General touch up question

mindzipper · Dec 16, 2013

I've got some photos that need to be edited and I'm not really sure where to start.

i'm a graphic designer and do video as well (motion graphics) but i don't know the firs tthing about photo retouch.

I have a few pictures I'd like to edit. this is a personal project, not a client, but i want to provide quality work like i do with the other areas.

The photos were taken with a high quality camera, and done by a pro, but of course they're unedited and need general things like light correction, color balancing, softening, remove imperfections and smooth the skin.

I can do some little things that I take from the graphic design side. I masked out the target, and blurred the background slightly to add some depth to the pic which worked well. but when i put the images in the website, they just look raw. hard to explain. but i've got high resolution high quality graphics i'm using for a very large bg pic. up until now I just used a black sillouhette since i dind't have the photos. but now that they're in i put them in the picture and they look stark, and raw.

What should I be looking for? i assume I'll just watch some tutorials on photo retouching but thought maybe i could get some good direction from this forum since it appears to be stuffed full of pros.

Where would you start if you were me?

480sparky · Dec 16, 2013

If they were 'done by a pro', why didn't 'the pro' do the work?

mindzipper · Dec 16, 2013

no idea. but i do know that having photos taken by a pro photographer doesn't necessarily mean the retouch work will be done by them too. I don't know what the reason is, but i don't think the question is very relevant to what i was looking for. i'm not getting paid for any of the work, i just wanted to help

The_Traveler · Dec 16, 2013

There is a forum frequented by high-end retouchers, etc called RetouchPRO

AmberAtLoveAndInk · Dec 16, 2013

Editing really depends on what you're shooting. I am a portrait and family photographer so my editing style may be different from what you are trying to achieve. I use photoshop cs6 and usually start with color correction and increasing saturation to my RAW files. Following with a gaussian blur layer mask to get rid of any blemishes and "smooth" the image's noise. Then I go on to use numerous layer masks; whiten teeth (new layer mask, paint white on each tooth, decrease opacity to desired effect) highlight the eyes with the dodge tool, I'll also add texture to give the image more depth and apply a filter if needed (example: red filters help cut out any green hues on the skin if you are shooting in a very green area like a park or forest, yellow filters will add warmth and emotion to your darker photos, blues will make a more modern and sleek look like modeling photos or architectural images.) I'll attach a before and after of one of my edits showing the gaussion blur, a warm yellow filter, and facial retouch.

Love & Ink Photography

http://facebook.com/loveandinkphotography

Braineack · Dec 16, 2013

post an example...

Designer · Dec 16, 2013

mindzipper; you can get some free editing software, such as GIMP, but there is a learning curve. The same learning curve goes for expensive software too, so unless you are willing to learn the art of photo editing, you might want to get something simpler. Depending on your computer platform, you can get a mid-range photo editor for between $80 and $180. Look for Lightroom, Aperture, or just google it.

mindzipper · Dec 16, 2013

AmberAtLoveAndInk said:
Editing really depends on what you're shooting. I am a portrait and family photographer so my editing style may be different from what you are trying to achieve. I use photoshop cs6 and usually start with color correction and increasing saturation to my RAW files. Following with a gaussian blur layer mask to get rid of any blemishes and "smooth" the image's noise. Then I go on to use numerous layer masks; whiten teeth (new layer mask, paint white on each tooth, decrease opacity to desired effect) highlight the eyes with the dodge tool, I'll also add texture to give the image more depth and apply a filter if needed (example: red filters help cut out any green hues on the skin if you are shooting in a very green area like a park or forest, yellow filters will add warmth and emotion to your darker photos, blues will make a more modern and sleek look like modeling photos or architectural images.) I'll attach a before and after of one of my edits showing the gaussion blur, a warm yellow filter, and facial retouch.

View attachment 62292 View attachment 62293

Love & Ink Photography

http://facebook.com/loveandinkphotography

yikes! you do great work! wayyy over my head lol. i'm a graphic designer, i do a lot of correction stuff, but mostly colors. and retouching photographs is leaps and bounds different than making print and web graphics. I do like your workflow though and will work on some of that. Thank you!

Braineack said:
post an example...

was that for me? post an example of the photo? i can't. The person is a celebrity and dont have permission to repost the images. Not a major a list person, much lower scale than that, but i still can't post them.

Designer said:
mindzipper; you can get some free editing software, such as GIMP, but there is a learning curve. The same learning curve goes for expensive software too, so unless you are willing to learn the art of photo editing, you might want to get something simpler. Depending on your computer platform, you can get a mid-range photo editor for between $80 and $180. Look for Lightroom, Aperture, or just google it.

Oh I have the software. I have the full creative suite CC, and Lightrom and Photoshop are installed. I use After Effects, PS and Illustrator daily, but lightroom is a whole other ball game. i'm a newbie there.

The_Traveler said:
There is a forum frequented by high-end retouchers, etc called RetouchPRO

thank you i'll look there too.

AmberAtLoveAndInk · Dec 16, 2013

yikes! you do great work! wayyy over my head lol. i'm a graphic designer, i do a lot of correction stuff, but mostly colors. and retouching photographs is leaps and bounds different than making print and web graphics. I do like your workflow though and will work on some of that. Thank you!

Thank you! But I am still a newbie myself, had ZERO knowledge on editing systems a few months ago (aka photoshop scared the living sh** out of me haha) and now I am just riding the bull at the rodeo, sometimes I can hang on and show it who's boss, but other times I'm sitting in the corner with a bruised bottom lol.

MikeRuby · Dec 20, 2013

Im similar to mind, alot of graphics work, not so much photography.
Ive smoothed out a few friends pics before, but when editing light and contrasts, only think i can generally get right is monochrome stencil style.
Amber, what helped you mainly? any particular tutorials or just many hours trying things out??

ronlane · Dec 20, 2013

You have photos taken by a professional photographer that need editing and you can't show them to us here because 1) you don't have permission from the person in the photo and 2) they aren't your images.

My suggestion would be to go back to this "Professional" photographer for the changes, since they are their images to change.

The_Traveler · Dec 20, 2013

Any kind of photo editing has a steep learning and no number of tips will get you the experience you need.
Without meaning any disrespect to Amber, the examples above are fairly simple and, if these strike you as way above your head, you will have a tough road to edit images at your present state.

There are commercial editors on line, there are even low cost shops that will edit your pix for not too much. https://www.google.com/search?q=pho...8#es_sm=122&espv=210&q=photo+editing+services

Lew