Project4.Brighter, Whiter Teeth

Project 4. Brighter, Whiter Teeth

Have you ever taken pictures of people who refuse to smile? No matter how much you beg and cajole, you just can't get them to show their pearly whites. In most cases, it's because their whites aren't that pearly. More people are ashamed of their teeth than almost any other body part, and although there seems to be no end to the teeth whitening commercials on TV these days, those products don't do the job for everyone.

You can reassure your friends that their smiles will be at their best if you learn how to do some digital dental work. The best part is that there's no messy gel or mouthpiece, and instead of waiting weeks to see results, your friends and family can display their brilliant smiles in just minutes, at least in photo form.

For this project, I'm using the same businessman we de-wrinkled earlier in this chapter. His face is much smoother, but that only serves to make the yellow of his teeth stand out that much more (see Figure 2.22). In a few steps, he can have a younger smile to match his digital dermabrasion.

Figure 2.22. Too much coffee.

Note

When we finished the last project with this image, we used the Opacity setting of the top layer to allow a hint of the background layer to show through. Although this suited our purposes for that project, it can work against us here. If you whiten the teeth on the bottom layer, residual yellowing will remain because of the un-retouched layer above it. If you whiten the teeth on the topmost layer, further adjustments to the Opacity setting will allow the yellowing from the background layer to reappear.

The key to avoiding these problems is to be sure you're happy with your Opacity settings before beginning the teeth whitening process. Then, with the top layer active, select Layers, Merge, Merge Down. This flattens the image back down to one layer, with all your changes incorporated.

1.

As always, begin by making a duplicate of the background layer by right-clicking it in the Layers palette and clicking Duplicate. Because this project requires a couple layers, avoid confusion early by labeling the layer something meaningful, such as Businessman.

A Little Orthodontia

If you look closely at the mouth, you'll notice that one of the teeth is a bit crooked and more prominent than the others. If you want to remain true to your subject, leave this alone. To present him at his best, however, the digital equivalent of braces is in order.

There are actually two problems with the prominent tooth. First, the bottom-right corner overlaps the tooth next to it a bit. Let's start there.

2.	Zoom in on the mouth.
3.	Click the Clone brush, and adjust the size of the brush to match the shadow between the two teeth to the right of the prominent one (see Figure 2.23). Figure 2.23. Borrowing a bit from another tooth.
4.	Brush the cloned area onto the right side of the protruding tooth and the left side of the next tooth over. This slightly changes the shape of the tooth to the left so it covers up the prominent one. Be sure to use the area of the cloned tooth where it meets the mouth to round the right edge of the prominent tooth a bit.
5.	After you have the shape as you want it, clone a sample of the tooth you've just corrected and blend in the color. Even though we'll be adjusting the color of the teeth shortly, a mismatch in color to begin with will affect the final results.

A Bit Longer in the Tooth

Now let's look at the left side of the prominent tooth. Even though that tooth appears larger, the bigger problem is that the tooth to the left of it is smaller than its counterpart on the other side of the mouth. We can use this flaw to our advantage. If we lengthen the smaller tooth a bit, it will even things out.

6.	Click the Freehand Selection tool, and use your favorite selection method to select an area toward the bottom of the tooth (see Figure 2.24). If your selection skills are rusty, see Appendix B, "Paint Shop Pro X in a Nutshell," for a refresher. Figure 2.24. Selecting a bit of the shorter tooth.
7.	Click the Pick tool to promote the selected area to a new layer, which you can rename Tooth or any other meaningful label. Set the tool for Free Mode.
8.	Increase the length of the tooth a bit, so it conforms with the flow of the rest of the teeth (see Figure 2.25). You might need to sheer the sides a bit so the tooth doesn't overwhelm the ones on either side. Figure 2.25. Changing the proportions of the tooth.

None of these changes have been drasticalthough you could certainly make them as outrageous as you want. Even a little bit of cosmetic work has improved the smile, however, and has us ready for the next step (see Figure 2.26).

Figure 2.26. Orthodontia complete...now onto the whitening.

Whitening Without the Mess

After all this prep work, the actual whitening process is easy. There are several digital approaches to tooth whitening, ranging from the relatively simple to the extremely complex. Paint Shop Pro X has made it downright easy, though, with the Makeover tool.

9.	Click the Businessman layer.
10.	Click the Makeover tool, and then select the Toothbrush option. Set the strength to about 50.
11.	Click a tooth. The area around where you click instantly whitens without losing the detail of the tooth (see Figure 2.27). The more times you click an area, the whiter it gets. Be careful not to click the lips or gums. Figure 2.27. The Toothbrush whitens teeth with just a click.
12.	Continue clicking teeth to whiten them. You can change the strength of the toothbrush as necessary to whiten areas of the teeth without applying it to the gums and lips. Note Even though it's tempting to give all your subjects teeth that rival Jessica Simpson's in brightness, use restraint. Teeth aren't truly white to begin with, and they naturally yellow a bit with age. Also, teeth at the back of the mouth are darker than those at the front because they're shadowed.
13.	Because the tooth we adjusted earlier is on a separate layer from the others, you'll need to return to the Tooth layer and apply the Toothbrush to it.

A Step Further...or Not

As you can see from the end result (see Figure 2.28), our businessman now has a whiter smile to go with his softer skin. We could have gone further in our digital orthodontia and narrowed the prominent tooth even further, but I don't like to completely remove someone's imperfections. If everyone started looking the same, the world would become very boring visually.

Figure 2.28. Ready for his close-up.

The Makeover tool greatly simplifies tooth whitening, but it comes at a price: The tool limits your control over the process because it guesses which area you intend to whiten and how much whitening to apply. You can mitigate this somewhat with judicious use of the Strength setting, but you're still compromising ultimate power for ease of use.

For those with the time and inclination, the old-fashioned approaches to digital dentistry are often worth the effort. For one such method, select the teeth, without capturing the lips and gums; then feather the selection (Selections, Modify, Feather) by 1 pixel. Select Adjust, Hue and Saturation, Hue/Saturation/Lightness; set the Saturation to 0; and then bump up the Lightness until you get the desired shade.

Another technique involves selecting the teeth and using the Dodge brush to whiten the teeth. It's your digital darkroom, so use the technique that gives you the best results!