Paying It Forward: Scott Kelby’s 5 minute retouching

Well I decided to share what I learned after reading Scott Kelby’s Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques For Photographers using Photoshop.

First of all this is just a few of his basic steps. To know more I’d suggest you grab a copy of his book. I’m not sharing this to get credit but to praise what Scott Kelby has done.

Before I go any further I’d like to make a disclaimer of myself. I’m not a professional photographer and I have a little background when it comes to photoshop or photogarphy. Seriously!!! I’m a Merchant Mariner!!! What the heck does photography and photoshop have to do with my line of profession?!? Nada!!! But I have a passion for it. I have little education or have attended only a handful of seminars/training related to this subject (3 to be exact and almost all were free). Most of what I learned now is self-thought through the internet, Youtube (Yeah Youtube!!!) and books.

But enough of me!!! I’d just like for you guys to know my background. So pardon me if my technical terminologies or aspects may be wrong.

So where to start???

1st Step:
Analyze your Photo. As yourself this, “What do I wish were different?”
Check the Face, Eyes, Skin, Mouth and Lips, Hair, and lastly the Body.
Are there needs for improvements on them? If so, proceed...

(By the way this is just his 5 minute workflow. Basically it’s just a basic retouching enhancement you would have to do for retouching. This tutorial doesn’t cover the basic tweaks needed to enhance colors or exposure (I’ll try to make a new tutorial about this but there’s no promises). Don’t feel bad if it takes you more than 5 minutes to retouch a photo. Remember “Practice makes Perfect” and all photos are different with each other.

As you can see on our picture below, what can you notice? What needs improvements or retouching?
Hmm… the eyes need a little retouching… skin smoothening would be needed as well as removing the blemishes… some of the hairs in her shoulder and on top of her head needs fixing… well those are only the few that I noticed. I don’t know about you guys if you noticed anything else but I’m in a 5 minute window here! Hahaha!!! Moving on…





2nd Step:
Now that you have identified what needs fixing, let’s focus first with the eyes and eye socket.
- Duplicate the Background layer (Cmd+J on a Mac / Ctrl+J on a PC) and set blend mode to this layer to Screen (to make the whole image brighter).
- Add a black layer mask (to hide this brighter version)… to do this click on the add layer mask on the lower left panel and press Cmd+I on a Mac (Ctrl+I on a PC) to make the layer black.
- With your foreground color set to white, using a brush paint over the eyes and surrounding eye socket areas.
I know she looks like a Dalmatian right now but we’ll fix that later.





3rd Step:
As I said we’ll fix it later… and when I say later I mean now.
- Lower the Opacity of the screen layer to the point where your brightening matches with the rest of the face. I set mine to 20% but that will vary from photo to photo.
- Next, flatten your image. (Cmd+E / Ctrl+E)






4th Step:
- Duplicate your Backfround layer again. (Cmd+J / Ctrl+J)
- Switch to Healing Brush Tool.
o Option+Click on a Mac (Alt+Click on a PC) in a clean area beneath a wrinkle and completely remove as many wrinkles under the eye as much as possible.
- Now after spending a few minutes cleaning up the wrinkles, on your layers panel lower the opacity of this layer so just a little bit of wrinkle and darkening under the eyes, comes back for a more natural look.
(Note: Again, the opacity of the layer will vary from photo to photo but here I set it to 70%.)













5th Step:
- Flatten your layers again. (Cmd+E / Ctrl+E) and make another background layer (Cmd+J / Ctrl+J).
- Now it’s time to remove the blemishes. Using a the Healing Brush again, scan through your image for pimples and other blemishes needed removing. To use the Healing Brush, Option+Click on a Mac (Alt+Click on a PC) on an clean area near the photo. Since we’re under time pressure (5 minutes remember!) leave small and barely noticeable blemishes we’ll deal with them when we go to skin smoothening.
(Note: When it comes to moles, this is a gray area. It’s up to you as a photographer and editor to maintain it or remove. But keep in mind moles are part of us that keeps us unique.)
- After this, flatten your layers again (Cmd+E / Ctrl+E) and make another background layer (Cmd+J / Ctrl+J).
(Note: you may notice that I always make a new layer and flatten them all the time. My purpose is to save time and avoid my system from working too hard using photoshop.)








6th Step:
Now I mentioned a while ago something about her hair right? It’s better that when on a shoot if you notice that there are stray hairs on your model. So before you press the shutter, you would ask your assistant to fix them. But what if you’re in a hurry? Of course you’ll only notice this on your post production process. So this section is how to remove it.
First, there are numerous ways on how to remove unwanted things using photoshop. Brushes, Patch Tool, etc… and of course, one of my favorite is CS5’s content aware feature. But for others out there not using CS5, we’ll use clone stamp to clear those clutter.
To continue… using the Clone Stamp Tool, Option+Click (Alt+Click on a PC) on a clean space near the hair and brush away on the area needed cleaning.
(Note: Of course, this will work nicely if the background is monotone and there’s not much difference color difference in the background) <Sorry, if it’s hard to express what I meant here. Told you I’m no expert with the technicalities of photography. So I beg for your forgiveness but still hope you were able to understand my explanation.>
By the way, I skipped cleaning up the hair on her shoulders to save time.
After cleaning away the blemishes, flatten your image again (Cmd+E / Ctrl+E).








7th Step:
Now for some quickie skin softening.
- Duplicate your Background layer again (Cmd+J / Ctrl+J).
- Add a 20 pixel Gaussian Blur. (Go to Filter Menu > Blur > Gaussian Blur)
- Lower the Opacity of the layer to 50%.
- Add a Black Layer Mask to hide your blurry layer. (click on the add layer mask on the lower left panel and press Cmd+I on a Mac (Ctrl+I on a PC) to make the layer black)








8th Step:
Grab the Brush Tool and with the Foreground set to white, choose a medium-to-large-sized, soft-edged brush at 100% opacity and paint over all the skin areas, being careful to avoid the following:
Eyes, Eyebrows, Nostrils, Lips, Hair, Edges of her Face, and anything that should remain sharp.


9th Step:
Once you get it roughed out, Option+Click (Alt+Click on PC) on the Black Layer Mask thumbnail in the layers panel to exactly see areas you missed.
Continue brushing all areas you missed.
You can toggle back and forth between this mask and the full-color image by just Option+Clicking (Alt+Clicking) on the mask in the Layers Panel. That way, you can check to make sure you don’t accidentally blur over an area that should be sharp.






10th Step:
Lower the Layer’s Opacity setting from 50% to 20% to 35% or as low as you can to retain some of the smoothening and yet still see the skin texture.
Of course, this will only ballpark figure. It will again vary from photo to photo. Like in my example here I set to 40% because I feel it needs more smoothening. Heck if I can get away at 100% opacity why bother with the numbers right?
If you’re satisfied with your smoothening, flatten your image again (Cmd+E / Ctrl+E )







11th Step:
Next step is all about reduction or enhancing size (belly, bust, face, etc…) using Liquify (Filter Menu > Liquify) and using Forward Warp Tool (W). But since I believe there’s no need to alter the size of our model, I’ll skip this section to save time. (After all I believe I have more than ten minutes of your time reading my rantings! Hahaha!!! Cheers!!)

12th Step:
Now for a quick overall sharpening.
On the Channel’s Panel, keep the Red Channel On and the rest Off.
Apply an Unsharp Mask Filter (Filter Menu > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask) with the following values:
Amount: 120%
Radius: 1.0
Threshold: 3








13th Step:
Click back the RGB Channel to return to full color.
Using the Sharpen Tool paint over the eyes and your done!







Before:



After:




Parting Words:

If you think we missed some things that should be retouched-you’re right. A five minute retouch is meant to cover most important areas we could, in a really fast and efficient way. Fix what you can in five minutes and move on to the next image.
If you did this method in more than 5 minutes, don’t beat yourself!!! This is just a guide and 5 minutes is a ballpark figure. I myself did it for the first time in under an hour (you have to consider my technical abilities when it comes to photoshop!). So with constant repetition and practice maybe some day you can do it in less than 5.