http://www.digitalcameraworld.com
Retouching made easy
The quick way to make a portrait shine, with Alistair Campbell
6 | LIGHTROOM1
Get rid of
blemishes
Always begin by
tidying up any spots or marks
on the skin, or stray hairs.
Click on the Spot Removal tool
icon to activate it. Now click
on the spot you want to
remove. Lightroom
automatically selects
another area of the
portrait to sample
from, healing
the blemish.2
Enhance
the eyes
Click the
Adjustment Brush panel to
create a new Adjustment
Brush, and select Iris Enhance
from the dropdown menu.
Now paint in the irises of the
model’s eyes. Press
O (the letter) on the
keyboard to see the
painted area more
easily (it appears as
a red overlay), so you
can check you haven’t
included any unwanted
parts of the image.3
Bring out
hair details
You can
now select a new
Adjustment Brush
and repeat the same
process as before.
This time, select
Clarity and paint
over the subject’s
hair. This will bring
out the midtones
and make the hair
pop a little.4
Soften
the skin
Finally, select the
Soften Skin brush to apply
the finishing touches. Some
people have great skin already,
so it may not be
needed at all. Use
your own judgment
here to achieve a
natural look that
doesn’t lose detail.
By default this brush
reduces Clarity to
-100: you may want
to pull that back
up to -50 or less.BEFORE AFTERor many photographers, the editing
tools in Lightroom are all you will
ever need. Once you have done
your basic adjustments to thecolour, exposure and contrast you can
now get to work on the finishing touches.
There are a few small changes you can
make. Each one might not make a hugedifference by itself, but together they can
subtly transform an image. Welcome to
your new portrait retouching workflow...
Model: Amber Lily PayneF
TOP TIP!
Auto Mask
If you find yourself painting
onto unwanted areas, tick
the Auto Mask box in your
brush’s settings. This should
help with going over lines
or edges on the face.Alistair^ Campbell