How far do you go?

wildmaven · Nov 15, 2007

When it comes to whitening teeth, how far do you take it? For example, I have this unfortunate set of teeth to deal with in my latest shoot:

What is your procedure? I've tried using the dodge tool and I've tried using the color adjust tool, and I just can't get a natural looking white.

Marian

Alpha · Nov 15, 2007

I tend to stick exclusively to the color replacement tool.

Alex_B · Nov 15, 2007

I would not do too much, it is her teeth after all! And you want to show her, and not the person she would like to be but isn't.

But then again, don't listen to me, since my approach is probably the wrong approach to keep your business up and running

Alex_B · Nov 15, 2007

oh, and by the way ... my teeth aren't better either

wildmaven · Nov 15, 2007

Hahhah...thanks, Alex. I don't want to give her those icky glowing white teeth, I just want to get rid of years of soda use.

Max, I've tried the color replacement tool and I still need to spend time learning how to use it, I guess. My results are less than perfect.

Antithesis · Nov 15, 2007

I'm kind of a newbie to photoshop, so I'm using some very basic ideas I've learned.

What I would do is create a channel mixer layer in photoshop and adjust the colors until the teeth lighten a bit, but keep the original color. Then use the paint fill tool, fill the adjustement layer with black, then use a small paint brush with a feathered edge and paint over the teeth with white in the adjustment layer just over the teeth. This'll just allow the adjustement layer to affect that one small area over her teeth. Switch to the Layer channel, use a little gausian blur to feather the edges a little more until it looks natural.

It's pretty primitive and I'm sure there are much better and more efficient ways of doing it. It's just the way I've been adjusting individual areas and it seems to work pretty well.

TCimages · Nov 15, 2007

I use the teeth whitening tool in PSP. Works great.

NJMAN · Nov 16, 2007

What works for me lately is to make a careful selection around the teeth by either using the lasso tool or magnetic lasso (sometimes even the magic wand works good with a low tolerance), and then do an adjustment layer with hue/saturation. Move the saturation slider down to about -30 or -40. It doesnt lighten/brighten the teeth, but it takes the yellow color out nicely if you dont overdo it. Whatever the case, it doesnt give that fake whitening look that sometimes comes from the dodge tool. You be the judge of how much color to take out and what looks natural to you.

This is a very simple procedure, but effective.

guitarmy · Nov 16, 2007

NJMAN said:
What works for me lately is to make a careful selection around the teeth by either using the lasso tool or magnetic lasso (sometimes even the magic wand works good with a low tolerance), and then do an adjustment layer with hue/saturation. Move the saturation slider down to about -30 or -40. It doesnt lighten/brighten the teeth, but it takes the yellow color out nicely if you dont overdo it. Whatever the case, it doesnt give that fake whitening look that sometimes comes from the dodge tool. You be the judge of how much color to take out and what looks natural to you.

This is a very simple procedure, but effective.

This is also what I do, and I find it to be the most natural way of doing so. You can also up the lightness of the hue/sat layer by +1 or +2.

wildmaven · Nov 16, 2007

Ooo...thanks NJ! That sounds so simple *I* might be able to manage it, ha ha...

JIP · Nov 16, 2007

I guess it really depends on what you are using the images for. For example if they are portraits for her I think I might enhance a little but hew close to reality. If you are using them for publication you want to make them fit where they are being presented.

Alex_B · Nov 16, 2007

i sometimes wish photoshop would also work in the real world ....

Alpha · Nov 17, 2007

wildmaven said:
Hahhah...thanks, Alex. I don't want to give her those icky glowing white teeth, I just want to get rid of years of soda use.

Max, I've tried the color replacement tool and I still need to spend time learning how to use it, I guess. My results are less than perfect.

It's really not so hard. Just select white as your color, and then replace. Watch the opacity, though, or else they'll just turn solid white.