So here it is…what you’ve all been waiting for; no hoax, no blurring, no quick, easy, fast, one-action techniques from your friends at ThePhotoshopGuru .com. Just you sitting in your chair, or on your couch, or in your bed, (the way I like to do it) with your eyes. Let me introduce myself… My name is David Skyler, and if you haven’t heard by now I’m the full time in-house retouch artist/graphic designer/all around tech-geek for Melissa Rodwell and of course her loving husband and business partner. Here are some retouching tips that might lead you in the right direction and help you make your fashion photographs much stronger.
Tip #1 : Learn to Squint, Tilt your head, and TRAIN YOUR EYE.
Do the small details count? The answer is…ENORMOUSLY! Have you ever heard of the “Butterfly Affect“? This is serious, people. No joke. Where would you be right now if that plane you’re sitting in had a tiny screw stuck in its turbine?
The question you need to ask yourself is this: why does a simple website, with no large outer-glows, fast moving effects, or swirly illustrations move you and grab your attention? Let’s start with the 3 primary colors. The designer decided to use these specifically to keep your eyes circling towards the center of what he/she wants you to read. The font matches the logo so well, that they almost move as one. Or how about the navigation that is placed at exactly the right place (x and y values), to keep you navigating through the site? So, I ask you again, do the small details count?
Do this experiment for me. Open up any 1 of the 10,000 images you have on your computer right now. HOLD ON! DON’T OPEN THE ALL-IN-ONE PLUG-INS FILTER JUST YET!!! Now I want you to very carefully, and with ease, take a moment to notice what is distracting you from this image. When you squint your eyes, tilt your head, zoom-in and out, what details/elements are DISTRACTING you from experiencing the full effect of this image? Is it the white sparkly spots on the background? The extra set of Lawn Mower Hair flying over her lip? Dirt from the lens that appears on the model’s shirt? Or the strange hue of green emanating off her arm zoomed in at 200%, also known as moiré (an effect that only digital cameras have on images, by trying to recreate a color that doesn’t exist in its spectrum)? Here is an image I have just randomly pulled up and have circled ALL of the spots on the body that are a distraction to me.
(click here to view image full size)
A lot eh? Maybe next time it will make you think twice before opening those Amazing Bill and Ted Excellent Adventure Filters. My technique with retouching is to START AT THE GRASS ROOTS LEVEL. Learn how to notice the distractions because removing these alone will vastly improve your image. This is always my first step when retouching an image, and if you want to be good, which you do because you’ve gotten this far with my sarcastic ass, it should be yours too.
*Constantly “zooming-in and out” is also a very important tip, as sometimes being so close, or so far away from an image for long periods of time can start to hinder your eye and the way you see an image, so it is important to remember this tip:
Every 3-5 minutes you should have zoomed-in and out on an image to view it from:
far away(33%)
medium (75%)
and large (100%). (Approximate Percentages may vary, depending on your screen size)
Tip #2 : Using SKIN HEALING FILTERS, ACTIONS, EVIL “I DESTROY PIXELS” TOOLS = BAD . Make sure the final product looks as amazing on PAPER as it does online.
Seriously guys, how many people out there do you think have the SAME EXACT photoshop filters/actions as you do, use the same exact things you do, with the same kinds of cameras and the same kind of lighting? Look at the download numbers, they don’t lie. In fact, I won’t lie to you and tell you that, yes it will take more time, but it will ultimately pay off for you in the long run. The long run meaning, when you want to get your images off a 600 pixel size backlit screen and onto a piece of REAL PAPER. Simply put, blurred pixels do not look good printed. In my opinion, HDR 2001 space oddity color hues don’t look good printed, nor do I think you will find many REAL art directors who are going to hire you for a fashion campaign who don’t agree. They are old-school, the darkroom is old-school, dodge and burn is old-school, real colors that work on real PAPER is OLD SCHOOL. Photoshop was created as a digital darkroom; it has all the tools you will ever need. Yes, it does have a healing brush and it’s amazing, if you use it correctly. But don’t make your brush size bigger than 10 pixels and try to swipe over half an arm in 2 seconds. Make your brush as big as the spot, and if the spot is too big, well guess what, there are other tools for that. It’s important to use each tool for the purpose it was created, everything you need is there!
GOOD: Regular Skin Texture
BAD (for fashion): *Nik Color Efex Skin Softener*
When people ask me on this blog how shots are retouched and what kind of post-production is done, the answer I give them is “Try your best not to use automated tools, such as skin softeners”. What these tools are basically doing is indiscriminately using algorithms that blur pixels and take away the sharpness and texture of an image. Skin and clothing texture are some of the most important parts of making your images stand out when printed, as the printer is reading 300 dots per inch rather than 300 of the same blurred dots per inch. This is not to say the skin shouldn’t look flawless. Fashion, for the most part, (unless you are working on males) is pretty flawless, but it takes a lot more time than you would think. If your images are taking anything less than 4 hours to finish (especially if you’re just starting out), there is something wrong. In the beginning, 1 image would take 2 days for me to finish. Now, because I am a lot more aware of the areas I need to attack and the structure of my workflow, it will only take me around 4 hours to complete an image.
A small example of my layer setup:
- Original Layer
- Healing Layer (Includes, blemishes, pimples, background spots, hair fly-aways etc.)
- Dodge and Burn Layer (explained in later tutorials)
- Liquify Layer (this should always be your last layer, because all of the hard work you’ve done beforehand can always be saved without distorting the image first.)
- Color Correction Smart Objects (you can begin adjusting color from the beginning, as this will make for easier retouching)
This is really a good idea of what I do when retouching it is pretty much all my steps; and I usually end up with 4 layers and my color adjustments.
Tip #3 : COLOR + REAL PEOPLE = REAL COLOR!
I touched on this a little bit in the last tip, using certain HDR Filters, Bleach Bypass Effects, etc. to make your image look “Cool” is fine and dandy and all. Sometimes it turns out great, but I have to say, “you’re in the WRONG industry”. If you like to tweak your images this way, I recommend becoming a sports, art, car, or product photographer. There’s nothing wrong with it and I’m not trying to dismiss these techniques… but the fact of the matter is, Fashion and Beauty photos in particular have very natural skin tones. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen images that are OVERLY SATURATED, have too much RED, GREEN, or ORANGE, or are just so over the top, there’s too much of EVERYTHING, or not enough of ANYTHING.
When working with color and trying to keep a natural quality to skin tone, try to remember the model in real life; what their skin tones were, etc. Sounds crazy, but try to imagine them right in front of you; this is always the best technique. It takes a very trained eye to learn color, it has taken me years of trial and error, to finally realize how to balance it and see it. It should be done in very small increments. If you feel there is too much red, don’t go to your hue/sat and try to take out 20% red. Take out 3% red and see how it feels to you, maybe add or remove some blue, to create more yellow. It’s NOT always just about taking out 1 thing, because you are not JUST taking out 1 color, you are decreasing a whole spectrum of colors, just like mixing paints, you have to mix and match to find the perfect balance. Sure, there are plenty of other color tones used in fashion, but at a very minimal increment. That’s why it’s important to balance your colors out first and go from there.
A lot of times, you will see images that have a lot of desaturation in the skin tone, making them look “pale”. This is a very common tone, but it’s based on a very small increment of desaturation on many levels and very “selectively”. I say selective, because of course there are going to be times where the skin tone looks perfect, but the dress looks too green or not “prominent” enough. It’s okay to go in and selectively “pop” the dress, but make sure you do this while keeping in mind the overall tone of the image, so it doesn’t pop out at you like IMAX 3D.
On other images, you will sometimes see a “gold skintone” or very shiny colors, (usually used in advertising campaigns). Although the colors are a “bit over saturated” usually these models have been made to look this way even before post with the type of make-up, (spray-on-shine), the type of lighting, and the atmosphere and spectrum of colors used in the shot, as well as camera settings. Trying to tweak a shot that has not been already pre-arranged for this kind of color tone is a lot harder to do.
Although many things can be “added/fixed in post”, it’s important to keep in mind:
1. If the shot really needs it.
2. If the clothing, skin tone, and background compliment it.
3. If you are not destroying the quality of shot while tweaking it.
Okay, well that’s it. You’re left to your own devices now to go out there and enhance the original moments you have captured on camera and translate it to the ever-growing digital world. Remember, there are 101 ways to do just about everything, so you don’t have to follow my word like it’s god’s, although I’d be happy to hear if you have done so with success : )
Great post Melissa, really informative!
Dave/Melissa … you two ROCK!
And the Dripbook site looks stellar as well!
Nice!
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Excellent post David,
Thanks too Melissa!
Great post, David!
I found tip #1 especially thoughtful and very much appreciated the red circles image … studying that closely has provided me some interesting insight and perspective on some of the work I do, so thanks for that. Love the mordacious, yet always helpful, tone of the post and I see why you and Melissa work so well together! Your attention to detail and fine aesthetic perspective show in the final product.
such a good post! please pass on the thanks to David.
I never knew that there were ‘airbrushing filters’ out there. that’s just scary!
definitely learnt some valuable tools here.
Thank you very much. This is so much help and perfect timing too. I was just going to start editing some photos.
This is a great post and definitely an important aspect of working with digital images. People are not part of my usual subjects to photograph but the the concepts covered in this post – the approach, attention to detail, and advice is solid for any digital photographer.
Thanks for sharing. Nice work.
Great post David, thanks so much for that. I look forward to reading more from you! Is there any tutorials on the web you could recommend? I have trouble finding the real nitty gritty stuff and more often than not can only find actions and “quick fix” methods from non-professionals.
Thanks for sharing. Nice work….. M and D
Very informative! Post work is the last “technical” I need to work on, so this helps a lot!
Cool post David.
Thanks for sharing! I am relatively new to post-processing so this info is gold.
I’m in the same boat as Kristy Bradford above, in that I have difficulty in finding good (Photoshop in particular, as its a complex piece of software) tutorials. So if you had any recommendations it would be great!
Thanks again David & Melissa.
Cheers,
Dave.
I 100% agree with this! I found out that details can make and break your photo.
I think everyone who started with photoshop made the mistake of blurring and tweaking too much.
Thanks David, I agree with you, blur is not the correct way if you want a real high end look.
Nice post David.
How about adding a section – “Retouch Of The Week” to the blog?
Great post. THanks for the information.
I love the idea of DDominik. But maybe 2 weekly or monthly would be better. Just let everybody start with the raw file and see what anyone can make of it. It would be nice if everyone can give some howto information when sending in.
Hi Guys!
To Kristy and Dave: Finding good retouch tutorials online can be hard… I told Kristy the way that I learned which is order the Lynda.com video tutorials. From Beginner-to-Intermediate-to-Advanced. These tut’s can be hair pulling and REALLY REALLY boring. But they give you the most bang for your buck explaining in detail every single tool in Photoshop as well as going on to explain some basic guidelines and rules to follow. Each level is around 20 hours in each and I highly recommend you learn them. Its alot easier than “Reading” as I think you get more out of seeing it “Visually” and if you learn the program basics from beginning to end you then have the freedom of using your creativity, as there are 101 ways to do the same exact thing in photoshop. You should also have common sense enough to know when you’re “Destroying Pixels” as you will be able to feel it in your gut
I have definitely come across a couple of sites that have some okay tutorials, but didn’t remember to bookmark them. I can tell you one thing for sure, the lessons that I have learned from working under other professional retouch artists are priceless and for some reason I have never seen them exposed online. This is why hopefully soon I am planning on coming out with some tutorials (or a dvd) that will expose these secrets and finally get them out there. One tip to note is if your looking around for tutorials and the retouch artist themselves don’t have anything in their own portfolio you admire, then its most likely not going to be any good.
To Dominik and Sander: It is a very interesting idea to have a ROTW! I am mulling it over in my head now, you have me thinking. It would be a great place for people to learn if the people submitting where willing to give an in-depth step-by-step look at how they made the shot look the way it did.
Thanks to all for comments!
David Skyler
Always such an interesting read, never a dull moment.
Wow, I see you like my idea of “ROTW”
My proposition for “ROTW”:
1) People send low res before and after with a step-by-step history and short comment to the retouch (so you might get some info which may help you choose a winner)
2) When you like the retouch and think it might be a winner, you ask for high res image
3) If everything is OK. You publish a retouch in low res with ability to enlarge so everyone can see high res.
4) You add a comment
For this idea i think it would be better if it was “retouch of the month” because of a lot of sending back and forth.
…………..
Just giving an idea
Wow, ++ I’m a fan of any self-proclaimed geek.
pretty good melissa, peace!
Hello Melissa,
Ken here from KY.
I have a request. When ever you do a video tutorial, I want to see a gear list and what settings are used on the lens, light source,etc. This will help your readers and me. I also think it will draw more attention to you site
Most kindly
Ken in KY
Another source for training is Kelby Training, A lot less money and more variety.
And some great retouching on their site
http://www.kelbytraining.com/online/index.html
Ken in KY
Excellent David,
Thanks for the tips. What I did find encouraging was the ‘time’ element. I often wonder if I am spending too much time on a pic, being too finicky. Thanks to you, now I know that I am in good company. I recently spent the best part of two days on portrait of a girl for am album cover. I was happy with the end result but felt guilty as hell because it had taken me so long! Hopefully in time, with practise, I will get it down to 4 hours like your good self.
Once again thank you for your generosity.
Mark
Wales (UK)
Hi Mark!
Yes! You are in the same boat and you ARE doing the right thing! Especially for someone’s album cover! That’s something that must be on point. Whenever it comes to advertising it can take me weeks sometimes, because of the edits the client may have and getting the color exactly right for billboards, etc.. One project at my old workplace for a Halle Berry Perfume line took us about a month because that damn bottle just wasn’t perfect! HA.
Quality over quantity the way I see it!
DS
You certainly raised a good point there.
Another great entry. Thank you so much. I especially appreciate your point about not needing actions and having everything for the job right there in Photoshop. People are too action-happy these days and it really can completely ruin an image. Thanks again.
That’s great! Thanks David and Melissa.
I Have to read it tomorrow or this weekend. But I sure am going to get use of these tips. Thanks!
Thanks for the advise. It helps.
A really well explained point, thanks for sharing.
As a retoucher the biggest tip I was ever taught was patience. You can know all the tricks in the book but if you don’t have the patience to get a ‘foundation’ image in place then you’re not going anywhere. The foundations I was taught:
Detail – details make the image, just like a piece of coal in a jewellers shop they will stand out, especially when it comes to print.
Colour – Defines the subject. It affects our perception of the image, if you have lousy colour to start with no amount of F/X will resolve this.
Perception – A catch all for story and perspective. In other words who you’re editing for and what is the storyboard?
Once this in place then we can concentrate on building the image around the subject and enhancing it.
In addition to doing the circles I will often add scribbles of notes of what to do or what I envisage. I will group these into a folder to be switched on/off as need be.
Another issue I’ve come across is that it’s the younger generation who mostly do these ‘funky’ one click fix retouching jobs. All they are interested is getting their shots uploaded to their favourite social network and say “look how cool I am”. They’ll probably never print an image bigger than a 6×4″…
Consider carefully about releasing such a DVD I’m not against it, but there’s a reason why artists take on apprentices. Many retouchers won’t reveal these techniques not because they don’t want to but more to protect the industry from the influx of half-trained people trying to be something or offer cut price rates. Just look at the Strobist phenomenon where the DVDs have created a whole generation of people who are trying to mimic other a few people and not explore what the movement was supposed to be about… In any case most of the techniques are fairly obvious once you get to a certain stage of understanding PS and, unfortunately, they will think knowing these techniques will be next big artist. The retouching techniques done to the images are as much about the quality that goes into Photoshop as to what comes out.
In addition the apprenticeship isn’t just about the retouching skills but also the business skills on how to approach clients, charge rates and so on. We need this context to prevent the repetition of the cheap dSLRs have devalued the photographers market, or the Time For concept now killing much of the model portfolio market.
David, you’re a star. The tone of this subject rings so true with me (being an Old School git myself) and I have an inherent aversion to skin smoothing quick fixes which apart from the pixel blurring problem very easily turn a model’s skin to plastic. Good editing/retouching should be a craft as is photography and your ’4 hours plus’ comment underpins that.
Many thanks for your generous and illuminating comments.
its really great photography, well done
Dave
Well done. A tremendous set of guidelines that can only be provided by someone who has spent a great deal of time maturing their craft. I particularly liked the suggestion of looking at the photograph from multiple distances. I look forward to more posts from your unique perspective.
Its amazing how few people print out their work anymore.
Interesting stuff. Next week I’ll be following a masterclass retouching, so I’m looking forward to putting some of this into practice!
David,
This is really useful advice. Thanks for your post. I look forward to more in the future.
Thank you
Ryan
Cool pic!
Very interesting post. thanks for the info.
this really good article but i think that this blonde guy looks better before retouching with that filter.. i think the picture would be great if retouched with stamp and smudge a little bit with no filters but any way the light is so great i liked that
thanks
great post, totally agree with you. Thanks!
Great article, I completely agree
I’m just starting to do proper fashion retouching myself(im not big on the patience part..), and I’ve got a insane wrist pains to show for it;=)
This was an eye-opening post for me about how much work, time and skill it takes when doing professional retouching. Thanks.
I think ya got some great work n great tips.. I will pass along to my editing pals.
Piece-Drew
[...] [...]
Awesome opening picture… really makes u stare hard at it…
Great blog, we will be looking to contribute some more info
Thank you very much. This is so much help and perfect timing too.
SO damn good! I’m not into fashion post processing yet, but I understand the significance of this post. And the words and sentences used to describe all this is just great. I love your sarcastic ass
It’s nice to see someone telling the masses that to get a good image there is a little work that must be done. Everyone is always looking for a quick fix. Just spend some time with your most important images and you’ll find that your work will shine.
[...] de l’article original à l’adresse http://fashionphotographyblog.com/2009/05/top-3-retouching-tidbits-from-the-master/, photos d’origine [...]
Nice write up…usually I never reply to these thing but this time I will,Thanks for the great info.
Very cool post here. I’d love to see before and afters on the website though. It’s awesome to see the images laid over each other showing original and final to completely see the difference. Look at the retoucher Bianca Carosio’s website for what I’m trying to explain. There’s great work there too!
this is really helpful but before and afters, as michael said, would be even better.
wow!
thank you so much for those tips!
I´m getting addicted to this blog! amazing!
((WOW))…that Retoucher Bianca Carosio!!! Ahhh so fabulous!!!
Everything you’ve pointed out is absolute truth, it’s unfortunate that the internet has become saturated with ‘quick-fix’ ten step tutorials for ‘perfection’ in under five minutes. Great article.
I’m so glad to read this.. I took so many time in one photo and a photography teacher told me that I was wrong trying to retouch my work, he said that the photo was to be original… meaby I ude to much photoshop.. I learn by my self, but, I want to see my photos as magazine like! I’m going to try to use less pluggins…
Thanks for sharing .
Well written and lots of food for thought
You warmed my little old school heart with your post. The best blog post I’ve seen on the subject.
Wow, came across this blog on Google when I was searching tips for a shoot I just had. I’m not in fashion. Advertising, in fact. So a blog like this is coming in very handy right now that I’m on the post part of my campaign.
Thank you for putting sharing all of this. I’ll definitely be back. You’re amazing!
DFashion- I looked up the retoucher you mentioned, Bianca Carosio, and that portfolio is a wow factor. Do you know her through somewhere….she’s very intriguing.
The funny thing is:
if you say ‘hey, this is a great post’, usually you allready knows and don’t need it.
Hey! I worked with 2 famous fashion photographers in california that have worked with celebs such as the kardashians, lopez to lindsay wixon and this truthfully is the best read ive found after searching on google for what i personally learned in the world of fashion photography. very imformative. well done. very true.
Hi there,
Thanks for this very interesting insight in the mind of the retouch-pro!
Giving your technique of zooming in and out a try, I discovered a new one… at least for me… Maybe someone else wants to give it a try?
Here it is: I found that keeping the picture at about 125% and rocking your body and head left and right, makes imperfections in backgrounds appear! Spots and dirt and distractions you hadn’t noticed before, suddenly are so clear to the eye! I can’t explain it, but try it for yourself… Another way of achieving this, is looking at your monitor from different angles while retouching a background. Same thing happens: Imperfections that seemed invisible, suddenly appear when shifting your head to a different angle.
Tx again for the tips!
“Great, thanks for sharing this article. Keep composing.”
I’m so glad I found your blog. With my eyes I see that the skeen colour is nice and natural, just like I remember it from the day of shooting, but my friends, devoted amateur photographers, always criticize me and push to play with colour balance more to make it, in my view, artificial and ever saturated. Nice to be reasured by professional like you!