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Lesson Info

Live Demo: How to Approach a Retouch

the role far right. Everyone is wondering about the role file. I guess what I do with raw files is it depends on who my client is or if I have a client. If you have a client who you want, your profiles toe work for it Anyway, what you do is that you get the best dynamic arrange and a very neutral output. At least that's what I do because I have some clients who can change their minds in the middle of the whole thing. And I can be like, OK, but I blew up those highlights for you and then I have to go back or something like unmask these those things in. So what I try to do is like, I have a very good dynamic range. And nowadays, for the shop and the new, you know, like cameras are really good for that. To get a good diamond range again, neutral output like white balance wise. On stuff like that, you can modify that NATO info shop nor the best, but that works to me. The second thing is like if you're a photographer, what I would advise you to do is just to get close or you have a very pre...

planned shoot. Get as close to the end result you want to see as possible in raw. I know that some touches do this, too. I don't prefer this. I prefer the other one. Excuse me, but that's also get thing just to get as close as possible, because then you will have less to work with unless you can do less. And also, yeah, returns are very lazy. And also what you get is like the quality from the rule file. Because even though first shop and the new cameras are really good, there is always lost in quality. If you have light and something mawr, if you're not, if you have to life than to darken something, basically so here. I think I'm just going to go for a very neutral, raw conversion. It's not going to be anything fancy because it's just going to be about the process of the whole, you know, thinking about touching. As you can see, these are probably like neutral gray walls. So let's go for that. Why not? Yeah, very nice skin, actually happy with this result. Let's just open the image and get it over with. So you see, we have, like, white background because that's what I did to the whole thing. As you can see here, you can change. The custom is where you can in a stack. Custom color is where you can change it toe white because otherwise it's usually like, I think, like bluish color, the custom one. But let's go with default. Okay, so this is our file on. Yeah. Okay, so what you need to consider is how you want to guide the viewers eyes, and that's what we are going to do now. But first, let's talk about a bit about how you structure your files. You know, like how very touching wood structure something. The most important thing is just to have this nondestructive workflow where you can go back and edit things, and when you add it under a layer, it's going to show up on top without any problems. That's basically like how I can describe nondestructive editing, and to do that, you need to use these ying yang things like a called adjustment Layers is what you need to use, so use adjustment layers, almost everything for that you can use them for basically Andi. I really want to say now let's do the very great technique called frequency separation. But the thing is, don't do that. I'm here to tell your frequency. Separation has to go. It's a horrible thing. Don't don't do frequent separation doesn't have you know what frequency separation is? No Frequency separation has been like a very mainstream technique in almost like high end retouching nowadays that they are, you know, teaching to people that you need to do this and that and it sounds fancy, very fancy on what you do with it is that like you separate the frequencies of the Nimitz, you have like the texture, and you have the color of the problem is with that is that people don't do less. They don't start over as I mentioned. And what would they do is that they mess this mess, that whole thing up and they end up with a horrible image because they think that that technique is going to help them when it is no helping them, you know, So you can do everything without frequently separation. And if you did not or have not known about it, that's good. Don't look it up. It's okay. Okay. So this is this is another thing. Now what we're trying to do is that we are going to look at this image and get you know, the focus. Right now, the focus I want this image to have is like, you know, the person, the portrait. So that's what we want to achieve. Its a very natural looking photo. And the lighting is very good. So we don't have to do too much. But we can do as I said once again. And by the way, just to show you guys, this is my set up. This is it. Wow. So this is what I usually work with. This is nothing fancy. I know. It looks like very, I don't know, confusing. It's just that I have some groups and folders for everything, so I don't mess it up on. It's important how you do that on I. I think it's a class coming up while I will describe these things. So now I'm just going Teoh, just throw it out just to show, you know, like you have to have a good structure. I just have something. I throw this out groups groups, groups and then I work in those groups and I have, like, a structure. I don't confuse myself a don't confuse anyone else. Although no one else can see my PSD files apart from you guys. So we have, like, the secret society here. So thank you anyway. So what I'm going to do is what I want to achieve issue is to concentrate on this beautiful person here. And what I will do is that I would use, like, Freehand lasso tools. This is what I used each and every time. I modify like a global life, not global, but mawr global than dodge and burn look kind of lightning lighting. So I grab the lasso tool. I go. It depends on the image, but I go into your high feather so it's not going to show up on the image. It's not going to have an edge, is what's important. I have no idea how big this violence, but I think like 1/7 wow, What? I'm trying to find the zero Let's go for 71. So, anyway, um, you know, I have problems with the English keyboards. Better problem. So what I have here is 71 with a lesser tool on. I'm just going Teoh, and I'm doing it with the mouse. You know, I don't need my tablet for this. I can use it. It's so much easier. But I have my maths in my in my hand So why not use that? I'm just, you know, like very freehand. Oh, I just released this. I am exceptionally good at this, so I'm just very free hand. I'm just going to do something like this, You know, I want to bring attention to her, and through that, if I have the lasso tool, I can create an adjustment layer with the mask that is going to have the same mosque. I've just circled here, so let's go to your cards. And if you don't want to mess your image up, we don't know what you're doing. Just bring the MIT points down. But you have to keep in mind just to do less. Don't do too much because it's going to look unnatural. So if I were to do this, it's very interesting, is what I would say, You know, just do less and it's going to count. Don't worry about it. And if it's if it's no enough, you can do more later. You see Now, if you have some edges, show show up, you can just go with a very soft brush. Where is that? Yeah, we're self brush on the mask and you can just clean this up. But now let's not talk about that. Let's let's get this over with. Now the other thing I can see that Can you see? Like the arms, The arms are very, very bright compared to the face. And what I need it. I have this expression that's very nice, smiling expression. This is a portrait. Obviously the port with the face is very important. So I want to bring attention to that. So the way I will do that, it's just This is the sweater and I will. I'm trying Teoh. And you see, this is not specifics. You just have to think about what to do. Right now. I'm just circling the very highlights here. Andi. Yeah? With attendant. I could be more precise, but I'm a rebel. What can I say? So I go into cards. I never That highlights are a bit, you know, up. So I'm just you know, darkening it a bit and you can see it. This is the after and this is the before. It's not much of a change, but it's noticeable, like on a subconscious level, like you are looking at the face and not the sweater or the arms. Also with the hands, you can see that once again it's just freehand and I do this a lot. It's not. It's not just here because I want to be very quick. It's all the time, are free handing this whole thing could be It's like a key Teoh being like organic and natural and free, and I don't mean it by mouse. What I mean is like, um, you know, whatever, just don't be like a polygon. Lesser to all have done be, like, very precise with some stuff. So what I have there is once again darkened down, and as you can see, it's already showing up that it's just not that bright. Now I have the question for advertising images. When we usually have is a practice is we don't want the flash drop off to show off, show up, you know, or the natural lights that we try to even out the skin everywhere and everything everywhere, because that's just advertising. It has to be very, very clean. But with portrait, it can be like mawr on the face. So now I can consider it, like, get it down, Maura. Bits like, on the hands or or not, You know, basically on the other sweater arms. We have this highlight. You can see that. I'm just going to do it. Do Andi, just grab that and get down just a bit with it. Andi? Yeah, Also another thing. And I know this is where this is going very, very fast. I'm just trying to demonstrate the things I just talked about and how they are very efficient, you know? So now what I have here is on the right side. I'm just going to circle it. I'm not going to do that. But on the right side, you can see we have this very, very bright highlight, a picture frame around or anything. If this was a very, very serious photo, I would probably get like, a replacement for that. So I could, like, have like, another slate that I can put that in there. Like the photo of that a non reflection, active, like painting or something that was already there. But now we don't have that. So I'm just going to grab now. It's not free hand because it's like a more precise thing, but still with a feather of, let's say, five. And these are not precise numbers. You just have to fill them out a bit. What I do is just go on and, uh oh, yeah, it's going to look horrible. But what you need to do is just once again going to like cards, and then you can just get it down and the highlights two. And then what you will end up is just a very, uh, you see. So it still looks natural. I would say you don't know that anything has been done to that, but it's not. You know, it was this Bryce, right? So you have to appreciate how we can control the life thing. Like with photographers and flags. They flag some parts out of the image, what they don't want, you know, they like to show up, and now we have, like, virtual flags, and this is what we use here. Also the same thing Now what we need to consider is that we have it still Just let me switch back to the free hand. Last little. We have this shadow here, right? So to elevate that part of the face, what we need is the background to be like light. And he says, which is really good. So I don't need Teoh, you know, like dark in this spot or lights. And I think it's a good balance. What I could do. I could go in here and this but could go down a bit just to draw more attention, attention to this area which is going to draw your right to this area so I could just go again once again, curves just get it down a bit. So it's really just like playing with this whole thing. And then just really look whether you can see the edges of this, because if you can, you can blur it. You can just go into the with a brush and clean up the mosque. Just go back and forth. I can't see right now, the edges, but it might be went monitor. People are screaming at home. Well, I can see that. OK, But, you know, it's good. Now, also, another white point. I'm being very not precise right now. So again, we don't process anything anyway, again. Just just turning it down a bit. Um, yeah. And then I think the last thing that we can turn down it's just the table you need to consider. Like, can you like dark? It'll brighten it like Do you have, like, a brown table? Then it can be dark, right? A brown table could be dark. Ah, white table should not be dark. I know it's very evident, but also you have to think about these things. Like Can you do that? I can, You know, you just have to stay very natural. You have to think about the retouching as something that should not be noticed. I want this image to look like I haven't touched it. No one. You know, it's just out of camera. That's what that's the feeling that you need to get out of this. And now I'm going Teoh freehand and polygon to you. And you could do that by hitting the old key on your keyboard and then, yeah, releasing everything. Okay, so this is the table on again curves and you can see now if I drag this down, it still looks natural because just a brown table, not much reflections there is going to cause any trouble. So I'm just going to be very brave and do that. Now we can get like, back and forth, and you can see obviously we can do so much more. Its so much less. But what you can see, it's like we have the focus on that's, you know, portrait. That's our subjects. Otherwise she would she might get lost, although it's a very, very good lighting in creative life. And Victor, if folks want to continue following you after you leave creativelive, what's gonna be the best way to do that? Okay, I have a portfolio, but they that that's mostly for my clients and like my name dot com. So Victor fish don't come. Not going to work very well. Me pronouncing this you can find me on Facebook if you want. Andi, you confined on instagram Andi, I have a very new YouTube channel where I will put some vlogs up off this experience