Today’s post is about using Photoshop to fix small problems in photos.
For example, you take a picture of your friend and they aren’t exactly smiling.
This can be fixed in Photoshop.
This is the photo I started with.
First I’ll fix the contrast a bit.
Now here’s how we’re going to adjust facial features: the Liquify tool.
It can be found in Filter tab.
This is a tool many professionals use to make models look thinner, enlarge their eyes, and even completely re-proportion facial and body features.
That being said, it’s also extremely fickle and can have disastrous results if you try too hard and don’t pay attention to details.
The screen should look something like this when opened.
I don’t personally like drastically altering what people look like in Photoshop.
So, I’m going to use it to make the blonde little girl smile a bit more using the brush.
The key to this tool is subtlety.
Moving anything too much will make it look unnatural and distort the photo.
Now I’m going to put Julia Trotti’s “Humming Bees” curve to give the photo a bit of a vintage look.
It softens up the photo and adds a bit of warmth.
Now to add even more I’m going to paint some digital light leaks on another layer over the photo.
I used a yellow shade and then played with the layer’s opacity.
(For another way to do this you can check out this post by Cameron Rad.)
The key to making most digital light leaks look realistic is to make sure the brush being used has a very soft edge.
Now I’m going to add a bit of a vignette to the photo, just so the edges of the picture are a little crisper.
To make a vignette, you can select the Gradient Tool (hidden under the Paint Bucket in the Toolbar).
Make sure that the color and transparent option (second to left on the top row in the picture above) is selected, as well as the circular gradient shape next to these options.
(If that doesn’t make sense just copy what I’ve done in the picture.)
Just click, drag, and let go and your gradient should appear.
I always do this on a separate layer so that I can play with the opacity.
In this picture I turned it way down because I only wanted a very subtle darkness on the edges.
That’s all folks.
Here’s Conor Oberst‘s Milk Thistle for nostalgia’s sake.
alyxeris 