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.
