How to do Professional Facial Retouching in Photoshop

Today i decided to create one new tutorial where you can learn how to do professional facial retouching that professionals use for photo processing in fashion magazines.

Step 1

Open photo and resize it by using Image > Image Size to 1500 px width and 1000px height.

Step 2

Let’s start by correcting color on photo. Copy layer by using Ctrl+J. Blur photo a bit using Fliter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with following parameters:

Step 3

Change layer blending mode to Color for this layer.

Step 4

Go to Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options and on Advanced Blending remove check marks from R and G channels.

Now adjust color slightly to your taste on this layer using Image > Adjustments > Curves.

Step 5

Now we are going to remove skin defects. Create a new layer. Choose the Healing Brush Tool, then select Sampled in Source parameter and select All Layers for Sample parameter. Choose the part of the face, that we’ll be using as a sample.

Step 6

Using the Healing Brush Tool (choose soft edges of the brush) and holding the Alt button we choose the most clear skin area, then overlay the sample image on the problem skin area to remove the defect.

Step 7

Then go to forehead area and remove defects by using the same method.

Step 8

We also remove small wrinkles that possibly annoys the eye (still working with the Healing Brush Tool).

Step 9

In the end we should have the following result:

You can see on photo below where i applied Healing Brush Tool:

Step 10

Up to this moment we should have three layers – bottom layer (original photo), layer with color correction and the upper layer, on which we have carried out skin cleaning. Copy all the three layers twice by using Ctrl+J for each layer, then move the copies of the three layers grouping them like on image below. Finally merge both new layer groups together, using Ctrl+E and you will have five layers. Temporarily turn off visibility of the upper layer and work on the other layer (Layer 1 copy).

Step 11

We are going to work on creating the perfect skin texture. Choose the Polygonal Lasso Tool and select the face (it’s not necessary to select regularly).

Step 12

Invert the selection using Select > Inverse and delete everything that is situated in the selected area by pressing Delete button. On the layer you should only have the face now. Select eyebrow area using the Polygonal Lasso Tool and delete it using Delete button.

Step 13

Press Ctrl+D to deselect selected area. Remove the second eyebrow and start deleting eyes on the same way.

Step 14

Now do the same thing to the lips area.

If you turn off visibility on all other layers you can see we should have something like a mask on layer. Turn back on visibility on all layers except upper layer.

Step 15

Apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to this layer with following settings:

Step 16

Change layer opacity to 65%.

Step 17

Turn on visibility of the upper layer.

Create Clipping Mask for this layer using Layer > Create Clipping Mask. Apply Filter > Other > High Pass with following settings:

Step 18

Change blending mode on this layer to Linear Light.

Step 19

Change layer opacity to 50% for this layer.

Step 20

You can stop here if you’re satisfied with the result. But there are too many red and yellow color tones on the portrait, sometimes it can be noticeable on the last steps, as in this case. It can be easily corrected, for this purpose merge all the layers into one using Ctrl+Shift+E and apply Image > Adjustments > Color Balance with the following parameters to newly created layer:

Final Image

Now this tutorial is complete. You can make extra color correction as well or convert photos to grayscale or sepia mode. Hope this tutorial was useful to you.

Moving Photos Between Documents In Photoshop

Here, I have two photos open on my screen. I'm using Photoshop CS5 but all versions will look fairly similar. Each photo appears inside its own floating document window:

Photoshop's interface, with two photos currently open.

CS4 and CS5 Users Only: Just a quick note, if you are using Photoshop CS4 or CS5 and you're following along with your own images, they may be opening in tabbed documents rather than in floating document windows. As I mentioned earlier, we'll look more closely at these new tabbed documents in the next tutorial, but for now, if you're not seeing floating document windows, go up to the Window menu at the top of the screen, choose Arrange, and then choose Float All in Windows (again, this is for Photoshop CS4 and CS5 users only):

For CS4 and CS5 users, go to Window > Arrange > Float All in Windows.

Even though we're seeing two document windows on the screen, Photoshop, for the most part, only works with one document at a time (the other one just kind of sits there being ignored). The one we're working on is known as the "active" document, and the easiest way to tell which one is currently active is by looking in the Layers panel. For example, if we look in my Layers panel right now, we can see that the Background layer's preview thumbnail is displaying the photo of the woman looking through the curtains, which means it's the active document:

The preview thumbnail shows us what's on the layer.

To switch between documents and make a different one active, all we need to do is click anywhere inside of it. I'll click inside the photo of the water drops, which makes it the active document, and if we look again in the Layers panel, we see the water drops image sitting on the Background layer. The other photo no longer appears:

With a different document now active, the Layers panel shows a different image.

The important thing to note here is that only one photo at a time was appearing in the Layers panel, not both, and that's because each photo is open in a completely separate document. Yes, both photos are open in Photoshop and yes, I can see them both on my screen, but that's the end of it as far as Photoshop is concerned. All Photoshop sees is two totally independent documents that have nothing to do with each other. I'd like to blend these two photos together, but there's currently no way I can do it, not unless I can somehow move one of the photos into the other photo's document. Let's look at a few easy ways to do just that.

Method 1: Drag and Drop

Moving a photo from one document to another in Photoshop can be a real drag. And by that, of course, I mean that the easiest and most common way to move an image between documents is to simply drag it! To do that, we need Photoshop's Move Tool, which you can access by clicking on its icon at the top of the Tools panel. Your Tools panel may appear as a single or double column depending on which version of Photoshop you're using, but the Move Tool is always at the top:

Select the Move Tool.

With the Move Tool active, click inside the photo you want to move. Then, with your mouse button still held down, drag it into the other photo's document window. I want to move the water drops photo into the other photo's document, so I'll click inside the water photo document, keep my mouse button held down, and drag the photo into the other document:

Click inside one document, hold your mouse button down, and drag the photo into the other document.

When you release your mouse button, Photoshop drops the photo into the other document:

A copy of the photo appears inside the other photo's document.

Notice, though, that Photoshop simply dropped the photo at the spot where I released my mouse button, which in my case placed it in the bottom right of the document. That's kind of a sloppy way to work. A better way to move a photo is to hold down your Shift key as you're dragging from one document to another. In other words, click inside the photo you want to move, hold down Shift, drag the photo into the other document, then release your mouse button, then release the Shift key. Adding the Shift key tells Photoshop to center the photo inside the document.

I'll quickly undo my previous step by pressing Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac), then I'll again drag the water drops photo into the other document, this time while holding down the Shift key. I'll release my mouse button, then release my Shift key (very important that you release your Shift key after releasing your mouse button), and here we can see that the water drops photo now appears in the center of the document:

The photo now appears in the center.

If we look in the Layers panel, we see that we've successfully copied the photo into the other photo's document, as both photos are now showing, one on top of the other. The original photo is sitting on the Background layer, and Photoshop placed the water drops photo on its own new layer above it:

When you move a photo from one document to another, Photoshop automatically adds a new layer for the photo.

If the "drag and drop" approach isn't your thing, we'll look at two more ways to easily move photos between documents next!

Method 2: Duplicating The Layer

If the freestyle "drag and drop" approach to moving photos between documents doesn't appeal to you, you can also use Photoshop's Duplicate Layer command. First, click inside the document that contains the photo you want to move, which makes it the active document. I'll click inside my water drops photo. Then, go up to the Layer menu in the Menu Bar along the top of the screen and choose Duplicate Layer:

Go to Layer > Duplicate Layer.

Alternatively, you can Right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) directly on the layer itself in the Layers panel and choose Duplicate Layer from the menu that appears:

Right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) on the layer and choose Duplicate Layer.

Either way opens the Duplicate Layer dialog box. Enter a name for the layer that the photo will appear on in the other document. I'll name mine "Water drops". Then, in the Destination section at the bottom of the dialog box, select the name of the document you want to move the photo into. I'll select my "looking through window.jpg" document. Yours, of course, will probably be named something different:

Name the new layer, then select the destination document.

Click OK when you're done, and Photoshop copies the photo from its original document into the new one. I can see in my Layers panel that the water drops photo is now sitting on a layer named "Water drops" above the Background layer:

Photoshop placed the photo on a new layer named "Water drops", since that's the name I gave it in the Duplicate Layer dialog box.

Method 3: Copy And Paste

Yet another way to move photos between documents is the standard "copy and paste" method which will be familiar to anyone who's been using a computer for any length of time. First, click inside the document that contains the photo you want to move. Then, go up to the Select menu at the top of the screen and choose All (or press Ctrl+A (Win) / Command+A (Mac) for the keyboard shortcut):

Go to Select > All.

This selects the entire photo. A selection outline will appear around its edges in the document window:

Select the photo you want to move.

With the photo selected, go up to the Edit menu and choose Copy (or press Ctrl+C (Win) / Command+C (Mac)), which copies the photo to the clipboard:

Go to Edit > Copy.

Click inside the document you want to copy the photo into to make it the active document, then go back up to the Edit menu and choose Paste (or press Ctrl+V (Win) / Command+V (Mac)):

Go to Edit > Paste.

Photoshop pastes the photo into the new document, and once again in the Layers panel, we see that the photo has been placed on its own layer above the original image on the Background layer:

One photo has been copied and pasted into the other photo's document.

With both photos now inside the same document, I'm ready to blend them together. An easy way to blend photos is to change the layer blend mode. With the water drops photo's layer active (active layers are highlighted in blue), I'll go up to the blend mode option in the top left of the Layers panel and simply change it from Normal to Soft Light:

Changing the top layer's blend mode to Soft Light.

Changing the blend mode was all it took to combine the two photos into a whole new image, with the water drops now appearing on the window the woman is looking through: