#Lightroom portrait retouching skin
#Lightroom portrait retouching full

This technique is also a great way to tone down blush or eyeshadow that has been applied too heavily.įlag the changes by turning the layer on and off.Shooting a portrait can be only half the battle. If you want a little more control, you can reduce the Flow from 100 to 75 or even lower. If you think you need to reduce the redness/orange cast further, then try something like -15. If you feel that you're losing too much of the natural color of the face, take your Saturation slider a bit more toward 0.

#Lightroom portrait retouching full

Paint over the full face, avoiding the eyes, lips, and hair just like before. If not, create one by zeroing all of the sliders, then pulling Saturation to -9 (some redness may require a slightly stronger brush). Many versions of Lightroom have a Red Out brush. You can remove it in the same way.Ĭreate a new adjustment.

#Lightroom portrait retouching skin

If a model's foundation isn't perfectly matched to their skin tone, you may see color streaks or an overall tint of orange. In either case, we want to reduce that color to create a more pleasing overall image. I tend to see redness more frequently in photographs of men than of women. There are lots of reasons for a model to have areas of redness: sensitive skin, rosacea, cold weather, etc. Step 4: Remove Skin Redness and Orange Cast If you have, simply pull the Texture and Clarity sliders back toward 0 until the image looks more natural. Make sure you haven't overly smoothed their skin. In many cases, men prefer images of themselves with more texture in their skin. Once you've completed skin smoothing, check your work by turning the adjustment on and off with the toggle switch in the bottom left corner of the palette. Click Add in your Adjustment Brush palette and paint over those specific spots with your Soften Skin (Lite) brush. In many cases, most of the face will be perfectly smooth while other portions around the nose and lips still need a little extra smoothing. The goal is to maintain some natural texture on the face but reduce the texture enough that it's not the first thing you notice. For others, you may want to pull the Texture slider to the left a little more. For some models, the skin will be sufficiently smooth at this point. Once you've painted all the skin, turn off the mask overlay, and take a look at your work zoomed in to 1:1. Check your progress and borders by clicking Show Selected Mask Overlay. Avoid the lips, eyes, and any hair (eyebrows, beards, sideburns, etc). Paint over any visible skin, including the neck, decolletage, arms, and hands. If you paint a portion of the image by accident, you can always select Erase and fix your mistakes. In most cases, I keep Auto Mask checked this will help navigate the borders while brushing and make sure you don't accidentally smooth the hair, eyes, or clothing. I set Feather to somewhere between 20 and 30 and set Flow and Density to 100. For skin smoothing, I prefer to adjust the brush size for different parts of the face. Just make sure all sliders are set to '0,' then bring Texture to -35 and Clarity to -15 as a starting point. I use Soften Skin (Lite), but if you're missing the brush for some reason, you can create your own. Depending on your version of Lightroom, you should find brush presets called Soften Skin and/or Soften Skin (Lite). Open the adjustment brush and click on the dropdown menu. Once I think I've healed everything I need to, I'll turn the tool overlay off, so I can make sure I don't have any weird clone sources making things look wonky. With the Spot Removal Tool, I keep the tool overlay set to always while I'm working, so I can see where I've been. For instance, Tina Fey famously wrote about her displeasure with retouchers who have removed her scar in images in the past.

The goal here is to avoid applying your own sense of beauty over the preference of the model. If the image you're editing is for you or a third party, use your best judgment. If the model is also the client, leave anything permanent such as scars, moles, or birthmarks, unless you've been specifically asked to fix or remove them. Zoom in to 1:1 or larger, so you can see what you're doing.įor healing, pay attention to blemishes, enlarged pores, blackheads, bumps, etc. Make sure you're set to 100% opacity with a decent feather border (something in the 30-50 range will be fine). Ideally, the tool overlay will be just a few pixels larger on each side than the blemish itself. The tool size should be dictated by the size of the blemish you're healing. Open the Spot Removal Tool and set it to Heal.