Reach out and retouch someone with four irreplaceable Photoshop techniques.

Difficulty Level: Medium

What You Need:

>> Photoshop ($699.99, adobe.com)

People are among the most important and enjoyable subjects to photograph, but portraiture can also be very demanding. People get anxious about having their pictures taken and downright upset if those pictures aren’t flattering. A little Photoshop magic can alleviate a lot of that stress.

Before you even begin editing the original, you should save a new copy (File > Save As in any application). Why not just create a duplicate of the original layer, leave it untouched, and keep everything in one file? Because there are dozens of actions you can take that’ll inadvertently affect both layers—cropping, for example, crops all layers. Remember, when it comes to photo editing, irreversibility is the devil, so work with plenty of copies.

1. Easier than Peroxide

The Healing brush is a touchup artist’s bread and butter, able to eliminate everything from scars to acne to razor burn. But sometimes beautification corrections require different tools and techniques. For example, unless you’re photographing a dentist or a movie star, chances are that your subject could stand some teeth whitening.

Try this: Use Photoshop’s Lasso tool to select the teeth. Soften the edge of your selection by choose Select > Refine Edge (or Feather, in older versions of Photoshop). Choose a feathering amount, 3–6 pixels for most 8–10-megapixel images. Next, create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation). In the Hue/Saturation dialog box, whiten the teeth by lowering Saturation and boosting Brightness, relying on Saturation far more than Brightness.  Overdo the effect at this stage, then reduce the intensity of the effect later by lowering the Hue/Saturation layer’s opacity via the Opacity slider at the top of the Layers palette.

This same technique can often whiten bloodshot eyes, but usually calls for an even lighter hand. Too much and it’s easy to give someone a crazed, demon-possessed look.

Whiten teeth using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer in Photoshop.

2. Digital Powder Puff

Another common fix involves reducing shine on skin. First, use the Eyedropper tool to sample color from a nearby, nonshiny patch of skin. Then select the Brush tool, set its Master Diameter (size) to roughly half the size of the shiny section of skin using the Brush pick list from the top toolbar, and set the Hardness to zero. Also set the brush’s opacity very low, perhaps 3–5%, using the Opacity slider, also from the top toolbar.

Create a new, blank layer above the image layer (Layer > New > Layer) then brush around and over the shiny patch to begin “powder puffing,” never clicking in exactly the same spot twice. Again, feel free to be heavy handed and lower the layer’s opacity (once again using the Opacity slider at the top of the Layers palette) to reduce the intensity of the effect until it looks natural. Repeat as needed for other shiny areas of skin, using the Eyedropper Tool to sample the color from nearby, nonshiny skin.

Using Photoshop's Brush tool at very low opacity can reduce shine on skin.

3. When Autofocus Fails

With certain shots, the biggest favor you can do for a model is subduing everything around them so that they remain the center of attention. That’s one reason why shooting someone against a plain background or using a very shallow depth of field to throw the background out of focus are so common. Sometimes, however, there are still distracting details that can be played down through editing to refocus the viewers’ attention back to the model.

Focusing errors can render model’s facial features too soft. To salvage these shots create a duplicate of the image layer (Layer > Duplicate Layer). Then use the Lasso tool to select the overly sharp hair or features. Choose the Selection menu > Refine Edge (or Feather, in older versions) and feather the selection carefully—enough to blend the effect without blurring it.

Next, choose a blur filter from the Filters menu. We typically avoid Gaussian and opt for Lens Blur. As usual when applying effects, start with a heavy hand then fine-tune the effect by lowering the layer’s opacity. To soften down stray hairs, select the Blur tool from the Tool palette. Use the Brush slider on the top toolbar to reduce the size of the blur tool for the fine work of softening single hairs (6-10 pixels) and reduce its intensity (using the Strength slider, also from the top toolbar) to about 25%. Carefully drag the blur tool over the stray hairs so that they match the rest of the surrounding image.

Selectively blurring part of the image keeps the model's face the center of attention.

4. Shine That Spotlight

In other shots, the background or other surrounding image data might already be blurred but can still detract from the model because of color or brightness. In certain instances, bright backgrounds compete with the model’s face for a viewer’s attention.

To keep them the focus of the photo, create a Curves adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves), then grab the high point of the curve and drag it downward to darken the image until the overly bright background is more subdued.

From the Tool palette, choose the Oval Marquee tool and then draw a vertical oval around the model’s face. This type of effect should blend smoothly with the remainder of the image surrounding it. Choose Selection > Refine Edge and feather this selection heavily. For this 3916x2611-pixel image, we feathered by more than 100 pixels. Delete the feathered selection from the Curves adjustment layer (Edit > Clear).  With the center of the Curves layer deleted, the image layer beneath shows through at original brightness.  The Curves layer creates a soft, dark vignette around the model’s face, dampening the prominence of the background and making her stand out more. Fine-tune the darkening effect of the Curves layer by lowering its opacity using the Opacity slider at the top of the Layers palette.

Staring at any photo long enough can cause your eyes to play tricks on you, so after completing your edits, step away for a while or look at some other images, then return to your edited photo with fresh eyes. You will often find that some of your effects are too heavy-handed and need to be toned down. Remember: although your models want to look their best, they still want to look like themselves, not synthetic avatars of themselves.

A Curves layer in Photoshop can create a custom vignette to darken distracting backgrounds.