Photo Retouching and Restoration, Using Photoshop
Elements
~~Sara Froehlich, Northlite Designs
This is an excerpt from one lesson of the next level
in my series of Photoshop Elements courses: Photoshop Elements Retouching
and Restoration. You can enroll in Level 3 by going to the
class
description page here and clicking on the
Enroll Now link
at the bottom of the description. Completion of previous levels is
a requirement to take this class. You may register for the other
Elements classes as well by following this link:
Photoshop
Elements Courses at Eclectic Academy
The classes progress as follows:
- Photoshop Elements From the Ground Up
- Photoshop Elements Level 1
- Photoshop Elements Level 2
- Photoshop Elements Level 3: Photo Retouching and Restoration
The next session starts November 9, 2003! Twinkle in your eye gone?
Sometimes during correction or because of lighting, eyes don't have
that natural twinkle that makes a photo come alive. Here's how to get
it back. This is a detail of a retouched portrait of my daughter. Find
a photo of your own where you want to put the twinkle back in the eyes.
Step 1 Open the photo in Elements and duplicate
the layer by dragging it to the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers
palette. Note: There always seems to be confusion
in these classes if your layers are not exactly like mine. This time, please
note that I started
with a photo that had already been retouched, and the photo did not have
a background layer, but a real layer, and is named Layer 1. Yours might
be called background; and in that case, your duplicate layer will be called
Background Copy. In this series of classes you may not always have the
same thing as I do, because we will be working on different photos.
Below is a close-up of the eyes area, at about 50%. Since
it was done for print, it's too large to show here at 100%.
Step 2 Make your view 100% size. When sharpening,
it's often very important to be able to see the effects full size.
On the duplicate layer, run Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp
Mask at about
amount 88%, Radius 1, threshold 4. These settings are common ones shared with
us by Scott Kelby in his book "Photoshop Elements for Digital Photographers".
Click OK to
sharpen
the whole
photo.
Step 3 Cmd/ctrl+F two
times to apply the unsharp mask
twice more. The photo
will be very over-sharpened. In fact it will probably look pretty bad
overall, but don't worry about that. You are on the duplicate layer.
Step 4 Hold the cmd/ctrl
key and click one
time on the new layer icon on the
bottom of the layers palette. This will create a new blank layer
right under the selected layer (the duplicate, sharpened layer).
Now
click on the sharpened layer again (mine is layer 1 copy) in the layers palette
to make it the active layer and press cmd/ctrl+G to
group the layers. The visible sharpness disappears, but that's ok, that's
what's
supposed to
happen. Basically we have "faked" a layer mask like Photoshop has.
Step 5 In the layers palette click on the
blank layer to make it active (it should be in the
middle). We will be painting on this layer.
Step 6 Press D to
set the colors to default black and white, switch to the brush tool and
choose a soft edged
brush that is smaller than the person's eyes from the options bar. "Paint" over
just the irises and pupils of the eyes to reveal the results of the
eye sharpening, making the eyes sparkle. Make sure you are painting on
the blank layer!
Step 7 Merge all layers. See how easy that
was?
©2003 Sara Froehlich
All Rights Reserved
All images are copyrighted to and are the property of Sara Froehlich and may
not be reproduced without
written permission with the
exception that you may print one copy of this tutorial for personal use.
Sara Froehlich of
Northlite Designs
is an instructor with Eclectic Academy, where her online courses include
Expression: Beyond the Basics, 4 levels of Photoshop Elements classes,
Photoshop Pizzazz!, a special effects Photoshop class, Fireworks, FreeHand,
and various filters. Go to
http://www.eclecticacademy.com to enroll in one of her classes.
She also is an instructor at LVS Online, where she
teaches intermediate Adobe Illustrator classes, FreeHand, Fireworks and
Intro to Dreamweaver. Go to
http://www.lvsonline.com
to enroll in one of her classes there.
For more information on all of the classes Sara
teaches, go to
http://www.northlite.net/classes.htm
Expression Tips and Tutorials:
http://northlite.50megs.com/expr
Illustrator Tips and Tutorials:
http://northlite.50megs,com/illus
All tutorials are listed at
http://www.northlite.net/tutes.htm
|
,
