Basic Photo-retouching

[araine]

Here I took a photo and then in Photoshop CS3 used the pen tool to closely cut out the girl from the background. I then gave it a complete white background. Once this was done it was time to focus on the girl. I first then marqueed her eyes and duplicated them onto a separate layer. I then adjusted the levels of the eyes, and erased any excess around the eyes. I then merged the image of the girl and eyes together. Then, I duplicated that layer. I then went to my filters, Blur, Surface Blur and adjusted somewhat of an extreme smoothness blur. You can blur to your liking, but this is how you get a smooth skin tone, but don't do it too much, cause then it can look fake. This also helps with covering artifacts and noise . Then, use your eraser tool on 40-50% opacity and on feather mode, and erase on that blurred layer around the hair, eyes and lips because you want those sharp as possible. Sometimes you can sharpen the eyes if you would like, and adjust the brightness and contrast of the images. But, this is how I did this.

[Saralonde]

Very nice job .

[Snowdust]

I think you did a great job on the skin. Your selection to change the background is good and I can tell from the original that it was probally tough to separate the hair due to the added shadows on the wall.

Nice job.

[scrappyethel]

WOW! You did an awesome job and I so appreciate your step-by-step approach to your postprocessing. That is how I learn. Thanks again.

Scrappyethel
Sony A-200 with multiple lenses and filters, etc

[Daoust]

Ditto what Scrappy said. I have CS3 as well but I have very little knowledge of how to use it. So thanks for the play by play.

[Ciscley]

Amazing lasso/pen job. Do you use any custom settings on it? What scale did you zoom in? Seriously, best hair I've ever seen with a background cut out.

[ajhbell]

awesome work!

[daddyoproductions]

JMHO but if you're going to smooth the skin that much, get rid of the shine.