How to retouch portraits?

Before starting retouching

It is very important to develop good document classification habits.

I usually divide each retouching project into seven folders after editing the number. Although I won't use all of them, it gives me a clear file storage framework. Specific introduction:

Used to store customers' retouching needs, reference drawings and modification opinions. Different folders will be subdivided according to the date. You can clearly see the customer's requirements and every modification.

The original folder is used to save the original.

Capture a folder. If the original picture is raw, I will create a new directory file of Capture One in it, and the directory will be named after the job number.

The retouching work folder, that is, the storage place of psd or psb files, all the hard work results are here.

Material folder. If anything needs to be added, the material will be put in.

Send record folder. Divided into different dates, every time you need to send pictures to customers, you will save the corresponding jpg in it.

Final draft folder. Used to save the final file that needs to be used at last, which is generally divided into tiff and jpg. Sometimes, customers need different versions of cmyk and rgb, depending on their requirements.

Before you start writing, study the original picture.

Open the original picture and have a look at it at the scale of 100%. Have a general idea first, and see how to retouch and adjust the specific places. If there is an effect reference diagram, you can also open it together. You should have a general idea in mind, if you want to start the next retouching work.

Start polishing

Step one: catch one.

If it is a formal work project, I try not to do color matching in Capture One, and try to make the picture with the most neutral color effect. The reason is simple: you don't know what kind of amendments the customer will propose later. If you develop the original film in a warm tone, it will be difficult for the customer to change it to a cold tone later. So rush out the neutral color, and then do color matching in ps, you will have a lot of room for manoeuvre, and you can easily make various modifications and adjustments.

I always set the sharpening value to 0 when printing pictures, because sharpening will change the quality of pictures, so remember to always put sharpening in the last step.

Regarding exposure, use hdr settings reasonably and try to make the picture have the most details. If some places are too bright or too dark, you can print out several different original images through different exposure settings, and then import them into ps together, and brush out different areas with a mask.

Step 2: Build the basic layer structure and start the basic retouching operation.

Specific introduction:

The top "Crop" layer is a "Color Fill" layer with a mask. As the name implies, it means cutting. You cover the area you want to cut with a mask, and then select' Image'-'Cut' when you print the picture finally, and ps will automatically cut it for you. Some friends will ask: Why not just use the cutting tool to cut the picture first? Again, you don't know what the customer's final revision opinion is. What if what he finally wants is the overall situation? So we must keep all the pixels.

The next one is the' Help' layer group, in which all kinds of curves are actually observation layers, so that you can observe the light and dark details in the process of retouching in the future.

The retouching layer group is the basic retouching layer. I usually use these three layers to start the most basic retouching operation:

1, the bottom' clean' is the basic cleaning layer, and any place that can be trimmed with the imitation stamp tool or the repair brush tool can be operated on this layer. Such as hair defects, obvious skin defects and so on.

2. The middle' D&B' is a transparent layer, but the layer blending mode is' soft light'. This is also a' neutral gray' layer that we often hear about, but I usually don't fill it with 50% gray, because the effect is the same, and I usually keep the file data size to a minimum. On this layer, you can do the operation of' deepening and lightening' and do detailed treatment on the skin or other places. In this process, you can use the observation layer reasonably.

3. The top "color" layer is a blank layer, and the blending mode of the blending layer is "color". If you find that the local color is wrong during retouching (especially when you do' deepen and simplify' operations, the color of the skin often changes), you can draw the desired color on this layer with a brush, which will only change the color of the picture without affecting the texture or brightness.

Step 3: Merge the basic retouching layers and perform' high and low frequency' operation. (if necessary)

After the basic retouching operation is completed, copy and merge the' retouching' layer group with the original image and name it Baisc retouching'. On the basis of this layer, a "high and low frequency" layer structure is constructed to perform "high and low frequency (S/F)" operation.

I usually use' high and low frequency' to deal with places that can't be solved by basic retouching methods, such as broken hair on my forehead, wrinkles in clothes and so on. This tool is particularly effective in dealing with these thorny problems, and those basic skin treatments are not recommended, because you can easily overuse it and have that kind of fake skin.

Step 4: Adjust local effects (eyes, lips, etc. ).

At this time, you should get a good effect:

On this basis, some parts can be further processed, such as balancing the brightness of eyes, improving the light of eyes, enhancing the texture of lips, enhancing the texture of hair and so on.

Step 5: Adjust local light and shade and skin color unification.

This step will use some different curve layers, and hyperbola can be used to enhance the light and shadow of the whole character. It is also important to unify skin color with different curve layers, because people's skin color often has different colors in different parts.

Part VI: Overall color matching.

Different people have different views on color matching. Everyone's color scheme is different. To improve your color matching level, you need a lot of practice and aesthetic improvement.

Part VII: Liquefaction and sharpening.

Copy and merge all layers, and the generated layer is named: Liquide &；; Sharpen. Liquefy first, adjust people's facial features or something else. Finally, I usually use the most basic usm to sharpen, and the value depends on the pixel size of the picture. There is no standard value, you can take it yourself.

-final effect comparison:

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These seven steps are the most commonly used workflow when I do basic portrait retouching. However, this is not a tutorial. Whether it is photography, retouching or other types of artistic creation, there are usually various ways to achieve another effect from one effect. Today, I just share my own methods and processes with you, but it is not an absolute standard. Whether you are a photographer or a retoucher, you need to do a lot of practice to become an excellent retoucher. In this long process, you will gradually find the workflow that suits you best.

Hope to adopt. Good luck.