CS2 editing - Advice required / Challenge

[RimBlock]

Ok, I now have a number of shots I really believe are good. They certainly are much better than I have been able to produce in the past but I have two problems......

First, they are printing out a little too dark. Short of buying a colour printer profiling system or making the picture a little over bright in Photoshop I really have no idea how to correct this....

Second is post editing to get the most out of the picture.

One of the pictures I very much like is this one...

Obviously I am working on a Tiff (16bit) created from the original RAW shot.

Now for a more striking intimate image I have cropped around the face and only included the bottom 1/3 of the hair. I very much like this framing so am going to go with that.

Using the healing brush will remove most of the skin blemishes along with noise -> despeckle. Now I have a problem. I feel that a lot of the beauty is detracted from by the bags under the eyes.....

Now I have been all over and tried to find a tutorial on how best to deal with this whilst allowing this close in crop and still making the amendment seem pretty transparent to a viewer. Last months Digital Photographer Monthly had a article on doing just this but it was for Paint Shop Pro. Ok no big deal, I was able to amend the details to the Photoshop CS2 tools and although it did what it said on the tin I couldn't help thinking that it just looked like the area was blurred (which is exactly what the fix was). Even looking closely at the after picture in the magazine highlighted that this was not a perfect fix.

The problem as I see it is trying to remove the bags without loosing texture. I can smooth the area but the loose the detail and have to carry it over to the rest of the face making the portrait look more like one of Barbie that a real person. I have tried selecting around the area, copying the selection to a new layer, lightening the new layer and smoothing it out then setting the transparency to around 38% allowing some of the detail to come through which is probably the best effect yet but there is still the bottom outline of the bag under the models left eye which is so well defined that the shadow comes through the second layer all be it not as pronounced.

The other issue is eye lashes and the edge of the bottom eyelid. I would like to keep the dark edge as created with a dark eye lining pencil when the model applied her makeup. I cannot find a way to get CS2 to select the area of the bottom lid but not the markedly different darkness of the eye lashes and copying the area to another layer and then using the eraser to allow the lashes to come through the colour change to remove the bag just looks wrong. Conversely creating a layer and removing everything apart from the lashes and putting that layer on top also looks wrong.

There must be ways of doing this better.

Anyone care to give instruction for better results ?

Oh and yes I am aware that there are loads of tutorials out there and in part that is an issue in itself. Needle in haystack and wheat from chaff are two phrases that sprung to mind yesterday when searching all day yesterday. The ones I did find seemed to just be quick fixes rather than detailed tutorials to produce professional results.

Cheers
RB

[sorbiegunner]

Re the lighting try the shadows/highlights tool (image>adjustments>shadow/highlight)
This is what it does to your photo on the default settings, but there are loads of sliders so you should be able to fine tune it to your liking.
As for the re-touching I'll leave that bit to someone else

[RimBlock]

Thanks, I will have a play with that. Maybe a selective change at the areas around the eyes may be able to lighten the offending areas.

Not sure I like the default setting . Little too harsh and her hair looks like she has been in a flour fight but as you said, that's just the defaults. I'll post the cropped image up tonight after I get home so people can see the areas more clearly.

Anyone else got any advice / tips.

Cheers
RB

[RimBlock]

Ok.... here is the previously edited version that I am not overly happy with.

RB

[RimBlock]

Here you go.

This is the best I have managed so far. More or less what I wanted but not sure how to deal with her left eyes swelling where it has caught the flash. I have toned it down but not sure on thining it.

Cheers
RB

[sparkz]

RB, I think that's an excellent photo

Personally I would stick with the healing brush as it does maintain some texture. What I did was too take a copy of the "baggy" bits into a seperate layer. After doing the work with the healing brush I bought back some of the original to give some contour to under the eyes which I think is lost.

Also, I don't like to use things like despeckle too much as they zap texture. If you do, perhaps fade it afterwards?

This is what I ended up with:

Mark

[longleyc]

Why you asking? You done an excellent job! I think the eyes are focused, which is the essence of portaits. Plus you got rid of some of the darkness under the eyes, a bonus.

1. I often use the Quick Mask mode for intricate detailed selections.
2. For eye bags/blemishes one way is to create a selection from below the eye are in the same banana shape of the eyes. Pasting the selection and positioning over the baggy area. Adjusting HSM on the selection, or curves with a little masking channel with a soft edged brush can blend in the selection. Obviously if the area underneath has blown out highlights than this isnt achievable.
Its another way of doing it.

In print, I think this shot would look pin sharp.

[RimBlock]

Thanks for the feedback guys. The encouragement is very welcome as I am finding it hard to get feedback from just about anyone including family and friends. Tips for improvements help me to continue moving forwards.

The two main things that I was concerned about with the last attempt I did was the loss of the bottom lids contour. I find the skin under the eye to be a little too flat and I had difficulty removing the baggy area whilst still maintaining a little contour of the eyeball beneath. Sparkz you seem to have covered that and I will have to give it a go when I get home.

The other area was selecting around the bottom eye lashes. Doing a freehand select even at 400% just didn't look right. Creating another layer and erasing the eyelash area also looked wrong. I would just like to smooth a little between the eye lashes as I feel that give away the fact that there has been some retouch around that area.

What is kinda strange is that the bags are so visible in this picture as I have quite a few others where there seem to be next to no bags under the eyes. Ones with her looking upwards obviously help to reduce the effect along with front / side lighting from below.

Oh and yes I have printed this one to A4 and have it framed on the wall as it is one of my favourites although the last one I posted of 'Kim' in my sticky thread is at the moment a close second.

I also may darken the last attempt a bit as the hair colour is a bit light and as I have lightened it to that point, some of the colour has been leeched out from the cheeks.

Thanks again and any more advice / suggestions would be gratefully accepted.

Cheers
RB

[sparkz]

I know what you mean regarding family/friend advice! Very frustrating.

Personally, for the lashes I would take a copy of that area into a higher layer. Erase all the skin from it, perhaps with an eraser brush which has some opacity to blend the edges a bit - all done at very high magnification. You can then heal away on the lower layers and you won't lose the detail of the lashes.

I don't know if you do this but when I use smoothing/blurring filters over a large area, I create a feathered mask excluding all the edges and eyes, hair etc. Conversely, when sharpening the edges I make a mask which just contains the edges I want so not to introduce artifacts into other areas. I know the "smart" tools do a pretty good job but sometimes, on a special photo, it's worth the little extra effort.

Mark

[RimBlock]

Thanks Sparkz,

I will give that a go.

Just to give an idea of where I am coming from, I have been using a SLR for 2 1/2 months and taking portraits for just over a month (3 shoots in total). I have been using any image editing programs for just over a month. Coming from an IT background helps with the software although the concepts are holey new.

I would guess an average of 180 shots per photo shoot (3-4 hours) and maybe 50% being 'ok / not bad / quite nice'. I tend to get maybe 5 'gems' out of it. Most of the 5 are not posed but are 'caught' when the model is off guard. I must stress that the ratings are solely on my liking of the pictures and not on their technical quality.

The direction and level I would like to get to is one where I have enough very nice shots to put in a portfolio (on-line and hard copy) so when I approach a model (or they contact me) they are more likely to trade time from photos rather than charge making this hobby self financing. I do not see this becoming an occupation.

Again, any advice suggestion on angling pictures in that direction are always welcome.

Cheers
RB