Simple Photo Fixes & Touch-ups
Touch up digital photos in a few simple steps ...
Most digital-imaging software titles have similar features. I'll use Adobe
Photoshop Elements to demonstrate simple photo fixes.
Use digital fill flash
It's common to take a picture of a person against a bright background.
However, if you don't use a fill flash or specifically expose for the skin
tones, a face will turn into a silhouette.
Photoshop Elements includes a useful Fill Flash command that does a good job
of creating a digital fill flash effect, balancing the foreground with the
background.
Select Fill Flash from the Enhance menu.
Drag the Lighter slider settings until the faces look right and click OK.
It's that easy.
Remove facial blemishes
When I was a teenager, I would have given anything to have control over how
my face looked in public. Now kids can doctor their own images. Just use the
all-purpose Clone Stamp tool.
Whiten teeth
People spend a lot of money making their teeth look good. After the eyes and
the lips, teeth are probably the most noticed part of the face. You can do
someone a big favour by removing years of coffee or tobacco stains with a few
selective brush strokes. Whatever you do, don't go too far. Teeth that are
perfectly white look unnatural. There are two tools you can use.
Here's how you use the Dodge tool to whiten teeth:
Select the Dodge tool from the toolbox.
In the options bar select Midtones from the Range menu and 50 percent from
the Exposure menu.
Select an appropriate brush size.
Click and drag carefully over the parts of the teeth that you want to
whiten. Magnify your image if needed. Dodge incrementally, dragging over a
small area and then releasing the mouse button. Stop when you get the look
you want. You've gone too far if the teeth look unnatural or if you lose the
texture of the teeth.
Here's how you use the Paint Brush to whiten teeth:
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Choose a color to paint with by selecting the Eyedropper tool from the
toolbar.
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Click the lightest section of a tooth.
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Now click on the foreground color swatch in the toolbar. This opens the
Color Picker.
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Select a color that is brighter than the sampled color. The sampled color is
shown in one circle. The new, lighter selection is shown in a larger circle
that is above and to the left of the sampled color.
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Select the Paintbrush tool from the toolbar.
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Select an appropriate-size, soft-edge brush from the options bar. Set the
Mode to Lighten and Opacity to 15-20 percent.
-
Paint carefully over the teeth until you get the effect you want.
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