Portrait Editing Tutorial

[MartinBabies]

Portrait Editing
By MartinBabies
Please note that this tutorial is not for Photoshop beginners. It is written for advanced users who know their way around the program. If you decide to give it a shot but just end up understanding nothing, I won't sit here answering questions about layer modes or similar basic functions.



I got a request to write a tutorial on how I edited one of my portraits.
The photo was just a snapshot which I did some experimenting on, but it came out pretty nice.
The light source is a big window in front of him. The settings were 1/160, F/5.0 ISO-400.
This is what I did in this portrait.

Original image:


Multiply technique
A technique which is often used in portraits by professional and advanced photographers.
Creates some drama and nice tones.

1. Duplicate your layer and set the layer mode to Multiply.
2. Go to Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlights.

Settings:


3. If needed (probably) begin masking away parts from this layer.
You can see my mask for this photo below.

Mask:


Result:



Depth Of Field technique
An interesting technique that creates a short DOF. Helps the viewer to concentrate on the stuff you want him/her to concentrate on.

1. Go to your Channels and duplicate the red channel (right-click, copy).
2. Here we will decide what will be blurred and what will not. Start painting with black and white brushes.
You can see my channel below.

Channel:


3. Go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur. Use the channel as source.

Settings:


Result:



Contrast
To make the photo more dramatic we'll add some contrast.

1. Before applying the overall contrast adjustments I wanted to emphasize the eyes a little.
Take the Dodge Tool, set the Range to Highlights and brush a little on the eyes with a soft brush. A few clicks will do the trick.

2. Now for the contrast. Create a Curves layer.

Settings:


3. Some parts might get too dark when doing this. We want as much tones left as possible so we'll mask away some parts from the Curves layer.

Mask:


4. I wanted to darken some parts in his face. Create a new Curves layer.

Settings:


5. Again mask away the darkest parts to keep some information in the photo.

Mask:


6. I got a comment that part of his nose was darker than the rest, so I fixed that with some simple Curves. I don't think I need to explain that.
7. Applying contrast will of course increase the colors. Lower the saturation a bit with a Hue/Saturation layer.

Settings:


Result:



Eye emphasizing
Interesting eyes can really save a portrait so let's try some advanced eye editing.

1. Make a selection of the eyes. Duplicate this part from your base layer and put it above all your contrast layers.
2. Go to Filter > Other > High Pass. Set this layer to Overlay. If you want more crisp you could add some simple Brightness/Contrast to it.

Settings:


3. Now for some detail work. With the eyes selected create a Hue/Saturation layer and pull the Saturation up quite a lot.
4. Create another layer just like the previous and set it to Colorize. Select a blue color with the saturation of 25.
5. Lower the opacity for this last layer with 50%.
6. New layer set to Overlay. Take a soft white brush that is half the size of the eye and brush in the middle of the eye. This will make the center of the eye brighter.
The pupil might also become brighter so you could mask away that. If this layer makes the eyes to bright just lower the opacity.
7. If there are any reflections in the eyes, you can emphasize them by creating a new layer set to Overlay again.
Take a small soft brush and brush on the reflections. You might want to lower the opacity for this layer though.

Result (100% crop):



Black and white convertion
There are one billion ways to convert a photo to black and white. I'll show you one of the easiest ways.

1. Create a Hue/Saturation layer which you put on top of all the layers. Drag the saturation down to -100.
2. Black and white requires more contrast than color so create a Curves layer and add some simple contrast.

Result:


Applying my Sharpening technique to this would also be nice.
And that's it! Below you can compare the original image with the processed one.

[robgasm]

You black+white an image via saturation not channels?

[MartinBabies]

Depends. This time I did it as the levels already were pretty much how I wanted them.

[Papa]

Nice martin. Looks awesome. That multiply technique helps a lot. I'm glad you covered it.

[Daemon]

Awesome tutorial, thx for it man. you are the best.

[MartinBabies]

Thanks.

[Coolman]

im not pro enough lol, every time I do it, the picture turns red?

[Coolman]

oh nah got it now

[waijn]

Cool effect! Nice tut tho

[stanx]

thanks for the tutorial mate