Camera manufacturers do their darned best to create cameras that capture detail and sharpness, recording every fine line and detail that can be extracted from a scene or portrait. In many cases, this is pleasing. In the case of portraits, it can be terrifying. I swear the image of that woman’s face is downright scary in its unaltered state! Moles, wrinkles, sags, pimples, stray ingrown hairs, unexplained red spots, scabs, cakey white… well you get the picture. I have to admit that I am excited to get started on an image like this, to ”aestheticize” (verb-to depict as being pleasing or artistically beautiful; represent in an idealized or refined manner) it as soon as possible. Hurry up and FIX it! I don’t want anyone to see it, not even the person whose face it is! Does she know she has all of this on her face? I have used the ultimate tool to capture the “ultimate truth” and now the moral dilemma is, do I reveal this truth?  

How young do you want to look? I charge by the year: 5 years younger - $50, 10 years younger - $100; how much do you want to weigh? I charge by the pound: 10 pounds -$50, 30 pounds – $100. One could actually do it this way.

The age old question…to fix or not to fix.

It comes down to this:

1. I have the permission of the subject to capture a likeness using a camera.

2. As the owner and creator of the image, I have the artistic license to render the final product as I see fit.

3. The subject can accept or reject the outcome.

Simple. I don’t need anyone’s permission to create art from images. On the other hand, I am going to be smart to create an image for the subject that is exchangeable for appreciation and profit!

In the end its like riding a surf board. I have to use my skill, strength and intuition to stay on top of the board during the ride. Likewise is the relationship with the client or subject; all must be balanced so you conquer that wave and a true exchangeable product can be produced. The examples are of an image that I copied from someone else and then made art out of it.

All the railing and fits that have been thrown regarding using manipulation in photography come down to two issues in my mind: The right to freedom of expression and not committing fraud.

Fight me back on this point of view if you will. I would love to hear the counter arguements!

There is nothing quite so disconcerting as yellowish or gray teeth in your portraits! As an example you get a really good shot of your favorite “model” and when you look at the image in Photoshop you notice her teeth are a muddy white with a yellowish cast. Even if her teeth are less than perfect in real life, you can add extra snap and sparkle to the image by giving her a bright clean smile!

Open your image in Photoshop CS or Elements. I have made this simple so am not using Layers. Just make a copy of your image to work on.

In your Toolbox on the left, choose the Lasso tool. Along the top of the page you will see “feather” – set that to about 10% as it will soften the edge between the lightened teeth and the lips or gums. Now using the Lasso tool select just the teeth. There should be a “marching ants” line around them now. Work on this selection to make sure you are satisfied with it and that it covers all of the teeth, even the ones in the back.

Now you have the teeth selected, go to the top toolbar where it says “Image”. There is a pull-down menu. Select  “Adjustments” and then “Brightness/Contrast” from that menu. Use the “Brightness” slider bar to increase the lightness of the teeth to where you think they look natural, and then press “OK”. Check out the overall effect of what you have done to see if it is satisfactory.

The next step would be to de-saturate any color cast such as a yellowish or sometimes pinkish tones on the teeth. You should still have the teeth selected. Go to the “Image” tab again, click on “Adjustments” and then “Hue/Saturation”. Take the Saturation slider and move it to the left, de-saturating the color from the teeth to a more neutral gray tone. You can also use the “Hue” slider to get a more pleasing tone to your finished product. Press “OK”

A final step would be to go to the Toolbox again on the left and click on the “Dodge” tool. Set it to a soft edged brush at about 10% exposure and click on “Highlights” in the “Range” menu on the top toolbar. Gently whiten the central area of each tooth to make a realistic roundness to each tooth. This can make the teeth look more natural. The teeth are still selected so you go up to “Select” on the top toolbar and then use the “Deselect” from that pull-down menu. This will turn off the selection leaving your adjustment to the teeth still in effect. Save your file!

This small touch on just the teeth of the subject can make a major difference in the appearance of the subject and she will be much happier with the result!

In Photoshop I handled it to my satisfaction, giving the sunset back its brilliant colors and making the scene more like I remembered it.

First open the image in Photoshop. Here is the original image:

The next step is to go to the menu bar and click on “Layer”. In the pulldown box there is an option called “Duplicate Layer”. Click on that to add a layer to your image. Now that you have the layer to work on you will want to lighten up the exposure. So go up to the menu bar again and click on “Image” then click on “Adjustments” and in that pull-down menu click on “Exposure”. Slide the bar to the right a little making the image lighter. Don’t go too far or it will wash out the lighter parts of the image giving them a “blown out” appearance.  Now click OK.

Now click on “Image” and “Adjustments” again and click on the “Hue/Saturation” button. Use these sliders to brighten and saturate your colors to a more realistically lit sunset. Don’t overdo it or it looks weird and cartoonish, just work the sliders back and forth until you get the perfect colors and saturation. Now go back up to the menu bar and click on “Layers” again and scroll down to the very bottom of the menu where it says “Flatten Image” and click on it. That will flatten the image to get it ready for the next and final steps.

Make another new layer by going to the menu and clicking on “Layer” and then “Duplicate Layer” again. Now you are going to go to the menu bar and click on “Filters” and the “Blur” and then “Gaussian Blur” This step is to make sure the color noise and graininess of the image are minimized. (You often get color noise and extreme grain when taking in low light conditions) When you have the Gaussian blur option open, use the slider to take it up to about 20-25% and click ok. Don’t worry that the image now looks completely blurry!

Next go over to your layers pallette on the right side of the page and at the bottom of the pallette there is a small square icon with a round white circle in it. It is called a mask. Click on it. Adding this mask makes it possible to subtract out some of the areas that you don’t want blurred on your image.

Next is the fun part: Select your “paintbrush” tool from your tools bar on the left. Make sure the color swatches are black as foreground and white as background. (Black subtracts from the mask and white adds it back) Using the paintbrush tool and making sure the foreground color on the swatch is black, go into the image and paint BACK IN the parts of the image that you want to be sharp again. In my image I wanted the boats and harbors to have the sharp pinpoint lights and I put back as much detail with the brush as I needed to balance  and smooth out the image. Remember to click on the “Layer” tab on the top menu and scroll to the bottom to “Flatten Layers” and click on it. Then “save as” under a new name to leave unaltered your original version.

Below is my final version:

There is ONE way to brighten your sunsets! There are many others, but I wanted to give you a simple method for making ho hum into wow!

Let me know if you used it and if this helped you.

Are your photos off color? Example would be, you took a picture indoors with a tungsten light and they are all very yellow or reddish. Or you have a yellow or orange tinge to an image.  Sometimes this can be a cool effect and makes the atmosphere very warm and inviting.  But if you want to correct the color to a more real rendition of the scene, then here are a couple of  simple ways to do it.

Open the image in Photoshop. For example if the image is too red, go up to the “Image” tab. Scroll to and click on “Adjustments”.  In that pull down menu is a tab “Auto Color”. Click on it and your photo will automatically change to a more pleasing and realistic color rendition. In some cases, this does not handle the off -color cast.

The next thing to try is to go back to the “Image” tab and scroll down to the “Adjustments” tab again. Now click on the “Hue/Saturation” tab. There you will see three sliders. Take the top slider and move it back and forth until you get the color or hue that is most realistic. The second slider is “saturation”.  More saturation magnifies the colors and at a certain point they become cartoonish. Pull back from that, even past the minus saturation area if it looks better to the eye. Then slide the “lightness” tab to get the best light to show off the scene.  The main way this function will handle the bad color cast is by using the “hue” to push the image to a more pleasing and realistic color.

Example of Orange Color Cast

Image Color Cast Corrected