LIGHT IT. SHOOT IT. RETOUCH IT. LIVE!

LIGHT IT. SHOOT IT. RETOUCH IT. LIVE! FREQUENCY SEPARATION SKIN RETOUCHING This is more of an advanced technique, simply because it takes a lot of steps and takes more time not because it s hard to do, but once you learn how to do Frequency Separation retouching, it makes it hard to do anything else, because the results are so fantastic. What this technique does is separate the color and the texture into two separate layers, which allows you to smooth and blend the skin without blurry the skin texture, so the final results looks pretty much flawless (which is why this technique is so popular). By the way, since this does have a lot of steps, it s a perfect candidate for an Action; doing all the set-up steps for you so all you have left to do is lasso or paint. Step One: As always, start by removing any major blemishes. Once that s done, duplicate background layer TWICE. Step Two: Click on the middle layer (and hide the top layer for now): Apply a Gaussian Blur just enough until skin is blurry so that all the tones are blending (I usually wind up around 5 to 7 pixels, but the higher resolution your camera, the higher this number will need to go). continued next page. 1

Step Three: Click on the top layer. Go under the Image menu to Apply Image. From the Layer pop-up menu, choose Layer 1. From the Blending pop-up menu, choose Subtract. For Scale choose 2. For Offset chose 128, and click OK. Your layer should look gray with a little of your image showing through. Step Four: Change the blend mode of your top layer to Linear Light. At this point, the image should still look normal. Select the top layer, and the middle layer, and click on the Group button at the bottom of the Layers panel to put these two layers in their own group (so you can toggle off/on to see a before/after as you work). Step Five: You re going to work on middle layer the color layer (that way we don t mess with the texture on the top layer): Put a lasso around an uneven area of your subject s skin. It can be a fairly large area, like most of a cheek or their entire chin area, etc. Step Six: Apply a Feather to your selection (I usually use 15 pixels) to hide the edges of your retouch so it blends in nicely with the surrounding skin. Step Seven: Now you re going to apply a Gaussian Blur to your selected area (I usually wind up anywhere from 18 to 24 pixels) which smooths out and blends skin pretty amazingly. Now just repeat this process for other areas on the face; (1) make a selection around the skin area: (2) Apply a feather to the edges (3) apply the Gaussian blur. BRIGHTENING / DARKENING SKIN TONE This is another awesome part of Frequency Separation, because you can lighten or darken areas so the skin tone matches perfectly. Step One: Get the Clone Stamp tool. Up in the Options bar; choose Current Layer. Set your Mode to Lighten. Set your Opacity and Flow settings to 45%. 2

Step Two: Option-click (PC: Altclick) to sample a lighter area of skin, and then paint over the darker spots you want it to look gradual to you might have to paint over the same area once or twice just depends on the image. All you are effecting is the tone and brightness of the skin in that area the texture is still there untouched on the top layer. If you need to darken an area, switch the blend mode for the Clone Stamp tool to Darken and do the same process FREQUENCY SEPARATION BLEMISH REMOVAL: If after you ve done the first two techniques (evening out skin tone and balancing light and dark areas), you can do more details blemish removal using the Healing Brush and/or Patch tool by clicking on the top layer (the layer with the texture), and do your removal there, using the tools like you normally would, but now you re just working on the texture not the color, so you ll have more natural looking results. ADDING AUTOMATION So do we have to jump through all these hoops every single time we smooth out skin? Nope. You only have to do it one more time, because we re going to automate the process from here on out using Actions (if you re not familar with actions, it s like a tape-recorder built into Photoshop that can automatically automate repetitive tasks, like Frequency Separation, and you can have it do it s thing with just one click and better yet, it goes at super-fast speed). Here s how it s done: Step One: Go under the Window menu and choose Actions to bring up the Actions palette (shown below). To see the Actions controls you may have to turn off Button Mode (in other words, if your Actions palette doesn t look like the one shown here, you re in Button Mode), by going to the palette s Pop-down menu and then choosing Button Mode. Choosing it toggles between button mode being on and off. Step Two: To create a new action, click on the New Action button at the bottom right of the palette (it s icon looks like the New Layer icon, just to the left of the Trash icon). When you click on this button, the New Action dialog appears where 3

you can name your Action. In this case, name the Action Frequency Separation. Then from the Function Key pop-up menu choose an empty F-key on your keyboard (I chose F11, so anytime from now on when I press the F11 key, it will run the action we re just about to record). Now, did you notice that there s no OK button? That s right, where OK usually is located, the button reads Record instead. Click that button and it beings recording your steps. Step Three: Now let s run through our Frequency Separation steps: first duplicate the Background layer twice. Click on the middle layer and add a 6-pixel Gaussian Blur. Click on the top layer, then go under the Image menu to Apply Image. In that dialog, from the Layer menu choose Layer 1; for Blend choose Subtract. Set the Scale to 2, and Offset to 128, and click OK. Now change the Layer Blend mode to Linear Light. Select both layers; put them in a group; and lastly click on the middle layer. Now, in the Actions panel, click the Stop Button. Step Four: That s it you ve created your first action. Now to use it, just open another photo, press F11, sit back and relax and the entire process happens before your eyes, completely automated, in just seconds. All you have to do now is make a lasso selection, and blur it. Life is good. Skin Smoothing This is different technique, with a different result (plus it s easier and faster than Frequency Separation), and it still aims to maintain skin texture as well. So why techniques? Well, depending on the image, you might like this one better, and it s good to have another option in your retouching bag of tricks. NOTE: As always, before we do any skin softening, always remove any major blemishes first using the regular Healing Brush (not the Spot Healing Brush because of the different directions of skin texture, it doesn t work very well because if often picks a place to sample from that s too far away from the problem you re trying to fix, so it looks unnatural). Step One: Duplicate the Background layer two times. Click on the middle layer, then go under the Filter menu, under Blur, and choose Surface Blur. Enter 30 for the Radius, and 60 for the Threshold amount, and click OK (these are the settings I use). Step Two: Click on the top layer: Go back under the Filter menu, under Other and choose High Pass. When the dialog appears, enter 3.5 pixels and click OK. Step Three: Change the Blend Mode of this top layer to Hard Light. Merge these two layers together by pressing Command-E (PC: Ctrl-E). 4 notes

Step Five: Hold the Option key (PC: Alt-key) and at the bottom of the Layers panel, click on the Layer Mask icon to hide this layer behind a black layer mask. Step Six: Set your Foreground color to white; get the Brush tool, choose a medium sized soft-edged brush, set the Opacity to 50% up in the Options Bar; then paint just the skin areas but avoid all the detail areas like the eyebrows, eyes, hair, nostrils, lips, teeth, and the edges of the face as well. REDUCING EVERYTHING FROM WRINKLES TO MOLES TO FRECKLES TO SCARS How s that for a headline, eh? Well, it s only that because we pretty much use the same technique for all of them. This is tricky business, because if you remove these things, then it will be an obvious retouch to all your subject s friends and family, which could be very embarrassing for your subject (and the last thin you want to do, right?), so we don t remove we reduce that way you create a more realistic-looking retouch. First, we ll quickly look at how to remove blemishes and stuff with the Healing Brush and Patch Tool, then we ll get to reducing. TECHNIQUE: To completely remove a blemish; get the Healing Brush tool; make your brush a little bit larger than the blemish you want to remove, then just click right on it. Don t paint. Just click. For larger stuff (like a scar or a wrinkle), use the Patch tool instead. It works like the Lasso so use it to put a lasso-like selection around the scar or wrinkle, then click inside that selected area and drag it to a clean area nearby. Release the mouse-button and it snaps-back into place and the scar or wrinkle is gone. OK, now let s apply that to our scenario of reducing, not removing. Step One: In this case, we re going to reduce a mole (not remove it, because that would be a dead giveaway that the image has been retouched). Start by getting the Healing Brush; make your brush a little larger than the Mole (use the left/right bracket keys on your keyboard to resize your brush), and then just click. It s gone. Step Two: Now, before you do anything else, go up to the Edit menu and choose Fade which brings up the dialog you see here. The best way I can describe fade is that it is undo on a slider. If you drag the slider all the way to the left the mole is completely back. If you drag the slider all the way to the right the mole is completely gone. Anything in between you ll just see a portion of the mole it s like lowering the intensity of the mole; try lowering the Opacity to 50% and you ll see the mole is still there, but its intensity has been reduced by 50%. So, it s there, but it doesn t stand out to the viewer. 5

Step Three: We do the exact same thing with Hot Spots (shiny, oily-looking highlight areas on the face). We remove it completely using the Patch tool, then immediately Fade it so we retain the highlight without it looking shiny. Same thing for wrinkles remove the wrinkle completely with the Patch tool, then Fade it to around 30%. Same thing with dark circles under the eyes. Remove each one completely, then Fade it until it looks good (for women, lower the Opacity a lot, to around 20 or 30%; for men, much less). So, that s the technique. NOTE: Since this has to be mostly done with you making a selection, this doesn t make an ideal candidate for creating an action. However, you can save time by using the Fade keyboard shortcut Shift-Command-F (PC: Shift-Ctrl-F). RESHAPING THE FACE & HEAD This is a very common retouch, and thanks to Photoshop, a very easy, fast, and even fun one. Step One: Start by selecting the Liquify Filter from the Filter menu. You re going to use the very first tool at the top of the toolbar the Forward Warp Tool (this is the one I use most of the time). This tool allows you to move parts of your subject as if they were a thick liquid (like molasses). There are two tricks to making Liquify work for you: (1) make the brush tip size the same size as the thing you want to move, and (2) make nice little nudges, instead of big strokes. Just kind of nudge it along and it ll work and look great. Before we start on liquify, the seamless paper runs out on the left side leaving a gap, so I ll start with a quick-fix for that, which is to make a tall rectangular selection from top to bottom in the clean area of the gray background. Then go to Free Transform; grab the center point on the left side, and just drag it to the left to stretch it out so it covers the gap. OK, now onto the retouch. Step One: I m going to introduce you to this tool by first fixing some areas on her arm, by simply sizing our brush to the size of what we re trying to move (use the left and right bracket keys on your keyboard to change brush sizes) and just nudge them into place. Same thing with the top of her head the right size brush, and then just nudging. When we start working on her nose, the size of our brush can cause parts of your image to move that you don t want to (for example, we re going to smoothing out the bump on her nose, and we don t want to move her eyes or cheeks, or anything else). Luckily, you can keep those areas from moving. notes 6

Step Two: Choose the Freeze tool from the toolbar (shown circled here at right) and paint over any facial features that you don t want moved when you do you retouch (try painting over the entire center of the face, if you re reshaping the head). As you paint, it paints a red tint over those areas just to show you which areas are frozen (if you mess up, paint over your spill over with the Thaw tool it s right below the Freeze tool in the toolbar). Step Three: Now turn off the checkbox for Show Mask so you don t have to see the frozen area while you re working. Choose a brush a little larger than the area you want to adjust then, using very small, gentle little nudges, tuck in the areas that need reshaping. 7