Photography Photoshop Correction for Portraits

Here is a collection of proven techniques for correcting portrait photographs using Photoshop CS5.

Let me know if the YouTube link stops working. I also have a copy of the file for reference.

Removing Red Splotches from Skin

Best to watch the video. Backup file Red Skin Correction in Photoshop (HD).mp4 made on NAS.

Removing Hot Spots

Here the the technique I have settled on.

1. Create a new layer and change mode to Darken and set opacity to ~72%
2. It is slightly modified from this video,
   
   1. Zoom in
   2. Use clone tool selecting a good area and draw on with the following clone tool settings,
      

      1. Select a brush with a soft edge effect

      2. Set mode to normal

      3. Opacity to 50%

      4. Flow default of 100% is good

      5. Current and below (for the layer selection)
   3. Trick is to use as big a brush as possible to fill the white area
   4. Don't need to be too accurate as this is layer
3. Finally copy merged to create a new layer and apply any additional effects

This is the gaussion blur technique and looks really good too. Have not yet tried it.

1. Duplicate layer
2. Filter Blur, Guassian Blur,
   
   1. Turn up radius until shiny spots disappear usually 9
3. Filter, Add Noise
   
   1. Amount between 2 and 3
   2. Guassian
4. Select Eraser,
   
   1. Turn hardness down to 0
   2. Adjust brush size as needed
5. Erase top layer where the glare exists

Here is another mask based tutorial I want to go through with a little bit more detail to see how it shows highlights better.

Skin Smoothing

Best to watch the video.