Shine Reduction on digital photos

[eller419]

does anyone know of a tutorial on how to reduce shine and refine skin texture?

[AngelicKim]

Diane, not sure if you are a subscriber so that you have access to the subscribers area. There are a few videos and tutorials there that are great. if not, here is something I copied from a post on correcting skin tones. I am not sure who the origianal poster was.

Hi there until you can get into the Subscriber area here is another way.

How about just better rather than perfect skin. If that will do….. here is a technique that looks complicated but is really easy once you do it a few times.

Here is a before and after to give you an idea of the results.

EDIT: the images done appeat to have posted. If you PM me your e-mail address I will send it to you.



You need to do a little work on your picture in preparation. Of course do any color correcting and cropping.

If there are severe blemishes such as pimples use the clone or healing brush tool to remove them.

Now would be a good time to tone extreme shadows or highlights such as shadows under eyes or glare on forehead.

I would save work on the eyes and lips until after the skin procedure.

It is best to leave a few slight blemishes such as molds for realism.

You may want to remove or tone down and extreme wrinkles although this procedure will do a lot of that for you.

Now the procedure;

I am starting with a flattened picture… just the background.

I click on the background layer and drag it to the “Create New Layer” icon on the option bar to make a duplicate of the background. I do it again so I now have three identical layers. I named the middle layer Combo… and the top Layer Screen. Double click on the layer name then type new name.



Click on the Screen layer and change its blendmode to screen… to find screen blendmode click on the drop down box labled Normal in the layer pallet. Move down until you see screen…select it. The screen goes very bright…don’t worry we will take care of that in a minute.

Select Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use a high setting …I used 10. Without being set to screen this much blur would have softened the picture to a blurry mess.
Adjust the layer opacity to around 60.. the opacity slider is located at the top right of the layer option pallet.

Now drag the blurred Screen layer to the “ Create New Layer Icon”… Name this new layer Multiply. Change the layer blendmode to multiply as shown below figure A.



Now we will combine the Multiply…Screen… and combo layers. If you have PE3 click on the box next to the eye it it will change to a chain link.. this means the layers are linked. If you have PE4 Ctrl click on all three layers until they are blue highlighted. With the layers linked Press Layer>Merge Linked… Now rename the new layer “Softened Layer”. To rename a layer just double click on its existing name and type a new one.

We are now going to make a clipping mask to hide the adjustment so we can paint the adjustment where needed.

Click on the background layer

Click the “ Create New Layer” icon to add a blank layer over the background but below the Softened Layer. Name it “Clipping mask”.

Click on the Softened Layer then press….. Layer>Group with Previous….. from the layer menu. The Softened Layer adjustment will now disappear, that is what we want. Your layer pallet should look as in figure B above.

VERY IMPORTANT.. click on the Clipping Mask layer.

Set foreground to black and choose a soft brush.

Wherever you paint on your face the softened layer will be displayed. I was careful not to paint the eyes…lips or any area I wanted to remain sharp.

If you paint an area by mistake just change to the eraser tool and erase the Softened Layer away.

When done your layer pallet should look something like below



It is much harder to explain then do especially because of the use of a clipping mask. Those with Grants tools could just add a mask and fill it with black to hide then paint the adjustment back in.

If your picture looks too flat or smooth you can add some grain.

Fill a blank layer at the top of the pallet with 50 Percent gray… From the main menu…Edit>Fill Layer and from the contents menu choose 50 percent gray. Change the layer blendmode to softlight in the same manner as above.

Add grain by from the Filter menu…Filter>Artistic>Film Grain… I used the settings of Grain…5 Highlight area….0 and Intensity 10… Then I applied a 0.5 gaussian blur to slightly soften the grain.

All Done..
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[bwolford]

You can try a clone brush set to darken...

Brice