Professional Retouching

May 20th, 2006 by Posted in Adobe Photoshop, Photo Editing

>> Step 1

Open the Monica portrait image and duplicate the layer ( layer/duplicate layer ) or left click in background layer




>> Step 2

Select the duplicated layer (background copy ) and add “Gaussian Blur” (filter / blur / Gaussian blur ) It hast to look rather blurry , don’t worry in the next step the image will be back to normal , and if you don’t feel satisfied in the next steps , you can add more blur at any moment of the process









Example of how blur it gets compared to the original


>> Step 3

Set the layer’s opacity value to 50%. (layers / layer style / blending options ) or double click the layer in the layer palette

The opacity value can go from 30% to 60% it will determine how soften the pic will be









>> Step 4

So far we have achieved to get the softness of the skin however , all the details such as eyes lips and nose look bury so we have to :

Add a mask in the layer we have been working into , and use the soft brush tool with at least 50 % of opacity and brush the details we want to sharpen such as eyes , lips , hair , nose















>> Step 5

The last step but not least is , is to modify the curves , when we add some light to the texture layer the results are magic so lets end this .

Go to (image / adjust / Curves )












I add some light to the upper face I want to keep the low light feeling , but you can add as much as necessary

Before & After