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supermarvin76 Offline • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #1 · your favorite creative portrait process? Specifically regarding portraits, what is your favorite(s) creative editing technique(s) that you use in Camera RAW or CS6? What do you do to portraits to give them style beyond being just a technically correct photo? Oct 08, 2012 at 10:52 AM

maogus Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #2 · your favorite creative portrait process? would like to be one supporter for these questions. Oct 08, 2012 at 07:18 PM

Steady Hand Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #3 · your favorite creative portrait process? Hi, My favorite creative portrait process? It happens before I click the shutter. Oct 08, 2012 at 07:21 PM

JaneG Offline • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #4 · your favorite creative portrait process? Hi Here's a few .. just one tip from everyone would be EPIC!!!! 1. to add grit and contrast when appropriate make a black and white image and use as a luminosity layer you can even add a black and white image as a layer and just blend to taste to desaturate. 2. For eyes, this is good but I forgot the originator .. make a copy of the layer .. use colour dodge blend mask this and paint on the mask to reveal the colour dodge treatment on the eye. its very effective but go carefully with the blend 3. for a soft treatment don't over use it, but when appropriate it works well.. make a layer of your image , do a gaussian blur 10% ....blend as a soft light layer. Now here is the important bit double click and use the blend commands .. use the 'blend if' sliders from 25 to 125.. you have to use the .'alt' key to separate the little arrows.. its a clever technique I learned Now come on FMers lets show them what we can do !!!!! Oct 09, 2012 at 06:58 AM

bbourizk Offline • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #5 · your favorite creative portrait process? First thing i do to the majority of my images 1 Duplicate layer set blending mode to Soft Light I usually set opacity at about 50-60% depending on the look I'm after. 2 Image>Adjustments>exposure And adjust Gamma 3. on the same soft light layer add a mask and with a brush at 30% opacity and black brush go over the face and skin. Oct 09, 2012 at 09:08 AM

JaneG Offline • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #6 · your favorite creative portrait process? C'mon guys let's participate we all have at least one technique we are willing to share. . Steady you moaned about non participation and the you wrote a 'smart' comment instead of making a useful contribution .. Practice what you preach Jane Oct 10, 2012 at 06:06 AM

Josh Evilsizor Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #7 · your favorite creative portrait process? JaneG wrote: C'mon guys let's participate we all have at least one technique we are willing to share. . Steady you moaned about non participation and the you wrote a 'smart' comment instead of making a useful contribution .. Practice what you preach Jane His has been the best answer of the bunch... creative portraiture isn't about what photoshop gimmicks you add, it's about the lighting, composition and interaction with your subject. Oct 10, 2012 at 10:50 AM

supermarvin76 Offline • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #8 · your favorite creative portrait process? To those who've participated, thank you. I sincerely appreciate it. To those who are more interested in telling me what I didn't ask, Thank you too. I am we'll aware that lighting and interaction with the subject is beyond important. However, I also know I would like to learn to process files in a creative way, not anything wild and crazy, but something that has more spazz. Unless you can comment on that, please just click your little mouse over to the next topic. Oct 10, 2012 at 11:20 AM

JaneG Offline • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #9 · your favorite creative portrait process? of course the creativeprocess occursbefore pressing the shutter but that wasnt the question... so why state the obvious !!! we all know that photoshop CAN play a part in the creative process too.. so why go off on a tangent..the poster wanted ideas post process so why not respond to the question.. so when asked for.. no help or contribution given .. except smart comments.. i rest my case Gosh Fm has become hard work lately Jane Oct 10, 2012 at 02:56 PM

Michaelparris Offline • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #10 · your favorite creative portrait process? Josh Evilsizor wrote: JaneG wrote: C'mon guys let's participate we all have at least one technique we are willing to share. . Steady you moaned about non participation and the you wrote a 'smart' comment instead of making a useful contribution .. Practice what you preach Jane His has been the best answer of the bunch... creative portraiture isn't about what photoshop gimmicks you add, it's about the lighting, composition and interaction with your subject. Bulls...t. In the world of photography these days you have to be just as good or better at PS as you are with your camera. Just check steady's website. All of the over-used tint on his shots happened before he clicked the shutter..... As far as techniques go this video covers pretty much all the good ones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNB9Mepi1VI As far as a favorite it would have to be using "quick mask mode" to paint the eyes, going out of QMM inverting the mask then sharpening and adding an adjustment layer to the eyes. I use this for the teeth and whites of the eyes also.... Another favorite, which is on the video, is using the patch tool to correct skin blemishes...quick and easy Oct 11, 2012 at 12:31 AM

svenh Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #11 · your favorite creative portrait process? I sometimes raise the contrast of the iris of the eyes by copying the layer and change the blend mode to overlay or softlight. Add a layer mask to apply this to the iris only. Reduce the opacity of this layer until it doesn't look overdone. You often need to also brighten the iris when doing this. Just add a curves layer and reuse the iris mask you already created. Oct 12, 2012 at 11:09 AM

boingyman Offline • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #12 · your favorite creative portrait process? Cool thread. How about some before and afters? Oct 16, 2012 at 03:42 PM

myam203 Offline • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #13 · your favorite creative portrait process? I always feel like I've done something wrong if a portrait requires a lot of work. When I really get it right, only basic enhancements are necessary--color, contrast, skin tone, and maybe some skin smoothing or blemish removal. In Lightroom, I tend to first set a pleasing white balance, then tweak the exposure, contrast, and saturation, then I'll use the adjustment brush to add some brightness to the entire face with emphasis on the eyes. After that, in Photoshop, I might mask in some smooth areas of skin using the Portraiture plug-in and even out the skin tone with a brush set to "color" and 30% opacity. I do that by alt-clicking an area of skin with good color and then painting over other areas that need it (shadows that have picked up weird colors, redness, blotchy areas), and sometimes it can improve the look of a portrait even when the person's skin already looks good. One thing I've learned - and maybe it's obvious, but it applies to any photo (and B&W ones) - is that it's best to find a level of brightness and contrast that suits the photo, then dodge, burn, or otherwise emphasize areas that have lost detail or need to stand out more. I used to try to reign everything in with global adjustments, but a shot can start to look really ugly when you try to (globally) lift every shadow or pull down every highlight for the sake of some dark eye sockets or an area of blown out hair. Here's a before and after that had very little done to it. Granted, this is a professional model and makeup was used, but the concept is there I think. Oct 16, 2012 at 04:45 PM

LisaD Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #14 · your favorite creative portrait process? Love the processing Mike! This is exactly what I need to learn to do. Thanks for sharing. Oct 17, 2012 at 03:37 AM

Michaelparris Offline • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #15 · your favorite creative portrait process? Mike Yamin wrote: I always feel like I've done something wrong if a portrait requires a lot of work. When I really get it right, only basic enhancements are necessary--color, contrast, skin tone, and maybe some skin smoothing or blemish removal. In Lightroom, I tend to first set a pleasing white balance, then tweak the exposure, contrast, and saturation, then I'll use the adjustment brush to add some brightness to the entire face with emphasis on the eyes. After that, in Photoshop, I might mask in some smooth areas of skin using the Portraiture plug-in and even out the skin tone with a brush set to "color" and 30% opacity. I do that by alt-clicking an area of skin with good color and then painting over other areas that need it (shadows that have picked up weird colors, redness, blotchy areas), and sometimes it can improve the look of a portrait even when the person's skin already looks good. One thing I've learned - and maybe it's obvious, but it applies to any photo (and B&W ones) - is that it's best to find a level of brightness and contrast that suits the photo, then dodge, burn, or otherwise emphasize areas that have lost detail or need to stand out more. I used to try to reign everything in with global adjustments, but a shot can start to look really ugly when you try to (globally) lift every shadow or pull down every highlight for the sake of some dark eye sockets or an area of blown out hair. Here's a before and after that had very little done to it. Granted, this is a professional model and makeup was used, but the concept is there I think. No offense but you say you have done something wrong if a photo needs a lot of work. Then you write 2 long paragraphs of what you do accompanied by a before and after the after looks like it has had a whole bunch done to it.....Bottom line. These days your PS skills need to be as good as your camera skills Oct 17, 2012 at 04:48 AM

myam203 Offline • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #16 · your favorite creative portrait process? Thanks Lisa! I'm sorry Michael, but it's true... I didn't do that much. The "before" is a camera JPEG (a flat, washed out one) and the "after" is from an adjusted Raw. I got rid of blemishes, the bags under her eyes, liquified her nose, and that's about it. I didn't do a lot, but I did it well (this time around--it doesn't always work out that way). It's a cop out to say just get it right when you shoot, because PS is such an important part of photography nowadays, but I make a habit of streamlining my post processing as much as I try to improve my shooting. Oct 17, 2012 at 05:04 AM

Access Offline • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #17 · your favorite creative portrait process? Mike Yamin wrote: lost detail or need to stand out more. I used to try to reign everything in with global adjustments, but a shot can start to look really ugly when you try to (globally) lift every shadow or pull down every highlight for the sake of some dark eye sockets or an area of blown out hair. One thing I will do is selective color balancing. People often look best in the shade, but this can also leave backgrounds far too bright relative to the face. Setting up the shot properly means it can be done globally, or nearly, sometimes it may be necessary to do a quick mask to avoid eyes or other features. For instance a few weekends ago I found a natural background that was yellow-green-aqua-blue which was easy to pull down (luminence) in LR without affecting the subject. Oct 17, 2012 at 06:26 AM

Jon Uhler Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #18 · your favorite creative portrait process? Steady Hand wrote: Hi, My favorite creative portrait process? It happens before I click the shutter. Funny...that is what I was going to say.... Oct 18, 2012 at 08:30 PM

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