Retouching images is an inevitable part with photoshoppers. In this tutorial I will show you some common techniques and take you through the entire process, simple to understand!




Step 1: Take a picture you want, a portrait may be the best. If you feel lazy, you can use the picture below:
Step 2: Duplicate your image (hit Ctrl-J) and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Fill in 6.1 for the radius and hit OK. By blurring this layer, we can make her skin smoother and brighter
Step 3: Go to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate to turn this layer into a black-and-white image, this will greatly increase the contrast on the lady. Change the blending mode of this layer to Overlay. The Overlay mode just leaves bright and dark colors get through, so the colors are greatly enhanced.
Step 4: Hit Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E to create a new flatten layer, which is the result of all visible layers below. On this new layer, apply a gradient map on it
Set your settings as following:

Step 5: Once you finished, change the blending mode of this gradient map to Soft Light. Your photo now become brighter and "softer"
Step 6: If you see your photo a bit too bright then reduce the Opacity of this map to 50%
It looks better, doesn't it?
Step 7: We just have to make some subtle changes on her lips. Press Ctrl-Shift-Alt-E again to make another flatten layer. Create a new layer and go to Edit>Fill and fill it with 50% gray option. Change the blending mode to Overlay. As you see, this layer seems transparent because Overlay does not let gray get through. Why do we do it? Because we can retouch on this separate layer without destroying the original one!
Use the Burn tool to trace along her lips. As you see, they are now pinker. Remember you should work with a small, soft brush
Step 8: Repeat step 7 with her eyebrows. Reduce the Exposure parameter of the Burn tool to make it look realistic. You can see my result below:
(for the text, I just used Outer Glow)

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Color Effects with Alpha Channel

Preparations: We will need an image of a model, prefably a close-up on the face. I’m using Keeley Hazell for this tutorial. All rights of these resources belong to their respective owners.     Step 1 – Setting Up Background: Create a document of size 750 by 550px and save it as example.psd. Fill the background with #E6D4A7.     Step 2 – Create Strip Pattern: Create a new document with 3 by 3px, then create a new layer above Background layer. Select Pencil tool with 1px and color #000000, paint 3 dots as shown on the left. Delete the Background layer. Press Ctrl+A and go to Edit > Define Pattern. Close this document w/o saving. In example.psd, create a new layer. Select Paint Bucket tool and fill in the pattern you created.     Step 3 – Transparent Rainbow: Create a new layer above the rest. Select the Gradient tool and choose Transparent Rainbow. Drag the gradient from top-left of the document diagonally across to the bottom-right.     Step 4 – Create a Color Frame: Select the rainbow gradient layer and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the radius to 250. Create a layer mask on this layer and fill the mask with #FFFFFF. Using Soft Brush tool of size 350px and color #000000, paint center of the mask as shown on left.     Step 5 – Selecting Image Channel: Open up your model image and drag it into example.psd using Move tool. Hide the rest of layers except for the model. Go to Channels tab and choose the brightess image out of the Red, Green and Blue (for mine is Red).     Step 6 – Create Alpha Channel: Ctrl+left click on the Red channel layer to load selection of those bright areas. Click on Create New Channel to generate an alpha channel and fill it with #FFFFFF. Using Soft Brush tool of size 100px and color #FFFFFF, paint away the grey background behind the model. Note: View animation on the left.     Step 7 – Gradient on Model: Ctrl+left click on the Alpha Channel to load selection. Go to Select > Inverse. Back to Layers tab and create a new layer. Fill the selection with any color. Right-click on the layer and choose Blending Options. Activate Gradient Overlay and choose the preset Yellow, Violet, Orange, Blue. Set its angle to -45 and scale to 150.     Step 8 – Enhancing the Colors: Duplicate the model layer and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set its radius to 3px. Right-click on duplicated layer and choose Blending Options. Set the mode of Gradient Overlay to Hard Light.     Step 9 – Drawing Lines: Create a new layer and draw some white vertical lines of various sizes with Pencil tool. You will need to hold down the Shift key while drawing so your lines will be straight.     Step 10 – Fading Lines: Go to Edit > Transform > Rotate and set its value to 45. Using Soft Eraser tool of size 150px, fade the two ends of the lines. Repeat Step 9 and 10 if you need more lines on your model.     Optional: Add some texts to complete the design. That’s all! Hope you like this tutorial. Video tutorial is posted at Vimeo Click here to view the final image.     My Deviation: Added on 1st Sep 2008. I have some free time so decided to do another version of Keeley Hazell and push this coloring effects further by adding in more details. The basic techniques used are still as above. Click here t

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Simple Image Retouching in Photoshop

By Rashad Nsouli | Photoshop CS3 | Beginner This tutorial will teach you a simple technique to enhance the colors of your image making it more vivid and alive. The image is going to be retouched using Layer Blending Modes and a slightly visible Gaussian Blur. After applying the retouch method, your image will look like the example shown below

Start off by opening the image you want to retouch in Photoshop. I used this raw image directly from my camera, you are free to practice this tutorial using if you want to get exactly similar results as the ones shown here.

Once you have the image opened, go through to Image>Adjustments>Curves. The curves window will open, as you can see in the screenshot below, there are two square markers on the field, each marker is created by clicking on a spot on the grid, these marks can even be dragged across the grid. Create two markers in the same position shown below.

After applying the curves, your image will look like this.

Go through Layer>Duplicate Layer, a small window will pop up for you to choose a new name for your duplicated layer, click OK to proceed.

From your Layers Panel, choose the recently duplicated layer and change its Blending Mode into Soft Light.

Your image will now look like the this

Go through Layer>Duplicate Layer once again and this time give the recently duplicated layer a Gaussian Blur by going through Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur of 10 px.

From the Layers Panel, give the blurred layer an Overlay blending Mode and change its Opacity to 20%.

Your image will now look like the this

Go through Layer>Duplicate Layer one more time and change the recently duplicated layer's Blending Mode into Color Dodge.

Your final image is going to look like the sample below, you can rollover it to see the original raw image for comparison.














   



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