In This Chapter
䊳Perfecting portraits of people 䊳Hushing the noise in your images 䊳Editing your digital landscape
Sometimes you take perfect photos of imperfect people, and sometimes you take imperfect photos of, well, imperfect people. (Even the top models benefit from a little Photoshopping.) Although capturing absolute reality is the goal of some artists and most photojournalists, the people in your photos probably prefer to look as good as you (and Photoshop) can make them look.
In this chapter, I present you with some basic techniques for curing many of the most common problems that you encounter as a photographer. I show you how to remove that spooky red-eye effect that appears when your camera’s flash reflects off the blood vessels in the back of a subject’s eyes. I also show you tricks for removing wrinkles, whitening teeth, and tighten- ing waistlines. Digital noise (those distracting red, green, and blue pixels scattered in your image’s shadows) is easy to minimize when you use the tricks here. At the end of the chapter, I cover how to remove some larger problems from images, such as distracting objects and ex-boyfriends. Throughout this chapter, I use real-world examples — the types of photos with which you’re most likely to work. (After all, you probably don’t get to shoot beautiful models all the time.)
Making People Prettier
You can do lots of things in Photoshop to improve your images, but few are appreciated as much as fixing a person’s photographed flaws (the appear- ance kind, not their bad habits). Whether it’s a studio portrait or a snapshot, the people in your images generally can benefit from a little touching up.
Although you can theoretically make almost anyone look truly beautiful and glamorous using Photoshop, remember to balance improving with reality.
Always work on a copy of your image. I also recommend saving separate copies at different stages during the editing process. The client might say that he wants the braces removed from his teeth, but after you present the finished product, he might just (gasp!) change his mind.
Getting the red out . . . digitally
When a subject looks directly into the camera and the camera-mounted flash fires, the result is often red-eye. This result is caused when light (such as a flash) bounces off the blood vessels
at the back of an eye, and it gives the subject a spooky vampire look.
Among the many ways to minimize this problem is with the Red Eye tool. Zoom in and click once with the tool to watch the red disappear, leav- ing the natural highlights and a per- fect eye. As you see in Figure 9-1, the default settings are good for typical cases of red-eye.
The Red Eye tool finds red and not green. For green-eye (in photos of animals), for too-bright white reflec- tions from eyes, and for those times when you’re not happy with the per- formance of the Red Eye tool, use the Brush tool (as you see in Figure 9-2). Set the foreground color to black; in the Options bar, select the Luminosity blending mode and an Opacity of about 50%. Use a brush
diameter just slightly larger than the pupil and a brush hardness of about 75%. Click once and evaluate the result; if necessary, reduce the Opacity to 20% and click again.
Figure 9-1: Click with the Red Eye tool to replace red with natural-looking black.
Figure 9-2: When the Red Eye tool won’t work, use the Brush tool.
Here’s one more red-eye/green-eye trick: Use the Sponge tool to desaturate, followed by the Burn tool (Midtones, 25% exposure). You’ll find the Sponge tool nested in the Toolbox with the Dodge and Burn tools.
The digital fountain of youth
At the end of Chapter 5, I show an example of using the Dodge tool to fade wrinkles without removing them completely. Photoshop, being a complex and capable animal, has lots of other ways to minimize or eliminate wrinkles.
Among the most powerful tools for this job are the Healing Brush, the Patch tool, and the Clone Stamp.
Both the Healing Brush and the Patch tool work by copying texture from one area to another. You can, for example, copy smooth skin onto a wrinkled area, smoothing the wrinkles while retaining the area’s general tonality and color.
To work with the Healing Brush, Option+click (Mac)/Alt+click (Windows) the area from which you want to copy, and then click and drag over the area that you’re fixing. When you select the Aligned option from the Options bar, you maintain the relationship between the point from which you’re healing and the area over which you drag. No matter where you move the cursor, the source point stays the same distance and direction. When repairing areas of a face, however, you might find it easier to clear the Aligned check box. Every time you release the mouse button, you start over from the same source point. By using short strokes, you can heal from the same source area to any area of your image.
To work with the Patch tool, make a selection with the Patch tool (or using any of Photoshop’s selection techniques) and then drag with the Patch tool.
Depending on which option you select from the Options bar, you can either select and drag the damaged area to a good area (select Source from the Options bar), or you can select a good area and drag to the damaged area (select Destination). You can use both the Healing Brush and the Patch tool to apply a predefined pattern, too. That can be handy for adding a texture where one doesn’t already exist in your image.
Like the Healing Brush, you Option+click/Alt+click with the Clone Stamp to set the area from which you’re copying and then paint over an area to make a change. The Healing Brush copies texture, but the Clone Stamp copies pixels, completely replacing the area over which you drag. (That is, of course, sub- ject to the blending mode and opacity that you select from the Options bar.) Like the Healing Brush, the Clone Stamp offers the Aligned option. Figure 9-3 shows a comparison of wrinkle reduction using the Clone Stamp (set to Normal and 100 Opacity) and using the Healing Brush. (If you use the Clone Stamp to repair skin, reduce the opacity and make sure to select a source area that has similar skin color and lighting.)
©2001 PhotoSpin, PhotoSpin image #0550019
Figure 9-3: The clone Stamp (lower left) covers wrinkles, whereas the Healing Brush (lower right) melts them away.
Dieting digitally
You can certainly use the Clone Stamp tool to reduce a bit of a bulge at the waistline or below an upper arm, but you might find it easier (and more natural looking) to make a selection and rotate the outer edge inward a bit. Take a look at Figure 9-4. Although this subject hardly has what you’d call a “spare tire,” that bit of extra sticking out above her skirt
isn’t particularly flattering. Make a selection with the Lasso tool that includes some of the background and some skin (or shirt or dress). Copy the selection to a new layer with Ô+J/Ctrl+J. Press Ô+T/Ctrl+T to enter Free Transform (or choose Edit➪Transform➪Rotate). Drag the point of rotation (the little crosshair symbol in the middle of the bounding box) to the top of the bound- ing box, and then position the cursor slightly outside the bounding box and drag to rotate. When you’re satisfied, press Return/Enter to accept the transformation and merge the layers with Ô+E/Ctrl+E. (With complex back- grounds, you might need to do a little cloning to even things out.)
Figure 9-4: Rotate a selection to pinch in a waist.
When working with double chins, your best bet is usually to minimize rather than eliminate. Putting a skinny neck under a fleshy face looks unnatural. You can certainly tuck in the sides of the second chin a bit by using the rotate method, but rely on the Burn tool to darken. By darkening the excess flesh under the chin, you make it appear to be in shadow — and, therefore, under the actual chin (see Figure 9-5). Use the Dodge tool (if necessary) to hide any creases or wrinkles associated with
the excess chin. Redefine a natural- looking jaw line and chin — but once again, remember that the result must not only look natural, but it must also be acceptable to the client.
When working with the Burn and Dodge tools, don’t forget to reduce the Exposure setting in the Options
bar — 15% to 20% is plenty strong for this type of work. You’ll also want to juggle between Highlights and Midtones (the Range setting in the Options bar) when creating an artificial shadow on a double chin with the Burn tool.
Zoom in when doing this sort of work, but also open a second window via Window➪Arrange➪New Window for [filename] to keep an eye on the overall impact of your changes.
You can use the Filter➪Liquify feature to push, pull, twist, pucker, bloat, and otherwise manipulate pixels into the shape and position you need. There’s really nothing more powerful when it comes to reconfiguring a figure. In Figure 9-6, you see how leveling off a beltline in Liquify is sometimes all that’s needed to restore that trim-man-she-married look. And a little touch-up with the Healing Brush or Dodge and Burn tools can eliminate the wrinkles in the shirt, helping improve the overall appearance of the image by reducing distraction. (Chapter 15 has full info on using Liquify.)
De-glaring glasses
Although hindsight is usually 20/20, many people need spectacles.
Unfortunately, those eyeglasses can be a photographer’s nightmare! The reflections off glass are usually specular highlights — that is, areas of pure white with absolutely no detail in them. To properly evaluate flash reflections in eyeglasses, open the Info panel and move the cursor through the area. If you see a noticeable variation among the RGB values in the Info panel, you might be able to restore the area with the Burn tool.
If the Info panel shows RGB values of 255/255/255 or close to it, the area has no detail. Zoom in close and use the Clone Stamp tool to copy over the area from another part of the image. In severe cases of glare, you might need to copy from another photo of the same person. When possible (say, in a portrait sitting), try to take one shot of the subject without eyeglasses, just in case.
Figure 9-5: Burning and dodging can reduce even a very prominent double chin.
Figure 9-6: Use Liquify to make major adjustments to figures.
Whitening teeth
Teeth generally aren’t truly white (unless somebody has spent a lot of time and money getting ready for a portfolio shoot). Instead, you see shades of ivory and yellow in teeth, but they don’t necessarily have to be unattractive or distracting shades of yellow. The Sponge tool is great for desaturating teeth, moving them from yellow to gray. Use the Dodge tool to lighten teeth.
From the Options bar, set the tool to Midtones (not Highlights) and an Exposure of perhaps 30% for front teeth. Paint over each tooth individually, making sure that you don’t eliminate the shadows that differentiate the indi- vidual teeth. Then switch to Shadows and lighten those molars visible in back. Don’t overdo it — remember that folks who don’t make their living in Hollywood or on TV generally don’t
have snow-white teeth. Figure 9-7 shows normal people teeth,
“improved” normal people teeth, and Hollywood teeth. Balance your judgment with the client’s needs.
Figure 9-7: Coffee, cigarettes, and caps; Dodge tool digital correction; show-biz-white teeth.
Reducing Noise in Your Images
Moving from the darkroom to digital can save you thousands of dollars in film and processing costs (not to mention a reduction in environmental degradation) but has added a new set of challenges to the art and business of photography. Perhaps foremost among the problems presented by digital photography is noise. Those pesky red, green, and blue (or light and dark) specks in an image can ruin a digital photo. Noise is generally most promi- nent in shadow areas and against dark colors in your images.
If your camera lets you select an ISO setting, you can help minimize digital noise in your photos by using a low ISO. Sometimes you do need to shoot the equivalent of faster film, such as at sporting events. However, when you have a choice, use a low ISO to minimize noise. Using a tripod can help, too!
Decreasing digital noise
You’ll find the Reduce Noise filter under the Filter➪Noise menu. As you see in Figure 9-8, it does a very good job of neutralizing the random red, green, and blue pixels while preserving detail in the image.
Notice that Reduce Noise also offers a Remove JPEG Artifact option. When saving in the JPEG file format, you compromise between image quality and smaller file size. The smaller the file, the greater the likelihood of compres- sion damage to your image. That damage generally shows itself as visible lines between blocks of pixels measuring eight pixels square.
Figure 9-8: The Reduce Noise filter keeps your image sharp while eliminating RGB noise.
You’ll also find the Color Replacement tool very handy for noise reduction, especially in areas of rather uniform color. Option+click/Alt+click right in the area to set the foreground color; then simply paint away the digital noise. As you move from area to area in your image, Option+click/Alt+click to pick up a new foreground color.
Eliminating luminance noise
In addition to the red, green, and blue specks of digital noise, you might face luminance noise, which is the bright and dark specks sprinkled throughout your photo. Under the Filter➪Noise menu, you can find the Despeckle com- mand. No dialog box appears and you have no options to choose from: You simply run the filter two or three
times. For more challenging noise, try Photoshop’s Blur➪Smart Blur filter. For supreme control over blur- ring, Smart Blur even lets you enter fractions for both the Radius and Threshold values (as shown in Figure 9-9). Sometimes the difference between a 1.5-pixel blur and a 2-pixel blur is the salvation of the fine detail in your image.
Fooling Around with Mother Nature
Sometimes a very nice photo has something in it that you want gone . . . a piece of litter, telephone lines in the distance, a building that distracts from the composition, or perhaps a person whose memory you’d like to erase.
Other times, everything in the image is fine, but the image looks wrong because of the angle at which it was taken. Photoshop offers you quite a vari- ety of tools and techniques for cutting out, copying over, cleaning up, and even correcting perspective.
Removing the unwanted from photos
Perhaps the easiest way to remove something from an image is to cropthe photo: that is, cut off that part of the picture. This technique is easy enough if that piece of litter or whatever happens to be at the edge of the image and cropping won’t ruin your composition. However, when you must cover up rather than crop out, consider both cloning and copy/paste.
Figure 9-9: The Smart Blur filter is a good choice for luminance noise reduction.
One of the keys to using the Clone Stamp tool is keeping an eye on your work.
Zoom in close so you can work precisely, but choose Window➪Arrange➪New Window for [filename]. Keep that second window zoomed out and off to the side so you can monitor your progress while you work. I also like to keep a copy of the original image open for reference. You can make a copy of the file with the Image➪Duplicate command or by clicking the left button at the bottom of the History panel. In Figure 9-10, you see the original image to the upper-left, the zoomed-in work image below, and a zoomed-out second window for the work image. (The Navigator panel shows you what part of the zoomed-in image is visible.) The unwanted bicycle is easily removed.
Figure 9-10: Use the Clone Stamp to remove unwanted bits and pieces.
Here are some tips for working effectively with the Clone Stamp tool:
⻬Work on a separate layer. Before cloning, click the New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers panel and set the Sample menu to All Layers in the Options bar. By cloning to the new layer, you protect yourself from irreversible errors (you can always erase part of the upper layer), and you can show/hide your work layer to check progress. If the image already has multiple layers and you want to clone from only one, hide the other layers in the Layers panel by clicking the eyeball icons in the left column.