Digital Photography has brought about enormous development in the art of retouching skin. Modern photographers and retouchers know that to achieve natural-looking results, the pictures must have an overall touch.
An editor’s nondestructive workflow means that he can make adjustments without actually altering the natural beauty of the subject and with the image quality remaining at a very high level. This is a comprehensive guide on portrait image editing with devised ways of maintaining skin texture while tackling issues like blemishes, uneven tone, and shine.
Creating Clean Selection Masks
Professional retouching starts with precise selections. Get yourself into the pen tool and path around facial features. Clean edges to convert paths to selections. Now save these selections as masks for future adjustments.
Selections stored as alpha channels can be reused. It prevents harsh edges from being placed on the edited area. Natural transitions edge slightly thicker for feather selection.
Using Adjustment Layers
Facial features are lightly sculpted without obvious editing signs. Set a new layer to Soft Light blend mode and create new layers.
Use soft brushes such as black or white. Adjust brush opacity low to gradually adjust. Slow build-up gives natural results. Pay attention to improving on current highlights and shadows. The lighting pattern is maintained naturally.
Color Correction
It also requires tight reproduction of curves in the case of skin tone. Toned-down curves will work with adjustment layers to give you control over the curve as you want it. A further increase in the dynamic range is necessary to address this, but natural variation must be maintained. Apply masks and limit the adjustments that are allowed to certain regions.
Additionally, get a reference for sample multiple points across the face. However, when adjusted, they should keep them subtle enough so you don’t start looking fake. Layer opacity adjustments make fine-tuning of the effect.
High Pass Filter
The High Pass filter gives out subtle texture details. Duplicate it and apply the filter on the background. There are two ways to do that: using Overlay or Softlight layer blend mode. Of course, it should be able to find mask areas that must preserve local texture.
Doing natural results using the layer opacity. It helps maintain the skin’s texture and removes its imperfections. Different radius values should be applied based on the level of detail.
Healing with Empty Layers
Select the spot healing tools from the toolbox, and create a new empty layer on your document for use in spot healing work. For most people, a bit of trialing applies in a clean area near a blemish for the most natural result. Small sizes allow the work to be done in small sections, thereby keeping control.
Ending Note
Learning skin retouching requires patience as it does in any other art form of development. Like ‘non destructive’ imaging, it allows the workflow to maintain original image quality and creative freedom.
However, know that the results conveyed by these small adjustments are the most natural. If an efficient retouching workflow is to be achieved, these techniques should be used consistently. Also, continue to learn and keep trying new tools and methods.
