When I told a visitor to my web site that I use Adobe Photoshop
exclusively for photo retouching, she found it hard to believe. My traditional drawing and painting experience certainly helps, but when combined with Photoshop, nearly anything is possible. I'm often called upon to retouch faces. Even the most beautiful model has flaws that need to be fixed, or proportions that should be steered more toward the "ideal." A few tips: always work on an image with the highest resolution possible. Make global corrections wherever possible, avoiding small areas of change unless absolutely necessary. Work in RGB mode until the last minute, then create a copy of your work before converting to CMYK (if going to press). Bone up on Color Profiles to maintain predictable color fidelity throughout this process.For facial reconstruction, I make ample use of the Rubber Stamp and Healing Brush tools. I use selection tools frequently, varying the feather and often using different feather settings on different sides of the same selection. If a jaw line needs to be reshaped, I select the area in question using a slight feather, make a layer from the the selection (Command-J on the Mac), then rotate and/or reposition the layer until the jaw looks correct. This may have to be repeated several times using different selections of different areas of the jaw. I remove blemishes, wrinkles and "fly-away" hairs (yes, one at a time!), clone more hair where needed, then increase the contrast slightly and sharpen the image using Unsharp Mask.
If possible, keep at hand any extra photos from the model shoot. I often find that even though one photo is best or may be what the client requests, other elements can be gleaned from the unwanted photos (such as extra hair or fabric).
Color correction is both an art and science in and of itself, and will be discussed in a later post.
