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Glamorize Portraits of Women with Photoshop's Liquify Filter  - or

Photoshop Liquify Filter to Retouch and Enhance Portraits

category: digital photography and image editing

The original portrait, except for a Levels adjustment, is exactly how it came off the scanner. Now, what can we do? The subject's expression could be thought of as a look of determination, not to smile perhaps, but its effect on her features comes off looking more like flaws. The eyes are hooded, and the upper lip has lost its symmetry. Let's address these issues as a first cut, along with brightening the eyes, the hair, the lips, and losing the Alice Cooper eye makeup. That's probably about as far as we should go to dress up our subject for, say, a realtor's photo business card. Then, as a second cut, we'll go for the glamour and address the size of the eyes, the tip of the nose, and the slight jowl on the right side of the jaw. These more heavy-handed kinds of things work in Hollywood, fashion magazines, and politics, but might be pushing it in a business situation, causing one's client to say, embarrassingly, what a really, really, good picture that is.

Let's start with the fun part and push some flesh around. Duplicate the background layer by pressing Ctrl+J, and then choose Filter and Liquify. Select the first tool from the list of icons on the left. This is called the Forward Warp tool, and we'll use it to push both eyelids up, push the left eyelid down, and the right side of the upper lip up. Pixels start to move at the crosshair, and the number of pixels affected is controlled by brush size. You can control the brush size on-the-fly by pressing the bracket keys, and, since this is an easy one, you can leave everything else at the default. If it doesn't come out right, click on the second tool icon, the Reconstruct Tool, and brush to reconstruct the area in stages. If you want to start over, go to the Reconstruct Options on the right and click the Restore All button. When it looks right, Click-OK. Rename this layer "Lip and Eyelids."

Next, let's brighten the eyes. Create a Curves Adjustment Layer by clicking on the Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layer's Palette and choosing Curves from the pop-up menu; when the dialogue appears, click OK. Now, click on the Layer Mask in the Curves Adjustment Layer, paint the eyes black using a soft brush, then press Ctrl+I to invert the mask selecting only the eyes. Double-click the Curves Adjustment Layer Thumbnail to bring up the Curves dialogue again. Click somewhere near the middle of the curve and press the Up Arrow Key until the eyes brighten enough to suit you. Rename the adjustment layer "Brighten Eyes."

To enhance the hair color and brighten the highlights, create a new layer and set the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. Now, paint with dark gray over the hair. Set the opacity of the layer down until the hair looks right, and rename the layer "Hair." Repete this process for the lips and earrings.

Finally, stamp everything but the background layer into a new layer called "Enhanced," and, using the Patch Tool, draw a selection around the dark areas under the eyes and move the selection over a clean area of the the forehead. Now, a little Dodge and Burn in the shadows and over the crows feet, warm the skin tones a little with Color Balance, smooth the image with Gausian Blur, sharpen carefully, and you have the enhanced portrait.

At last, we go one step beyond to glamour by growing the eyes a little with the Liquify Filter's Bloat Tool. Just mask around the eyes, expand the brush size to encompass the entire eye, setting the density to 100, and press the cross hairs in the dead center of the eye. Then reduce the brush size and spot bloat the upper lip, switch to the Forward Warp Tool and push in the jowls, push up the tip of the nose, and clean up the mess, if any, with the Healing Brush. That completes the glamour portrait.

He said on 09.16.05 @ 05:14 PM CST