Help retouching

[Alex]

Is it possible to get rid of the destructing white and red background bits in the lower left part of this photo using PS CS?

What steps in PS would be needed?
Thanks in advance.

Alex

[phillipb]

Hi Alex,
There are probably many ways of doing it.
I reduced the saturation of the image then used the history brush to restore colour to the face, hat etc.
But you would need to spend a fair bit of time to restore the colour around the hair where the red shirt is to do a good job.

[sirhc55]

Now that Phillip has done his part all you need to do further is clone out the white patch.

[Alex]

Thanks Philip! This is great!
Alex

[shutterbug]

[shutterbug]

oops forgot the white part

[Alex]

Vince! This is unbelievable. How was this done, please please please??
Alex

[shutterbug]

Hi Alex,
Same as phillipb, completely desaturate, and use history brush to retore area. Also burn the hair abit on both sides, so do hide the red colour behind hair and finally add some blur to image, to smooth face.

[Alex]

Thanks a lot guys! I think I'm finally getting it right. I selectively desaturated the red area.

Cheers
Alex

[Hlop]

Hi Alex,
... and finally add some blur to image, to smooth face.

Hi Vince,

This part is interesting - I did some experiments but didn't get good results. Correct me if I'm wrong - you're copying layer, blur it and then erasing averything except skin, aren't you? What blur are you applying usually?

[shutterbug]

Used Gaussian Blur on new layer, just erase eye and mouth

[Alex]

I did a simple blur with 1.0 pix radius which gave a hardly noticable result. I didn't really aim for the 'model' look so it was not that important. But in Scott Kelby book, he uses a duplicate layer to give a blur of 3-6 pix radius and then use history brush to go back to the original 'sharp' eyes, lips, and other non-skin elements. But in my case, because the blur was so insignifican I saw no difference in softness of eyes or lips between the original or the image after the gaussian blur. Does this make sense?

Alex

[Alex]

Vince,

Your Gaussian blur gives amazing results, I must say, if one is after that 'mode' look. What radius did you use for blur?
Thanks
Alex

[Hlop]

Used Gaussian Blur on new layer, just erase eye and mouth

Thanks Vince!

What is the amount of blur(radius) you're using usualy?

[shutterbug]

Usually it depends on the image, around radius 10. Also I burn/dodge around image.

[Hlop]

Usually it depends on the image, around radius 10. Also I burn/dodge around image.

Aw... 10 ... Isn't it too much? Are you lowering layer's opacity?

[Alex]

Yes, 10 seems like an awful lot but if that's the case, the results are worth it.

Alex

[dooda]

If you wanted to fix it up even more, you could try whitening the teeth slightly. If it's someone you know, they may appreciate it. Pretty good shot though if I may say so.

[shutterbug]

oh, that was in general around radius 10. For the above image I think it was radius 6.

[shutterbug]

What I also do sometime is, have a high radius and use history brush set at 30% and delete some off.

[Alex]

If you wanted to fix it up even more, you could try whitening the teeth slightly. If it's someone you know, they may appreciate it. Pretty good shot though if I may say so.

Thanks, mate.

I wasn't really aiming for glamour look as it was supposed to be a snap shot of a model after the show. I just wanted to remove the annoying background. However, I'm glad the thread took off in the direction it has because I learnt some new techniques as a result.

Cheers
Alex

[Hlop]

Tried to do the same thing - result is crap! It's clearly visible that image has been blured but radius was just 5 What's been done wrong?

[Alex]

Looks pretty good to me, Mikhail. The only destracting thing I find with the image is I think you could used eraser to bring back the original hair sharpness on the left hand side.'

Cheers
Alex

[pippin88]

I think her nose line has been overly softened, and maybe the right edge of her face? Try lightly history brushing some sharpness back in along those lines?

[Hlop]

Pippin88,

I think you can achive the same result just erasing top blurred layer but it looks even more ugly. Just wondering how shutterbug softened the skin but kept all the lines sharp ....

Alex,

I wodn't say it's pretty good. Very average result. Not too bad but far from perfect