the first thing that I usually do is create a cleanup layer which is nothing more than a copy of the background layer and name it Cleanup. (I created an action called Cleanup that will automatically set up this layer. Zoom in to 100 or more percent and starting at one corner I go over the whole image cleaning up the image. First I remove all of the spots, cleanup any blemishes, fix most of the small stuff. I mainly use the Spot Healing Brush for this.

I set it to content aware and that works the best for me.

For stuff that the the  Spot Healing Brush can't get I use the Clone Tool. It also works best for fixing hair as well. Using the Clone Tool is not that difficult, you just need to make sure that you select an area to use that will match up with what your trying to fix. It take some practice but it isn't that difficult to master.

Another technique that I've used before is selecting an area that is similar to the area that needs to be fixed, use at least a 2 pixel feather, copy and paste it over the area that needs to be cleaned up.  Note: this works very well if you have a group shot and everyone looks great in the shot except one person. I've copied the face of the one person from a completely different picture and pasted it into the other picture. (I used this technique to fix the eye on our left. I'll explain later.)

Below a picture showing most of the areas in the picture that needed to be cleaned up. I'll show a few of them with closeups because several will use the same techniques.

Things that need to be cleaned up.

Small white dots on the background. Don't know where they came from but they were in a couple of places. I just used the Spot healing brush on them to make them go away.

This was a small hair on the eye.

It took both the Spot Healing Brush and the Clone tool to get rid of this.

The next thing that I ran into was this thread on one of the buttons.

I could have used another button from another part of the shirt but none of them were at the proper angle so I had to break out the Clone Tool again. By slowly matching the area around the thread I was able to rebuild the button and get rid of the thread.

I know some of you are asking, Why get rid of something so small and trivial that it won't be noticed? Well once this image leaves your control you have know idea how it will be used. Better to clean up something small than to have it bite you in the butt later.

There were also some stray hairs and threads on the shirt. These were removed with a combination Spot healer and Clone Tool. Skin Blemishes were handled in much the same way so I'm not going to show those here.

 By far the hardest and longest Cleanup is going to be hair.

The best way that I've found is using the Clone Tool and selecting areas very close to where you're working. Set your Clone Tool very small with a very soft edge. Slowly paint over the hair a little at a time. You'll need to be careful not the clone the hair back in at a different location. (That's How close you have to be)

 

Notice I left a few strays to keep it real. You're mainly trying to get rid of the distractions here.

You could probably find more things in the image to fix but I like to leave a little imperfection just to keep it real. You only want to get rid of the things that stick out or draw attention away from your subject.

Skin Smoothing

I know this is a baby but everyone could use a little chemical peal in photographs. I tend to use these to smooth out the color and give it an even tone across the skin. I don't want to lose texture. Let me repeat that I DON"T WANT TO LOSE TEXTURE.

The first thing we will do is what I call applying foundation. I created an action to create the layer that we need. So let's create that action. If you don't know how to create one do a search online for "Creating Photoshop Actions" The process is to long to cover here. We'll name this one "Foundation Makeup". I am not taking credit for this technique I found it online somewhere and modified it a little for my uses.

Once you've set up your recording do the following steps.

1. Insert a stop to remind yourself that you need more than one layer to run this script. (I genreally have two layers because I keep my cleanup layer separate from the base layer because I like to go back and look at the steps that I've taken)
2. Do a merge visible. command - shift - option - E for Mac users, ctrl - shift - alt - E for PC users. This will create a merged layer but leave your other layers intact.
3. Rename this layer "Foundation Makeup"
4. Next Run Filters>Other>High Pass Filter with a radius of 9.
5. Run Blur>Gaussian Blur with a radius of 3.
6. Set the layer mode to Overlay, (you can do this at the top of the layers pallet).
7. Next you'll need to invert it. Go to Image>Adjustments>Invert.
8. Make a mask channel that Is completely black by clicking on the mask button at the bottom of the layers palette while holding down the option button.(Your layer will not be shown).
9. Create a final stop with the message "Paint white in mask to apply effect to areas of the image."

You can stop recording the action now but we are not finished. Once you've created the action test it to make sure that it works. You should have a layer that is totally masked. If it is not at the top of your layer stack move it there now.

The next thing we are going to do is paint in where we want the foundation makeup to show. Using your brush make sure that it is set to 100 percent with it's hardness set to 0. you will then paint the area of the face where you want to apply the foundation. If you press the backslash key an overlay will appear. It will have color on the parts that are masked and clear where the mask has been removed. You will want to avoid painting in the areas of the eyes, eyebrows, and any where there is facial hair that you want detail in. Another area to avoid is the nostrils and any strong shadow areas that you want to keep.
Below is the mask that I painted on the image I used.

The areas of pink are masked out and the clear areas are what will show through. If you turn this layer on and off you will notice a small difference. This is intended to smooth out harsh edges nothing more. It is our starting point.

The next thing we are going to do is set up the skin smoothing action. This layer will also be totally masked and then painted in only where we need it. This one was totally developed by myself after trying several other plugins and actions that were, to me, over kill.

Again set up to record an action and call it "Skin Smoothing" then record the following steps.

1. Merge visible(just like above)
2. Rename the layer "Skin Smoothing"
3. Next run "Filters>Blur>Surface Blur" set to a radius of 18 with a threshold of 26.
4. Make your mask channel as above. (Totally Transparent)
5. Create your end stop as above.

As before run it to test it. You should now have a new layer named "Skin Smoothing". If it's not at the top move it to the top.

We will now paint in where we want the affect to show. This time however we need to set the opacity of our brush to between 5 and 15 percent. (sometimes a little more depending). Slowly paint in areas where we need to smooth out lines and wrinkles, this will also blend in discolored and blotchy skin. Again a little goes a long way, don't over do it. (Note: If you want to see how drastic this layer can be, turn off the mask to see what has been done and why we only use a little bit of it.)

Dodging And Burning

The next thing we need to do is dodging and burning the image, These terms come from the old film days of working in the darkroom and actually increasing and decreasing exposure of different areas of the photograph by dodging (limiting the amount of exposure to an area) and burning (increasing the amount of exposure). Photoshop comes with excellent dodging and burning tools that I do not like to use because they tend to create grey and white areas in your image. The technique that I am going to show you here uses two curve adjustment layers and an overlay layer with masks. The curve layer technique was shown to me by one of my instructors at Kaplan (Formerly Ohio Institute of Photography) "Libby O'Neill", I added the overlay layer for when you need more intensity. Again I have an action that sets up the whole layer system. Once the action is made, just run it and you are on your way to dodging and burning. Again set up for recording an action and name it "Dodging and Burning Layers". Follow the steps below.

1. Make a group by clicking on the folder icon at the bottom of the layers pallet 
2. Rename it "Dodge and Burn Layers".
3. Create a Curves adjustment layer
4. Create a new mask just as you did when you created the previous actions. so that it is totally black.
5. Rename it "Burn Layer"
6. Now from the adjustment layer pull the center of the curve down about one square
   
8. Delete the mask.
9. Click on the create mask button while holding down the option key to create an empty mask.
10. Create another Curves adjustment layer.
11. Rename it "Dodge Layer"
12. Now from the adjustment layer pull the center of the curve up about one square.
    
13. Delete the mask. and add a new mask just like above in step 7 and 8.
14. Create a new empty layer
15. Set its mode to overlay.

Now for the curve layers to dodge and burn select the appropriate layer mask and paint with a white brush starting at about 15% opacity, increase or decrease as you need to. If you find that the curve layers aren't enough you can move to the overlay but here you will actually be painting on the layer. Make sure that your brush color is set to white to dodge and black to burn. The over lay is a little more intense than the curves so be careful. I've put the before and after burning below for you to compare.

Before Dodging and Burning

After Dodging and Burning

 You can see that I just brought out the left hand side of the face a little and brightened the eye. I also lightened some of the background a little to bring out some texture. I did some minor work elswere as well.

Almost done with this picture. I noticed that the eye on the left didn't have a catch light. I tend to like things a little symmetrical so I had to add a catch light to it. I used the lasso tool to copy the catch light from the eye on the right (set the feathering to 2 pixels). copied it created a new layer and moved it over to the other eye. Then just to bring the eyes out a little I lassoed both eyes (also with a bit of feathering) and placed them on their own layer(new catch light included). From here I applied a little bit of sharpening using the "Filters>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask..." set to 56% with a radius of 3.5

Here is the final before and after images for you to compare.

Just to let you know it took me way more time to write this up than it did to do these adjustments.