Masking / Background removal / Retouching tutorial

[TypeO]

OK, this is basically a 2-part tutorial.
The first part shows how I use the Quick Mask, or paint-on mask function to remove the background of a picture, and isolate the central image. I also use the history brush to optimize the coloring of the photo.
The second part demonstrates the method I use to enhance a facial close-up, reducing skin discolorations and blemishes, as well as wrinkles and other undesirable features.
We’ll start with the first part of the tutorial – paint-on masking using Quick Mask mode.
I’ve chosen a rather handsome shot of myself, and to answer the obvious question, NO, amazingly I am NOT a model.



To begin with, the pic is a bit dark and has an overall reddish-orange tint, so we’ll apply a quick Auto Levels adjustment which, if you’re not familiar with tweaking hue-brightness-contrast, can often get you a decent color balance.



But not always, as evidenced by the results of the adjustment shown below.



The Auto Levels adjustment has given me a nice brightness and contrast, but the color has shifted towards the green. We’ll deal with correcting that with the History Brush after we remove the background.
Towards the bottom of the toolbar, just below the foreground/background swatches, are the buttons for entering and exiting Quick Mask mode.



Once we’re into Quick Mask, we’ll adjust the brush for the best results. Because I’m working on a large 300 dpi image, I’ll need a fairly large brush. I’m using a 50 px brush at 90% hardness, full opacity, and I’ve reduced the spacing (the rate of repeat) to 10% for a smoother line. The brush is set to normal mode.



Next, we simply paint a border following the outer edge of the head (or whatever object you may be masking). I use a click-shift-click method, which creates a continuous line from one click to the next.



I continue until I have completely outlined my subject as shown below.



Next, select your Paint Bucket tool to fill in the rest of the background to be removed. Because the brush at 90% has a 10% feathering to the edge, the Paint Bucket fill will not fill in completely on a single fill. I actually choose white, and fill twice to harden the edges of the painted mask, and then switch to black, with 2 more fills. You’ll notice the first fill leaves a couple-pixel wide line around the image that a second fill will remove. Be careful not to fill too many times, because it will begin to “creep” into your image.



Now that the mask is totally filled, we can exit Quick Mask mode.

[TypeO]

Once we exit Quick Mask, it’s a good idea to immediately save your mask, and all the hard work that went into creating it. Choose Select > Save Selection…



If you’re doing a large project with multiple masks, it’s a good idea to name the mask in the space provided. Otherwise it defaults to naming masks “Alpha 1”, “Alpha 2”, etc. For our project, I’m not using names.



After saving, you’ll notice the mask is revealing my head and face.



You need to invert your mask to take in the background to be removed. It’s as simple as CTRL-SHIFT-I.



And once you’ve inverted the mask, and in so doing selected your background, simply hit delete to remove the background. CTRL-D releases the mask – don’t worry, you saved it earlier!



Next, I’ve opened a “Parental Discretion” graphic to use for a new background, and I simply drag the layer into my project. CTRL-T allows me to transform the layer by scaling it – holding the Shift key while dragging a corner constrains the perspective, and prevents “stretching” or “squishing” your image -– until it fills the background properly.



Now we’ll straighten out the coloring on the face. The original coloring was a little too reddish-orange, but the current Auto Levels result is a little too green. So we’re gonna create a compromise. Enter the History Brush. The History Brush basically “paints” with the original state of the photo.
First, we re-load our mask – a simple CTRL-Click on the Layer Thumbnail of the isolated head – to limit the area that the History Brush restores. After selecting the History Brush, I set it to 250 px, fully feathered edge (or 0% hardness) and the same 10% spacing.



Next, because I don’t want to restore the entire original color, I set my history brush to 50% opacity. This basically gives me a 50-50 compromise between the original reddish-orange image and the adjusted greenish image.



The only drawback to painting at 50% opacity is you have to do it all in a single stroke. If you click the brush a second time, anywhere it overlaps the previous stroke you will get 100% restoration of the original – no good! In this case, I simply used the brush everywhere except my eyes, allowing them to retain the lightened effect of the Auto levels adjustment.

[TypeO]

Now that we’ve gotten the color right, we move into the 2nd part of the tutorial – enhancing the face and removing blemishes, discolorations, etc.
While your mask is still active, return to Quick Mask mode. You should get a result similar to the image below.



What we are going to do is capture the skin texture of my face and neck, excluding any hair, eyes or nostrils. You’ll want your mask to have soft edges so the adjustments you make will fade smoothly into the non-adjusted areas. I’ve chosen a brush at 50% hardness, adjust the size according to your area.



In this case, I’m unmasking my eyes, nostrils, facial hair and eyebrows. Zoom in tight for the best results.



Now, we’re simply painting with white to unmask the areas necessary.



Here’s how it ended up –



Now, we exit Quick Mask mode once again, and we end up with a mask tracing the skin area.



CTRL-C (while the head layer is selected of course) copies the desired area, and CTRL-V pastes it directly above in a new layer.

2010 EDIT: Instead of CTRL-C and CTRL-V (copy and paste), simply press CTRL-J while the mask is active on the desired layer, and it automatically places the selected area on a new layer above.
CTRL-J without an active selection (mask) simply duplicates the selected layer and places it above - as opposed to dragging the layer onto the "new layer" icon on the layers palette.
Shortcuts are the key to mastering photoshop.
And now, back to our regularly-scheduled tutorial -

Here is our new TypeO skin mask



Save your new mask as before, it will become “Alpha 2” if you haven’t named them. CTRL-D releases the mask.
Next, we Desaturate the skin mask layer – Image > Adjustments > Desaturate



Now we do the cool, next-level type stuff. We’re gonna use a filter called High Pass. It basically maps the texture and contrasts of the selected layer, you can experimant with this yourself. The higher the Radius value, the more detailed the results.



I went with a 10 px Radius.



Next, you set the Layer Mode for the Skin Mask to “Overlay”.
Reducing the layer opacity controls how much of the original skin texture shows.

[TypeO]

Next, I duplicate the original head layer, and select the upper duplicate layer. I re-load my “Alpha 2” mask – Selection > Load Selction > Alpha 2 – which is the skin mask. Next I apply a gaussian blur, radius around 7 px to the head layer in order to fade the discolorations and blemishes.





Next I use the Dodge tool (set to 50% opacity, 0% hardness) to lighten the dark areas around and under my eyes.



Then I sample some of the natural fleshtones around my nose and using my regular Paint Brush, 0% hardness, and set to around 20% opacity. I alternate between multiply and overlay modes to re-color the skin around my eyes. Multiply darkens the area, overlay brightens and intensifies the color.



Next I use my Clone Tool, 0% hardness, 50% opacity and about 50 px size to de-emphasize the lines / wrinkles in my neck and forehead area, I simply sample a nearby area (ALT-CLICK) and follow along each line. They are still visible, but much less noticeable.





Last of all, I zoom in on my nostrils and paint with my normal Paint Brush, 0% hardness, 50% opacity, in darken mode with a dark brown color to shade my nostrils and darken the gray hair in them – ewwwww - thereby drawing less attention to them.



And finally – the finished rpoduct!



And here’s a side-by-side for comparison.



Now you too can go out and do the retouches that Glamour Shots charges out the butt to do!
Good luck with that.

[ndg]

veddy nice :andykaufmansause:

[Bosko]

Lots of info there...................I wouldn't say it was a B................because it's F'in........a

[sherief]

why dont you guys try this way of retouching here :

retouching skin & smoothing using smudge !!

[Ace Bigalow]

Originally Posted by sherief

why dont you guys try this way of retouching here :

retouching skin & smoothing using smudge !!

Not knocking your way, but it is a quick/easy way to do something that needs to be done fast or that isn't very important.

Typeo's way is the way professionals do it and you get professional results.

[TypeO]

Originally Posted by Ace Bigalow

Not knocking your way, but it is a quick/easy way to do something that needs to be done fast or that isn't very important.

Typeo's way is the way professionals do it and you get professional results.

I'd like to see some actual screen shots or before / after shots of this smudge tool method - there's not a lot of explanation in that linked post.
I know the smudge tool destroys subtleties like skin texture, which is important to achieving realistic results.

Funny thing is, since I posted this tutorial I've learned tons more about PS as well as retouching.

To begin with, I should have been using layer masks instead of actually deleting the pixels.

And if you're using CS3 or higher, it's best to make your color adjustments by opening your jpg or tif using the ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) interface, which is much more powerful for achieving accurate color-correction.

To open a jpg or tif in CS3, you need to use the "open as" option - select "camera RAW" from the "file type" drop-down and it will open your photo in the ACR interface.

In CS4, you simply set jpgs and tifs to open in ACR automatically in the EDIT > PREFERENCES > FILEHANDLING > CAMERA RAW SETTINGS dialog.

[Swol]

This is a good thread to see brought back into the light of day.