help would be very much appreciated
Erich
In any case, it's impossible to give any general guidelines on this type of work. Post some examples.
2. Blur the background copy.
3. Create an inverted mask (black) so background copy is completely blocked.
4. Now carefully paint white onto background copy mask with soft brush, while viewing entire image. Very easy to soften wrinkles without looking artificial.
Richard Southworth
Pick an area of skin that is close to same color/shade as wrinkle area, but free on blemishes. Then set the brush to opacity of 40 or ? percent and clone away. When finished use the smudge tool set at 30 or so to blend in any overlaps of the clone brush circles. If a little too much set eraser tool at 20% or so and take off a little.
There is no perfect way, it is all a matter of experimentation and what methods you get comfortable with.
The latest on to use the clone tool, set to lighten.
If you haven't already, try the clone tool, set to lighten, soft-edged brush, opacity turned down to about 25%.
Don't have CS4 so I don't know if that's still an option (or even if there's room to work with in your photo).
A very basic layer and mask technique, i.e. make a copy of the background layer with an attached black mask, is a much better technique in general than using the clone tool for basic retouch. It's not that difficult or time consuming (I have an action built that creates such) and once mastered becomes the mainstay of portrait retouch. It's useful not only for softening features but for also selective sharpening, lightening, etc.
Richard Southworth
Assuming, that is, it exists in CS4 and behaves as in CS3.
Erich
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/Photoshop-Restoration-Retouching-Voices-Matter/dp/0321316274>
Here's a sample tutorial:
<http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/remove_backgrounds/index.html>
-Rilla
and copy the code for the HTML posting and paste that in a message.
The Patch Tool can be used for severe wrinkles - make a narrow selection around the wrinkle and "move" it to another smoother area on the face. The Patch Tool will generally do a good job of matching luminosity and color at the source area, unlike the clone tool.
Richard Southworth
if you are trying to make some granny that looks like a prune younger, give it up.
<http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1N0geZcpAl58qzjvWfzT68dxmMGJw>
The part picture is actually my wife. I am not trying to make her look like a spring chicken, just reduce the aging effect a little. This is what Photoshop is all about - making photos better
<http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1ApqWV8YwRKllCkSP6bPIkK6K267o>
<http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1dsHYJkJKds5xhMJZvBAHiJt9OeGw>
<http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1me0j9DypF6tnoRR67t3MqlFltqqn>
<http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1jenRp9DeKwoi6ZySC7DtplyTgkn0>
Took a few trys, but finally came up with a reasonable process:
1. Make a duplicate layer of the background, on top, disable for now.
2. Select original background and "clean" the area, in this case the neck. I used the patch tool since it retains most of the color and luminosity of the fixed area. At this point don't worry too much about realism, just get rid of the wrinkles while leaving a reasonable surface.
3. Enable the upper layer, adjust the opacity to let some of the original image thru. I found 30% worked fairly well.
Here's the after: <http://rgbaustin.com/after.jpg>
Richard Southworth