Retouching Male Portrait

The art of retouching is as old as photography itself. And like any art, it can take a fair amount of skill, dedication, and time investment to learn to do well. From learning the nuts and bolts of complex programs like Photoshop and Lightroom to developing an eye for what needs to be done and when learning from the pros can be a big help. In this post, we are gonna do retouching on a male portrait in a couple of steps. Let the fun begin.😊

Step 1

Make a copy of the layer (Ctrl + J). This part is important because we want to have a backup layer if something goes wrong.

Remove any blemishes and irregularities on the skin whit a Healing Brush. Duplicate the layer (Ctrl + J) and convert it to a smart object (right-click - convert to a smart object). Add some sharpening to the image Filter - Other  - High Pass - radius 2.9 pixels -  set the Blending Mode to Overlay.

Step 3

Add some Curve Adjustments layer, set the Blending Mode to Screen. Now we are gonna Invent the layer mask (Click Ctrl + I).

Step 4

With this Curve Adjustment layer, we want to enhance the bright parts in the eye. But remember, less is more. Take a soft brush, make sure that is set on white, adjust the size to about 8, set the opacity to about 20%, and paint the light parts of the eyes. Do both eyes. Make the opacity of the main layer at about 45%.

Step 5

Add another Curve Adjustment layer,  set the Blending Mode to Overlay, Invent the layer mask (Click Ctrl + I). Take a soft brush, make sure that is set on white, the size should be slightly bigger from the previous one, set the opacity to about 20%, and paint over the catching light source in both eyes.

Step 6

Add the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (Red -20, Yellow -22). Merge all layers using shortcuts, press and hold the SHIFT key + CTRL + ALT + E. This will make a stamp of all layers this is a non-destructive way to merge layers.

Step 7

The next step is removing bags under the eyes. Add a new layer. With the Eyedropper tool pick a bright color close to the eye bags, take a soft brush, opacity 20%, paint over the eyes bags. Make the opacity of the new layer at about 50%.

Step 8

Merge all layers using shortcuts, press and hold the SHIFT key + CTRL + ALT + E. This will make a stamp of all layers this is a non-destructive way to merge layers.

Step 9

Make 2 copies of the layer (Ctrl + J). Rename the layers in High Pass and Gaussian Blur, convert both layers in Smart Objects ( right-click - convert to smart object). Add High Pass filter to the first layer - radius 3.7 pixels, set the Blending Mode to Linear Light. To the second layer add a Gaussian Blur - radius 30 pixels.

Step 10

Select the High Pass layer and Gaussian Blur layer make a group, rename the group in beauty skin retouch, add a layer mask, and Invert the mask (Ctrl + I).

Step 11

Take a soft brush, make sure that is set on white, and paint over the face. Try to avoid painting over the eyes and mouth because we want to keep them sharp. Lower the layer opacity to at 50 %.

And that's it, folks we are done. This is my technique for retouching portraits. You can apply this technique for retouching male and female portraits. Thanks for reading the article I hope you liked it, and we’ll read on in the next one.😅😅