This is a PHOTOSHOP tutorial for photographers and photomanipulators who want to edit

their portraits and macro shots of body parts. A professional edited photo is the perfect base
for any kind of artwork that may result from it. If you want to use the tips and informations
provided in this tutorial you must have a basic understanding of picture editing and you
should own at least Photoshop 6 or 7!!!

NOTE: PLEASE BE AWARE THAT YOU MAY GET DIFFERENT RESULTS WITH YOUR OWN IMAGES
THAN I GOT WITH MY IMAGE EXAMPLE!

So let‘s get started! Be sure that your picture is in a good quality and not too small. I used a
close-up picture of an eye made by Stina Gevelt - http://stinabg.deviantart.com/.

This is what we are going for:

Go on reading on the next page:

 We start with simple adjustments on the over-all colour
sheme of the picture to remove the colour imbalance and
reddishness of the skin.
1. Create a new blank layer on top of your
background layer and fill it with bright
skin tone colour like you see on the right.
2. Blending Mode: SOFT LIGHT, Opacity: 30%
Copy skin tone layer with Shift + J or right-click on
layer >> Copy layer, Blending Mode: HUE, Opacity: 30%

TIP: Don’t use the Selective Colour Tool! If you don’t

like the color changes on the eye and the mak-up, don’t
care about it now. We can change that later.

This part is the most time-consuming and extensive in picture editing: Removing the
freckles, wrinkles, pores, impurities and other unwanted details on the skin! The most
common tool to deal with all this is: Healing Brush. But there are two big disadvantages in
the use of this tool: 1. Automatic colour matching, 2. No opacity adjustment.

TIP: Use the CLONE STAMP TOOL. This tool paints with sampled pixels of an image.

How to use it in general:

1. Select the Clone Stamp Tool from the Toolbox.
2. In the Options bar, set the tool’s tip size and hardness.
3. Point the cursor at the image area you want to paint with, hold down [Alt] key, then mouse-click.
You have just selected the source point for cloning.
4. Paint with the copied pixels.
5. The “Aligned” gadget in the Options bar (checked by default) forces the source point to follow your mouse, even after
you complete a stroke. In other words, every new stroke continues the image started by the first stroke.
6. Deselecting the “Aligned” option starts the sample point back to its original location every time you release the mouse
button. That is, every new stroke re-starts cloning your image from the source point.

Always use a SOFT round brush.For bigger smooth areas (like freckles, red spots) select a big
brush, opacity 50-75 %, for smaller sharp areas (like wrinkles, pores) select a smaller brush,
opacity 70-90%, 100% opacity only for very sharp and focussed areas.
Select a clean source with [Alt] key + left mouse-click very close to the area you want to fix,
then paint over the imperfect area and repeat that until it is fixed, maybe change sources
from time to time if the first selected clean source is very small. Repeat that step with all
imperfections.

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 The two pictures on the left show how your pointer
is looking (1) when you select your source point while
hold down the [Alt] key and click and (2) when you start
painting after it.
1. Start with easy editable parts.
2. Take care that the colours and textures of the source
match the area to be fixed.
3. Only paint little areas at once, let go the mouse button
often and click again.
(1)

(2)

Fixed soft parts on the cheek: bigger Fixed sharp parts around the eye:
soft round brush, opacity 70% smaller soft brush, opacity 40-60%

TIP: If you retouch wrinkles - don’t remove them completely! Just soften them for a more
natural look. Retouch the fine capillaries in the eye as well if they are intensely visible.

Simple method to remove very small irregularities on skin

When there are only minor things to fix you can also try the Median Filter to clean and
soften skin. Go to: FILTER >> NOISE >> MEDIAN, select maximum 5-10 pixels, higher filter
radiuses make the skin look blurry. Don‘t worry about the sharp parts that will smoothed as
well, we will call that off in the next step.
Now we need the HISTORY BRUSH TOOL. Photoshop’s History palette records each step
you take as you edit. The History Brush works in conjunction with the History palette to
allow you to restore parts of an image to the way they appeared earlier in your editing
History.

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How the History Brush Tool Works

1. With the History Brush Tool active and the History

palette visible, you click the tiny empty box to the
left of the entry in the History palette that you’d
like to use as a restore point. Think of the restore
point as the stage in your image editing history from
which you’d like to undo the effect of the last
action. In our case you choose the entry just before
you used the Median Filter.
2. You choose the size and characteristics of your brush,
including diameter, blending mode, opacity, and flow.
3. You paint on the areas that you’d like the History
Brush to affect. That means you paint where you want
to restore the sharpness: the eye, the lashes and the
eyebrows. The rest of the image remains unchanged
4. When you are finished uncheck the box with the
History Brush in the History palette.
I don‘t have a screenshot for this action because I didn‘t
use it on my picture. It wouldn‘t have been useful to
apply the Median Blur here. But for your work it may
come in handy.

The main part of the editing is done. The skin looks

very smooth without having lost its natural texture and
sharpness. [See example on the left] We have now a
very basic and natural result without any extras like
highlights, shadows, contrast or colouring.

In the following I’ll give you a few examples of different

ways to add a special colouring to your picture. For that
you work now on the extra layers that you have added
in Chapter I and change their settings.

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 NOTE: You don‘t have
to do steps A - C to finish
the tutorial because they
are not necessarily part
of the editing process.
A. Darkened tones with a light blue tint
Select the first skin tone layer (Soft
Light 30%) and change the colour to some
light blue or purple, leave the other
settings.
Add a new blank layer on top, fill it with a
light bluegreen colour, select Blending
Mode COLOR BURN and Opacity 25%. You
have now your background layer + 3 more
colour layers on top.

B. All-over blue tint with more effect on the skin

Leave the two skin tone layers as they were after
Chapter I (Soft Light 30% and Hue 30%).
Add a new blank layer on top, fill it with a
dark reddish-brown colour, select Blending
Mode COLOUR DODGE and Opacity 20%.
A. Flatten all layers to one.
Go to menu IMAGE >> ADJUST >> HUE/SATURATION,
set saturation on -50
Go to menu IMAGE >> ADJUST >> COLOUR BALANCE,
add more cyan and blue in all zones. I used these
values: Shadows: Cyan/Red: -30, Yellow/Blue: +10;
Midtones: Cyan/Red: -20, Yellow/Blue: +20; Highlights:
Cyan/Red: -10, Yellow/Blue: +10;

C. Brightened tones with golden tint on skin and make-up

Leave the first skin tone layer as it was after Chapter I
(SOFT LIGHT 30%).
Set the second skin tone layer on Blending Mode
HUE 100%.
B.
Add a new blank layer on top, fill it with the same dark
reddish-brown color as under B., select Blending Mode
COLOUR DODGE and Opacity 20%.

All these examples don‘t show that colour adjustments

(and any other effect) can be applied also in particular
areas of an image without affecting it as a whole. I will
describe that in the next step. The professional way to do
any kind of adjustment is to use masks and adjustment
layers. But I will try to keep those advanced steps as easy
as possible for a better understanding also for Photoshop
beginners.

C.

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 To do many of the following adjustments two very powerful
tools come in handy that I now will introduce to you:
1. ADJUSTMENT LAYERS
Adjustment layers give you the flexibility and power to make
changings to your images WITHOUT altering any pixels. They
are instantly disposable, temporary or permanent and easily
alterable by double-clicking on them. An adjustment layer
appears on top of other layers in the layers palette and they
apply to all visible layers beneath it in the layers palette.
You find them under LAYER >> NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER or by
clicking the Adjustment Layer icon in the layers palette [see
screenshot on the left].

1. LAYER MASKS
Masks are very useful if you want to hide parts of your layers without actually deleting
them. That allows you to edit your actions at any time in the process of your editing. A layer
mask is essentially a black and white “image.” You can paint on the layer mask in white,
black, and any shade of grey. White areas will make the picture showing through; black
areas will hide the picture. Shades of grey will affect the opacity of the picture.
You find them under LAYER >> ADD LAYER MASK or by clicking the Layer Mask icon in the
layers palette.
If you want to learn more about Layer Masks, here is a nice and easy to follow tutorial:

All about Layer Mask

To go on with the edit go back to your basically edited

image, the result that you got after you finished Chapter
II [See picture on the left]. We add now more colouring,
brightness, contrasts and shading to the picture and work
on the eye lashes. Be sure that your background layer is
selected.
1. Add a new Adjustment Layer and edit the Curves to
increase depth, brightness and contrast in general.
2. Darken the eyebrows. To do that add another
Adjustment Layer for Brightness/Contrast, lower the
brightness and increase the contrast and mask around
the eyebrows so that the changing only applies to them
and not the rest of the picture.
How to do that?

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 A white mask (=complet layer visible) is automatically
added to the adjustment layer when you create it. Click
on that mask to select it and fill it with black with the
Paintbucket Tool to make the layer invisible. Now select
a soft medium size paintbrush, the mask still selected,
and paint with white over the eyebrows to make the
Adjustment Layer visible again in that area. If you are not
satisfied with the amount of darkness and contrast on the
eyebrows just double-click on the Adjustment Layer and
change the values again.
3. Add a little shiny brightness to the
shadows by adding a reddish-brown colour
Result after steps 1 - 4
layer with Blending Mode: COLOUR DODGE,
Opacity: 20%.
4. Add more shading on the upper left corner and more
lighting on the bright parts of the cheek. Use another
Adjustment Layer for Brightness/Contrast with masked
areas for the shading and use COLOUR
DODGE for the lighting. I did that by
adding a new layer, painting on it with a
bright reddish grey, Blending Mode:
COLOUR DODGE, Opacity: 15%.
5. Add more highlights on the upper and
lower eyelid by creating a new layer,
painting on it with a pastel yellow,
Blending Mode: OVERLAY, Opacity: 25%.
6. Add highlights to the make-up and the iris,
I used a green tint for them. Create a new
Result after steps 5 - 7 layer and paint with green on the areas
you want to affect, Blending Mode:
COLOUR DODGE, Opacity: 25%.
7. Darken the left side to increase the depth.
Create a new layer and use the GRADIENT
TOOL with dark green, Blending Mode:
SOFT LIGHT, Opacity: 75%.
8. Desaturate the red tones in the lower right area, I used
the SELECTIVE COLOUR TOOL to do that.
9. Darken the eye liner with the BURN TOOL and paint in
some more lashes with black and a small round
hard brush. If you don‘t have a graphic tablet use a
premade eyelashes brush like you find in this example:

Eyelashes Photoshop Brushes by *redheadstock

Result after steps 8 - 9

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 You are almost done now. I did some last refinements and
touch-ups to give the image the final look. At that stage I
flattened all the layers to one background layer. I removed
the last flaws on skin and make-up [see picture on the
left]. Now I refined the tones with SELECTIVE COLOUR
again, gave a little more brightness and contrast to it,
added a light green tint to the shadows and darkened the
edges of the white inside the eye with the BURN TOOL.
In the final step I sharpened the image with Unsharp
Mask (FILTER >> SHARPEN >> UNSHARP MASK). Use this
tool carefully and keep the values moderate! I selected
AMOUNT 100%, RADIUS 1,0 pixels and THRESHOLD 15
levels.

You see the finished image of the left. Though we have

done substantial edits it still looks very photorealistic.
I liked to give it an artistic touch with some colouring
techniques such as I described in Chapter III and the
version you see below is the one that I added to my
gallery.

I hope you had fun trying this tutorial and will be now able
to successfully edit your portrait and macro photos!

Lily Andrea Seidel aka `Lilyas

Blue Poison Skin Tutorial

by ~StinaBG Result by `Lilyas

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