Retouching Images


Some people make their living doing one thing only: retouching photographs. Although some tasks are complicated and require masterful re-creations of elements in a photo, many retouching jobs simply require getting rid of a few scratches or a stain. Others require removing a person from a photo or restoring an aged and cracked photo to pristine quality. In either case, Photoshop has several tools you can use to assist in the task.

The Clone Stamp Tool

Probably the most popular retouching tool of all time, the Clone Stamp tool does what its name implies. You sample one area of your image and then paint with the tool elsewhere. As you paint, a clone of the area that you sampled is painted in the new location. For example, you could sample a single flower and then create many more of them in your photo (see Figure 5.101).

Figure 5.101. The original photo (left) and the retouched one.


To use the Clone Stamp tool, select it from the toolbox and hover the mouse cursor over the area you want to sample. Press the Option (Alt) key and click once to sample the area. Now move your mouse pointer to hover over the area you want to paint on, and click and press the mouse to clone the area.

Did you Know?

You might want to work on a copied layer when doing retouchingthis way you always have the original to go back to, if necessary. To duplicate a layer, drag the layer to the New Layer icon in the Layers palette.


Besides being used to duplicate objects, the Clone Stamp tool is very useful for fixing up blemishes and stains, or for repairing parts of a photosuch as removing a telephone wire or removing a mole from a person's face. Just sample a clean area and clone it over the blemished area.

The Healing Brush

I still remember the first time I saw a demonstration of the Healing Brush tool in action, and the only word to describe what it does is magic. One of the problems with using the Clone Stamp tool is that not every part of an image has the same underlying tonal values. For example, say you want to remove wrinkles on a person's face. Because of the lighting in the photo, the right side of the person's face is darker than the left side. If you take a sample with the Clone Stamp tool from one side of the face and try to clone the other side of the face, you'll see a visible change of tone and luminosity where you've painted (see Figure 5.102).

Figure 5.102. Sampling from one side of the face to the other using the Clone Stamp tool results in a noticeable difference in tonal values.


Did you Know?

The Healing Brush icon looks like a Band-Aid. It makes all of your boo-boos better.


You use the Healing Brush tool the same way you use the Clone Stamp tool. Find a nice clean area, Option+click (Alt+click) and then paint over the area you want to fix. At first, it appears to be painting it all wrong because you clearly see the brush marks (see Figure 5.103). But when you let go, Photoshop examines the luminosity and tonal values of that area and compensates for them. This means you can clone from the dark side of a face to the light side of the face without worrying about the shading (see Figure 5.104).

Figure 5.103. The Healing Brush, as you apply it.


Figure 5.104. The final result.


The Spot Healing Brush

As if the Healing Brush wasn't already easy enough to use, Photoshop CS2 includes a variation of the tool called the Spot Healing Brush (see Figure 5.105). When you use the Spot Healing Brush, you don't have to sample a clean area. Instead, you just select the tool and start painting over blemished areas. As you use the brush, Photoshop looks for areas close to where you are clicking to find clean areas to sample from.

Figure 5.105. Choosing the Spot Healing Brush from the toolbox.


The Patch Tool

Calling on the same underlying technology as the Healing Brush, the Patch tool provides a different way to quickly clean up or repair parts of your image. You select the Patch tool and then draw a selection around the blemished area of your photo (just like with the Lasso tool). When you've selected the area, click inside the selected area and drag the selection to a clean area of your photo (see Figure 5.106).

Figure 5.106. Dragging the patch area to a clean part of the photo.


Note that you can use this tool in the reverse as well. Simply choose the Destination option (see Figure 5.107) in the Tool Options bar (rather than the default Source setting) and select a clean area of your photo. Then drag the selection on top of the blemished areas.

Figure 5.107. The Tool Options bar for the Patch tool.


Red Eye Correction

Even though today's modern cameras promise to offer red-eye-free images, we still see countless pictures that have red-eye issues. You can use any of Photoshop's many image-correction features to manually remove red eye, but you can fix images faster using Photoshop's Red Eye tool. After you've selected the tool (it's grouped with the Healing Brush), simply draw a marquee around the eye, and you're done (see Figure 5.108). The Red Eye tool doesn't work in CMYK mode.

Figure 5.108. Using the Red Eye tool.


Optical Lens Correction

At times, photographs exhibit lens distortion, either from specialty lenses or from a variety of natural causes. Photoshop enables you to correct for this by choosing Filter, Distort, Lens Correction (see Figure 5.109). When the Lens Correction dialog box opens (see Figure 5.110), you can adjust for pincushioning (vertical or horizontal distortion that bends toward the center of the image), rotation, and even chromatic aberration (glowlike artifacts that sometimes appear around the edges of detail in digital photos).

Figure 5.109. Choosing the Lens Correction filter.


Figure 5.110. The Lens Correction dialog box.


Blurring Images

When there are excessive artifacts in your image, you can try applying a Gaussian blur to soften the image and reduce the effect of the artifacts. Above that, the Gaussian Blur filter can be used for special effects, such as when you want part of an image to appear in soft focus or even completely out of focus.

Choose Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur to bring up the dialog box, and experiment with different radius values until you achieve the effect you're looking for (see Figure 5.111). This filter can also be helpful when you're trying to clear up moiré patterns that result from scanning photos that have been printed (half-tones).

Figure 5.111. Applying a Gaussian blur.


Did you Know?

You can apply plenty of other blur effects to achieve special effects, such as motion, radial, and lens blurs.


To blur just a few pixels at a time, you can use the Blur tool. I find the tool incredibly useful to soften up edges after I've silhouetted an image.

Sharpening Images

For images that are blurry or out of focus, you can try to sharpen them by choosing Filter, Sharpen, Unsharp Mask. I find that almost every photo that I scan or import requires some level of sharpeningespecially images that I will be uploading for viewing on the Web. Sharpening a photo enhances the edges or borders of color, giving a clearer image that seems to have more life to it (see Figure 5.112). You want to be careful not to oversharpen an image, though, because this will introduce visible artifacts (see Figure 5.113).

Figure 5.112. Applying the Unsharp Mask filter.


Figure 5.113. Too much sharpening can add unwanted artifacts.


Did you Know?

I was always taught to consider the line screen at which the image will be printing to best determine the radius setting for Unsharp Mask. For a 133-line screen, set your radius to 1.3 pixels. A 200-line screen would get a 2.0 radius setting, and so on. Of course, line screens apply only to images that will be used for print purposes.


Alternatively, you can use the Sharpen tool to touch up small parts of your image interactively.

Did you Know?

I've found that many times, sharpening will enhance not only the faces of people and objects in the photo, but also dust and scratches in the photo, making them visible. After sharpening, you may need to apply the Dust & Scratches filter to clear up those artifacts.


Getting Rid of Dust and Scratches

Usually when scanning from photo prints, you'll notice dust or scratches in your scanned image. Sometimes it's because the glass on your scanner is dirty (I clean my scanner glass daily), whereas other times it's because the photo itself has scratches on it. In those cases you can choose Filter, Noise, Dust & Scratches to clear them up (see Figure 5.114). Be careful not to use too high of a setting because doing so might blur out parts of your image that should remain sharp.

Figure 5.114. Applying the Dust & Scratches filter.


Did you Know?

Instead of applying the Dust & Scratches filter to an entire image, I use the following technique to save time and take advantage of the Dust & Scratches filter while retaining the sharp parts of my image:

Apply the Dust & Scratches filter, and use a setting that is just a bit more than you would ordinarily use. Then click on the Create New Snapshot icon in the History palette to create a snapshot of the blurred image. Press Command+Z (Ctrl+Z) to undo the Dust & Scratches filter. You now have your original file. Select the History Brush, and in the History palette, click the box to the left of the snapshot you just took. This sets the History brush to paint from that snapshot. Now paint over the scratched-up areas on the photo (use a big enough soft-edged brush). This enables you to easily and selectively apply the Dust & Scratches filter.




Sams Teach Yourself Adobe Creative Suite 2 All in One
Sams Teach Yourself Creative Suite 2 All in One
ISBN: 067232752X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 225
Authors: Mordy Golding

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net