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Hi there! It's been just a few months since my first eBook was released and I received
so many great emails from fellow artists who tell me how helpful the eBook
has been to them and I want to thank everyone who did email me.
Thank you! I truly appreciate you taking the time to let me know.
But, I also noticed that there are many photographers who did not utilize
the Beauty Actions included with the eBook as much as they should,
and decided to record a new video to demonstrate how I use those Actions.
So let's see what we've got here. You'll find the illustrated text instructions on
how to install and use each Action in the User Manual in the Bonus Goodie Bag folder
of the eBook.
And there are 11 Actions in the Essential
Beauty Action set and they are Center Guides, Sharpen All and Sharpen Parts,
Blur All, and Blur Parts, Magic Smile, Add Skin Texture, Frequency Separation preset,
Magic Eyes,
Sculpt and Contour, and Glowing Action.
With Frequency Separation, Magic Eyes and Smile,
Add Skin Texture, Sculpt and Contour, and Sharpening being the primary Actions
and the Blur, Center Guides, and Glowing secondary.
I often start by applying the Sharpen All action at the very beginning.
It's essentially just a new 50% medium gray layer set to Overlay.
None of the built in Photoshop sharpening filters seem to give such great clean,
organic sharpening results.
So I run this action then toggle the visibility of this new layer and check
how much I need to lower its Opacity so that it's very subtle.
I usually look at the eyes in the picture to see how much sharpening is enough.
You don't want to over sharpen your photo at this stage because it may make the skin
retouching more difficult later.
My next step is
usually skin retouching. So I run the Frequency Separation technique preset
and in a second I have my image split into two layers:
the Low Frequency layer that contains all the color and tones of the image,
and the High Frequency layer that contains all the texture.
I always start working with the Healing Brush tool,
check its settings. Spacing always at the minimum which is 1%, and if I'm
working on the Low Frequency layer at first.
I lower the brush Hardness to zero
to make it very soft.
And one very important setting, the Sampling of the Healing Brush, must be
set to Current Layer, otherwise you will start seeing
some crazy pixilation and toxic colors
as soon as you touch your image with the Healing Brush.
Just remember to switch it back to All Layers when you work
with the Healing Brush tool next and use it on the separate layer.
More often than not, I start working on the Low Frequency layer with a soft
Healing Brush, evening out colors and tones, getting rid of any blotchiness in the skin.
I change the size of the brush depending on how big the area I need
to affect is
and sampling from the color that I want to mix into the existing color.
So, basically if I want to brighten a darker area, I will sample from a brighter
color and apply it on the darker area.
The result will be a mix of the two colors:
the source and the destination area colors.
And as you can see, I use the Frequency Separation technique not only to doctor
the skin on the face, but on the neck, shoulders,
and the body when I need to as well.
The beauty of this technique is that when mastered, you can quickly
even out skin tones without losing any skin texture.
I usually go back and forth between the two layers and take care of little imperfections, hairs, on the
the High Frequency layer
and blotchiness of the skin
that suggests uneven skin texture on the Low Frequency layer.
You can also work with the Clone Stamp Tool whenever you get closer to the lines
that you don't want to smear with the Healing Brush Tool.
Sometimes by the time you've evened out the skin tones on the Low Frequency layer,
you might notice that the skin looks a little too flat
or despite the fact that you did not work on the High Frequency layer much,
the skin looks a little too soft with little texture remained.
To fix those problems quickly I use my Add Skin Texture
and Sculpt and Contour Actions,
and I will show you how I use them later in this video as well.
Normally, when your model's skin is okay, you wouldn't need to take it that far,
and only use the Frequency Separation technique on the few areas that
do require some doctoring.
When you have to deal with skin with a lot of problems, such as acne scars,
discoloration, fine hair covering cheeks, very aged skin,
or very dehydrated skin, bad makeup and maybe
unflattering lighting that emphasizes all those problems,
you might realize that by the time you've fixed those problems you've lost
all the texture and dimensions.
That's when those two actions: Sculpt and Contour, and Add Skin Texture will be very helpful.
So as you can see, I'm still working with the same Healing Brush Tool and jumping
between the Low and High Frequency layers.
I'm just speeding up the parts that are just very simple and monotonous sampling
and healing,
so I can squeeze more information into this video and make it as short and right
to the point as possible.
Here I added a new layer and switched to the Clone Stamp tool,
changed its Sampling to All Layers to work on that little area on the right side of
the model's face,
simply because it's easier to clean it up on the separate layer.
And I don't use the Healing Brush tool here because there are too many colors
and lines sitting right next to each other that the Healing Brush would simply mix up
and make them bleed into each other.
I usually lower the opacity of the Clone Stamp tool and work over the areas,
which I want to clean up.
The simple Brush tool would also work great in this situation, but you might
need a little more digital painting experience to do a good job with a brush.
Okay, let's check out our progress by turning the top layer's visibility on
and off.
Lower the opacity of the layer and then merge the layers of the Frequency
Separation group and the top layer with the duplicate of the background.
It will be our base for the new merged layer.
Now let's jump to another picture and go over it one more time.
I again run the Frequency Separation action, but this time I start with
the High Frequency layer and increase the Healing Brush hardness to
100%,
so that I don't soften any texture on this layer.
In this image I only have a couple of places where I would like to even out
the skin tone,
but other than that, I just need to get rid of some flyaway hairs and some spots.
I'd like to mention here also that it's good to keep in mind
what your image is going to be used for
And how large the size of the face in the largest file or print will be.
If the face is only 20% of the image canvas
and you're only going to post this image online,
then the tiniest imperfections won't be visible anyway. So save your time and learn
to be good at judging
what needs to be retouched at all.
And here I'm on the Low Frequency layer again, and I've lowered the hardness of the
Healing Brush tool
I'm working with
to zero,
so that my tool is very soft while I'm working with the colors and tones here.
I go over the face and the body where I need to
and get rid of everything that makes the
skin look
uneven or
just any distractions that I want to get rid of.
I check my progress by toggling the group's visibility lowering its Opacity,
merging and duplicating and running the Frequency Separation action one more time.
I do this when I feel like I've done a great job during the first round,
and I still need to work some more on the skin, but I just don't want to risk
messing up the results
that I'm satisfied with so far.
So that's why I merge them down to save those changes on the separate layer,
and then continue with a new Frequency Separation set.
So feel free to run the Actions just as many times as you need. You can run
an Action for every little part of the image you are working on if you want to.
Just make sure to always compare the before and after results and lower the
intensity of the changes before you merge the layers as you progress.
Now let's see how the Magic Smile Action works.
Run the Action, go back to the Layers panel. Click on the black mask of
the group to select it and pick up a soft white brush
and lower its Opacity,
then loosely brush over the teeth.
The beauty of this action is that it only adds a little bit of brightening and gets
rid of the yellowish tint.
And you won't be able to over-whiten the teeth
if you only apply the Action one time.
But if you feel like you'd like some more whitening,
just press Command or Control-J to duplicate the group with the teeth
unmasked.
Let's add some Glowing there.
This action is pretty straightforward and basically it just brightens the highlighted areas.
And you can unmask
just the areas you'd like to brighten.
As usual, just run the Action, come back to the Layers panel,
and then use a wide soft brush to unmask the desired areas.
And after you are done, lower the Opacity of the Glowing group,
and merge with the underlying layers before you move on.
Now the Magic Eyes Action.
Run the Action and go back to the Layers panel.
Open the group.
You will be working on the masks of each layer or sub-group here,
so your tool is a white soft Brush again.
I always start with the "Cleaning the whites of the eyes" set, and
this is really the magical part of the Action. It removes any redness and
most visible blood vessels in just one touch.
There is not so much to work on in this photo, but I will demonstrate
its magical abilities on
the other one later in this video.
With the "Light in the Iris" layer I always brighten the iris and catch lights in every single
portrait I work on.
Sometimes I also slightly touch the whites of the eyes here as well.
If you feel like you've over-whitened the eyes,
either use a black brush to mask those areas back,
Or just lower the opacity of the layer to lower its intensity altogether.
The "Darker Iris Outline" layer I use to not only darken the iris
outline to add contrast to the eyes, but I also always darken
the roots of the upper and lower eyelashes in female portraits.
Again, lower the Opacity of the layer if you want to decrease its intensity
or mask what you don't like
with a black brush.
Let's get back to our first photo and apply the same Action here.
The "Clean Eye Whites" set will help you to get rid of the redness and the most
visible blood vessels in seconds.
You don't have to zoom in and waste your time on removing every
single blood vessel with a Healing Brush or a Clone Stamp tool
anymore.
I'm brightening the iris and catchlights here.
When you're doing this, follow the natural cues: brighten the parts where the light is
already "touching" the eye.
Don't add light into the areas near the upper eyelids. Those parts of the eyes are
usually in shadows if the light source is above the eye level of the model
in the picture.
I then darken the roots of the eyelashes and the iris outline just
a little bit.
I'm now working on the "Darker Iris Outline" layer as you can see.
This adds more contrast to the eyes and makes them even
more attractive.
The "Iris Color Change" layer is there for you to be able to tweak the color of the eyes or
completely change it.
I rarely use it, but it's there for when I need it from time to time.
And after I'm done with the Magic Eyes Action, I usually add a new layer and just
go around the eyes with my retouching tools and touch up
any noticeable imperfections
like clumpy eyelashes, for example.
Here I also darken the model's eyebrows while still working on the "Darker Iris Outline" layer.
So, see, you can be as creative as you want and come up with new solutions while
working with these Actions.
Let's get back to our other picture and check out the Add Skin Texture Action.
I love this Action. It saves me a lot of time and makes over-softened skin look
human again. So here's what I do: I run the Action, come back to the Layers panel,
pick up a white soft brush and lower its Opacity.
I paint on the mask over the areas where I would like to add this texture, then toggle
the visibility of the texture layer
to see the image with and without it.
If I realize that the texture is smaller than the skin pores in my image,
I enlarge it.
First, I unlink the layer mask from the layer by clicking on the Link
icon between the layer and the Layer mask icons.
That will ensure that the mask stays put as I enlarge the layer it's covering.
And then select the actual layer, zoom out, and access the Free Transform tool by
pressing Command or Control + T,
and pull one of the corner anchors away to stretch the layer with the new texture.
And if I'm happy with the texture size now, but think that it's a little bit too intense,
I lower its Opacity.
Let's visit our other image again and finalize it as well.
Let's also run the Add Skin Texture action, pick up a soft white brush with
Opacity lowered to around 20% and brush over the areas
where I'd like to add some texture on.
I've turned on these yellow little circles
that you can see,
so you know where I actually paint on the mask, and not just hover over.
I again enlarge the size of the texture by unlinking the mask and then stretching
the texture layer
with the Free Transform tool,
and compare the before and after picture
lower the Opacity of my new digital skin texture,
merge down, and move on.
One more Action we can utilize here, the Sculpt and Contour action. This is essentially
just a type of the Dodge and Burn technique, which I used to enhance the Shadows
and highlights when needed.
The Brighter Highlights layer is just a curve pulled up to brighten pixels, and
Darker Shadows layer is the curve pulled down to darken pixels.
To enhance the shadows or highlights with this Action,
you need to paint with a white large soft brush over the areas you'd like
to affect on the respective layer.
And as I finish it up, I compare the before and after, merge the layers.
And at this point if I'm done with the image, I first save my .PSD master file, then merge all layers
and size the photo down for the web usage, and apply the Sharpen Parts Action,
and sharpen the Eyes and other detailed areas in the photo.
I hope this video has helped you to understand how to use these Actions better.
Stay creative and feel free to come up with your own new ways of using them.
Enjoy and happy retouching!