Smoothing Wrinkled Backgrounds In Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to smooth your backgrounds in photoshop using Camera RAW and Photoshop. I am using Photoshop Elements 9, but they should basically be the same.

This is my image SOOC (straight out of Camera). (If you shot in JPEG skip down past the Camera RAW edits) The background is more of a greenish black and there are lots of wrinkles in my blanket. The first thing I do is adjust all of my levels to my liking. Because the majority of my image is black and baby is naked, I can bump up my black levels to help deepen the blacks in my blanket before going into Photoshop. If you have an image where someone is wearing black clothes or if you bump up the blacks and then your subject looks funky, just readjust your blacks and we will continue fixing them in photoshop. : )

SOOC:

After Bumping Blacks to 20:

See? That helped a lot! : ) Now let’s open our image by clicking “OPEN IMAGE” in the bottom right hand corner of Camera RAW and this will open our picture into Photoshop. If you shot in JPEG, you will already be there!

Okay Here we Are:

Find your Layers tab to the right and click on your background layer for good measure to make sure that it is selected. Now, hit CTRL and J and the same time on your keyboard and this will duplicate the layer. (If that didn’t work for you for some reason, right click on your background layer and click “Duplicate Layer”).

You should now have two layers in your Layers Panel and it should look like this:

Now, after making sure that Layer 1 is selected, look down from the layers box and you should see a little gray square with a white circle inside it. This is the layer mask icon. Click on it and it will bring up a white box next to layer 1 like this:

A LAYER MASK is basically a fool proof way to “paint” on your picture without screwing the whole thing up. It allows you to “mask” the brush strokes off anything you messed up on or when using actions, to remove the action from a specific area such as skin tones.

Right now, the Layer Mask is selected. But, we still need to paint our background so, On LAYER 1,( click on the image BESIDE the layer mask). We want to be painting on to the actual layer at this point and not the Mask. Get your Brush out. Make sure that is just your regular old Brush and not any of the special brushes. Pressing “B” on your keyboard is the shortcut to your brush tool. In the top of your screen and to the left there is a brush box. Make sure that it is a basic Soft Brush at about 300. You can change the size of your brush as you need to by touching your bracket keys on your keyboard. Play with them a bit until you get familiar with what they do. : ) Ready?

Now, make sure that your brush color is set to black. If you wanted your black to be the same tone of black that you are already using you can touch the “I” key on your keyboard and then take your cursor and click on part of the background to select the color. You will notice that your brush color has changed to that color, in your color palette at the bottom left of your screen. Also, make sure your brush opacity is set to 100%!

Anyway, for this specific photo, I want nice deep blacks, so I am sticking with the default black as my color. Now, Start painting black on your image. Don’t worry if you get too close to your subject and some of it gets on their skin….that’s what the layer mask is for! So just do a rough paint until all of the wrinkles are gone.

This is what mine looks like now:

Okay, now for the fun part (and the most tedious part). Click back on that Layer Mask (white Box). Now, since the box is white, we are going to stick with a black brush. If you decided to keep your original tone in the blanket with the eye dropper tool, you will need to switch back to the default black by pushing “D” on your keyboard. You may have to swap them so the black goes back on top, but this is the fastest way to change back to your default colors. J With the black brush selected, we are going to paint on to the skin of the subject (and any other parts of the photo that you do not want black) and the mask will magically remove the black paint strokes from that part of the photo. TADA!

Now, this is where is gets tedious and a bit tricky. If you go too far off of the skin and part of your background starts to show wrinkles again or it looks blotchy, you are going to need to switch your brush color to white and paint the black back on to the background (You are still on the layer mask, don’t click off the layer mask).

Basically, When your Mask is White…Black takes the action on the picture away and White brings it back again.

The goal is to get as close to the skin as possible without actually going on the skin. Zooming your image in when you get to the edges is key! If you do not paint the fine edges you will have a halo around your images. It takes a lot of practice, but the more you do it, the easier it gets! : )

Zoomed in at 200% to get around baby’s hairline.

This is my final edit. It obviously involved adding a bit more arm to keep it from looking like it was floating in thin air and I smoothed baby’s skin, ran a couple of actions and then settled on a black and white conversion.

When you are finished with your layers ALWAYS REMEMBER to flatten them before saving or before moving on to a new edit (such as using actions, smoothing skins, or messing with layers). To do this, right click on the background later and select flatten image.

Good Luck and hope this helps! If you have any questions, you can email me!

Tips to remember:

1. Adjust your brush size constantly. Make it bigger to get big areas and make it smaller when working around the edges.

2. Stay on the layer mask once you have finished painting on the image itself. If you start to see black or white streaks on your image stop and make sure that you are still clicked on the Layer Mask. If you accidentally clicked on the image, go to edit and undo until you get back to where you want it to be.

3. Pay attention to detail and zoom in and out and look at all the edges to make sure you do not have a halo. Watch little toes, creases around fingers, and especially hair lines!

4. Rest your eyes! Sometimes when you have been working at it for awhile, your eyes start to see things that aren’t really there LOL!

Making Your Own Cover Photo for Facebook

 

Open Photoshop.  I use Elements 9, but I imagine that it works the same in CS5 as well. 

Go to File and Create New and set your Width to 851 px and your Height to 315 px.  After you hit okay, it will. look like this:

Okay, so now I just added some scrapbook paper for the background.  If you don’t have scrapbooking stuff you can always use fill layers. 

To add a scrapbook paper go to File and then Place.  Search for whatever you are looking for and then add it to your screen.

Because I didn’t want to stretch it out and pixelize it, I actually duplicated the layer and put three squares across the page.

You can clone the lines together if you want to or whatever, but for this tutorial I am just going to leave them. : )

Okay, Now add whatever else you want from you scrapbooking stuff… and then we will make make the frames for your pics!

Now, Create a new layer by clicking on the piece of paper that looks like it is folded over

Now Select black as your color and Fill your new layer in with black. 

I use the cookie cutter tool to make my squares but you can use any tool that will make a square. 

Now duplicate that square to make as many as you want for pictures. I am just going to do two. 

Okay, now to add your PICTURES! 

Go to File  and then Place again and select the picture you want to put on your timeline photo. 

Okay, now the picture is over the box that I want to put it in.  I am just going to hit CTRL G to make it fit to the box. 

You will have to make it smaller if it is too big to fit in the box. Also, make sure that your picture that you want to go in the desired box is directly above that box in the layers menu before you hit CTRL G. 

 

Now do the same for the second Box and so on….

Finish it up by placing Some other embellisments on the page and some words. You can make frames by using a thick black border, scrapbook frames or just beveling and stroking them.  Save at the highest quality you can. : )

Here is my final edit:

Just a quick throw together lol, but this is the gist of it!

Simple, Effective Enhancements to Photos

Okay, so the last tutorial was about opening photos in Camera RAW and making adjustments. This one is going to continue from that one, but even if you didn’t read that tutorial you will still be able to follow along completely!!

Sometimes when you take a photo it needs a little “doctoring” to get it as perfect as you want it to be! After you have edited in Camera RAW (or not) you can then open the photo (or just open a jpeg) from Photoshop and edit it a bit more!

This picture has been edited already in Camera RAW and now I am just going to tweak it a bit more:

We are going to go up to the Tab at the top that says “ENHANCE”

You can use the auto fixes if you desire, although I find that they sometimes give you an undesirable look to your photo. If this happens you can always click “Undo”.

Right now we are going to go to “ADJUST LIGHTING” and then click on shadows/highlights

When you click on this, the photo will automatically change a bit(it evens out the shadows and highlights) …if you like the look it gave your photo click “OK”. If not, you can now adjust your sliders to create a look that you like. Play around with them and get familiar with what they do. If you don’t like it, you can always cancel and redo this step! : )

This is my photo after shadow and highlight adjustments:

I brought the “lighten shadows” back to the left a little because I like the darker shadows around her face and I also increased the mid-tone contrast a bit. I kept the “Darken highlights” right where they were as I thought the highlights were just right on this one.

Now, we are going to go back up to the “ENHANCE TAB” , back to “ADJUST LIGHTHING” and select “LEVELS”

This histogram allows you adjust how much shadow and highlights you want to bring to the photo by moving the three sliders underneath it. Again, play with the sliders and get a feel for what each of them does to the photo. If you want to start over you can press “RESET” .

I brought my shadows (the left slider) in a bit more and also brightened my highlights (the right slider) by bringing that slider in a bit also. When you are finished, hit “OKAY”.

One other thing I like to do, depending on the photo is to go back up to the Enhance Tab, back to “Adjust Lighting” and go to “Brightness/Contrast”. I sometimes increase the brightness but most of the time, I just increase the contrast a bit.

There are several other things that you can do under the enhancement tab, but if you have already adjusted these things in Camera RAW then you will not need to make these adjustments again in Elements. Play around with some of the other things in the Enhancements tab…you can always cancel and reopen your picture. : ) nothing is permanent unless you save the photo!

After these steps, I usually run an action or two over my photo to complete it! Check out the Actions Tutorial if you want to learn more about these!!

Here is a before and after with only the adjustments that I have showed you in this tutorial:

Opening RAW Files using Elements with Camera RAW

 

RAW files are a way of shooting with your DSLR Camera that will allow you to “edit” straight out of camera. They are not compressed in anyway, giving you much more versatility to fix your photos without losing detail.

Here is how you do it:

Step 1: Open Photoshop Elements

Step 2: Choose File, and then Open

Step 3: Find the folder containing the photos that you wish to open in Camera RAW

Step 4: You may select more than one, either by holding down your control button as you select photos or by clicking and dragging until all the photos are selected. Now click on “OPEN”

Step 5: Your pictures should load into Camera RAW. It should look like this:

When I am in Camera Raw, I am unable to toggle back and forth between other things on my tool bar and I am not sure why, but as you can see, there is a strip of your RAW files down the right side and whatever picture you choose will show up in the middle. Now, as I have already done my adjustments to this photo, the left side for you will probably look very similar except that your sliders may be in different positions and your White Balance will be set to “AS SHOT”. Play around with this and learn what each slider does to your photo and get your picture just the way you want. Notice that at the top, above all of the sliders, you have a histogram and a densitometer (the small R G B box to the left of your camera info). These are tools that will help you determine the correct exposure of your photos. Watch your histogram at the top as you change your sliders…unless you are on purposely trying to make this a high key image (like the photo I have on the screen), then you really want your histogram to show you good highlights(Right side) and Shadows (left side). The main thing that you want to try to avoid (unless of course you meant to do it) is to have very high peaks on either side. This means that you have loss of detail in the Shadows or the highlights. You will also notice if you run your cursor over the photo, your RGB numbers will change. If you have loss of detail in the shadows or highlights, you can run your cursor over the parts that look like they may have loss of detail and watch your densitometer: The RGB Numbers will read very high or very low. For loss of shadow detail the numbers will read 0 or close to it. For Highlights, the numbers will be close to 255. Anything over zero for shadows or under 255 for highlights, means that you still have some detail left in those places on the photo. Your numbers and your histogram will probably never really be the same for each individual photo and they shouldn’t be! These are just guidelines to help you make the best possible photo you can! : )

Here is an example of a more “even” histogram:

With the exception of the Shadows being clipped (notice how high the peak is on the left side), this photo has quite an “even” dynamic Range. The only reason it is showing clipping for the shadows is because she is wearing a black coat.

Step 6: When you have your photo(s) just the way you want them in RAW you can then select the one(s) that you want to open in Elements by holding down control and selecting the ones you want. Click on “Open Images” and they will load into Elements and close your Camera RAW window.

Notice that all of the images that I selected in Camera RAW appear in the project Bin below the Workspace Area.

Now, you can make even more adjustments to your photos if you wish! For example, you can make a few more changes by adjusting the lighting levels or the shadows and highlights or just by running an action (or two or three) over your photos! There is another tutorial that I have already posted if you would like to learn how to use actions! : ) I will get another tutorial up to help with some other simple enhancements of your photos in Elements itself soon!

Good Luck and hope this was helpful!!

Learning how to use your actions

 

Well, now that you know how to download the actions, let’s learn how to use them properly!!! First, I need you to download one more action if you have not already. This Action is Called Baby Powder Room and it is from the Coffee Shop Blog.  This action is a retouching action and it will allow you to smooth out blemishes and unwanted redness in the skin as well as give that sweet baby skin and nice soft look! You can find here:

http://www.thecoffeeshopblog.com/2009/11/coffeeshop-baby-powderroom-free-pspse.html

You will need to scroll almost all the way down the page to find the download link! If you noticed as you were scrolling along, The Coffee Shop Blog has given you word for word instructions on how to use this action as she does with many of her actions! You can use her instructions or the one’s I have written on here as well.  If you have never used a layer mask or action before you might want to follow along for a little bit longer on here just until you understand exactly what they do and then you can follow her instructions for her action if you want : )

Okay…once you have your action downloaded open up Photoshop Elements and you should find it with the rest of your actions.  Now, Open a portrait picture (the original)….something of only one person and fairly close up to make this tutorial the easiest to follow.  I have chosen to use this picture of my daughter Olivia:

This is the original straight from my camera….It was a little cloudy that day so the picture is quite dull, but we will fix that up in a bit! : ) First though we are going to make this picture perfect!

As you notice in your Layers box to the right, you will see a thumbnail of your picture labeled “Background” and just above that, you will see all of your actions.  If you do not see your actions then click on the thumbnail at the top of the box labeled photo effects:

Once you have your actions up, locate the Baby Powder Room Action and double click on it. Click Continue in the box that pops up.   You will see lots of stuff going on down in your layers box.  Let it finish and then we will work on adjusting the layers.  It should now look like this:

 

Okay, notice that in each different layer there are two boxes. The layers on the right are called Layer Masks.  Layer masks allow you to make changes to a photo without ruining them.  You can fix any mistake that you make while editing! Layer masks are “painted on” by using your paint brush tool. 

THE THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER WITH LAYER MASKS!

1. A White Layer Mask Shows that the effect has already been done to the photo and in order to remove that effect from the photo you will need to use a black brush to “mask” the effect off of the picture.  If you mess up and you take away too much of the effect, you can just switch your brush back to white and repaint the effect back over the spot you wanted to add the effect back to. 

2. A Black Layer Mask Shows that the Effect has not yet been applied and when you paint over the area with WHITE you will be ADDING the effect to the photo. The opposite applies here if you make a mistake.  Just switch your brush to black and you can brush over the area you messed up on and all will be cured!

3. MODERATION IS KEY!! Most of the time you will not paint with your brush at 100%….when retouching a photo with Layer Masks….We are going for natural not overdone.

Okay so let’s get started!

The first layer starting from the bottom is called “Red Skin Repair”.  This one is a little different than most of the layers as you will first paint on the Transparent Layer on the Left and then adjust with the Layer Mask. Let me show you what I mean:

First, Click on the box in the “Red Skin Repair” layer that looks like a million little checkered boxes. It will be the left hand box.  The checkered boxed layer represents a transparent or “see through layer” this allows you to put the effects on a separate layer instead of painting directly onto your background layer (the original photo). 

Now, I like shortcuts and so the short cut to “grab” the eyedropper tool is the letter I. Click on the “I” on your keyboard and you will notice that your tool will now look like a small eye dropper. 

This layer that we are working on reduces or removes blemishes, red spots and imperfections in the skin.  Notice that in my photo, Olivia’s cheeks are a little broke out (she has eczema). We are going to repair this!

Make sure you are still clicked on the Transparent Layer Box and that your eye dropper tool is still selected. Now, click on a part of the skin that is not effected by the imperfection. It can be easier if you zoom in a bit.

Now, Notice that the color of of your brush has now changed to some sort of shade of mauve or pink. Now, click on your brush tool or just simply click “B” for brush.  Be sure to check at the top of your screen to make sure that your regular brush is selected and not one of the effects brushes. It should look like this directly above your photo:

Now, we are going to select a different Opacity for the brush. You can find this directly above the photo. We are going to set it to about 25-50% Try it at whatever you would like…I find it best to start small and keep reapplying to the area until you have the desired affect.  I am going to start at 30%. Once you start brushing over the imperfection, as long as you keep your mouse clicked down you can go over the same spot over and over and it will not change the opacity.  However; if you let go and then click again, it will add another 30% brush stroke to the area.  This is what I meant by reapplying the area if needed.  Also, You can change the size of your brush by using the left and right brackets on your keyboard.

Okay, start going over the area….I will do one cheek and leave the other so that you can see the differences in my photo:

I ended up having to reapply 3 times in order to achieve this affect.  Now, go ahead and finish repairing the skin. MAKE SURE YOUR TRANSPARENT BOX IS STILL SELECTED!!  Here is my photo with imperfections completely repaired:

Now, the effect is pretty apparent so we are going to “tone” it down a bit. We are now going to click on the right hand box next to the Transparent box. Now, go to the top of the layers box and change the opacity of this layer mask from 100% to whatever you feel gives the photo a nice “natural” Look.  I set mine to 75%

Yay!! We just got through the first part of adjusting this action!! haahaha It seems like it takes a long time to do it now, but once you get the hang of it, it will go much faster and not all of the actions take as long as repair actions do!

Okay So let’s move up to the next layer in the Layers Box; “Smooth Skin”.  On this Layer, and all of the layers from here on out, we are going to click on the black layer mask boxes to the right.  So, go ahead and select that box. Make sure that you still have your brush tool selected and make sure that the color of your brush is white on top and black on the bottom. If they are the opposite, you can click on the little arrows next to the color squares and it will switch them around! Now we are just going to paint over the skin avoiding the eyes, nostrils and lips.  Make sure your brush is set to an opacity around 20-30%. Remember, if you make a mistake, just paint back over it with black!

Now we are going to do the same thing we did before in our layers box….we are going to adjust the smooth skin layer mask so that the opacity is maybe 70-80%.  If you feel like the effect is still too much then keep lessening the opacity until you feel it looks the best. I put mine at 71%.

Layer 3: “Lighten Skin”. You do not HAVE to do anything to this layer if you feel that the effect is just too much.  This layer will give the skin a soft look….like it has been lightly powdered.   Remember to make sure that the black layer box is selected and paint with a nice low opacity white brush. About 10-20% for this one. You can also do the same as before if you feel the effect is too much.  Simply lower the opacity of the layer mask in the layers box.  Mine is done at brush opacity of 15% and a layer mask opacity of 85%

On the skin glow do the same as the previous ones. Low opacity brush, adjust layer to liking. Mine is set at a 25% opacity brush and I left the layer mask at 100%

The next layer is the eye define. Use a small brush at about 50-100% opacity and paint over the eyelashes only. 

On the bright eyes layer, we are just going to paint the iris of the eye. Avoid the pupil and the whites of the eye.  Use a brush at about 10-20% opacity. This will give the eyes a nice bright look. Zoom in if you need to to avoid painting unwanted areas.

Viola! Your final result!!! After you have achieved the look you were aiming for, right click on the background layer in the layers box and click on flatten image.  You always want to flatten the image before you save it. I am going to go one more step and show you that after flattening or merging the layers together you can also add more actions to the photo. I said earlier that I thought my photo was a little dull, so I am going to use another action and perk it up a bit.  Once your image has been flattened, your layers box should look like this:

I am going to first “boost” my colors by using a action called “Boost” from the Pioneer Woman website that I gave you in the first tutorial.

and now I am going to flatten my image again and use an action called Creamy Toffee Latte from The Coffee Shop Blog:

I clicked on the Creamy Toffee Latte Layer and adjusted the opacity to about 70% and then I clicked on the White layer Mask below it and using a black brush at about 20% opacity, I removed the toffee effect from the eyes and lips.

Flatten your image and SAVE!!!