Adobe Photoshop Basics

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 8. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

Scroll down to begin exercise #9...

Adobe Photoshop Basics • Read This First! • Course Outline • Retouching Tools Intro • Blur, Sharpen, Smudge • Dodge, Burn, Sponge • Clone Stamp, History Brushes • Ex: 1&2 3 4&5 6&7 8 9 10

Interactive Classroom Visit the forum to post your questions and comments. -Get Help with Lesson 8

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Exercise Nine - Clone, Blur, Dodge, Burn

Practice Image: retouchpractice.jpg

Roll your mouse over this image to see the original untouched photo.

This gal has a very nice smile, but her teeth are a bit yellowed, she's got dark shadows under her eyes, a bright spot on her left temple, a white thing in her hair, and a few facial blemishes. We're going to fix all that!

Start by using the View > New View trick so you can see the image at 100% and zoom in close in another window.

The dodge tool is great for whitening teeth! For this image I set the range to midtones, the exposure to about 20% and swiped over the teeth with a small, soft brush. Instant whitening!

Now let's remove those dark shadows under her eyes.

Select the clone stamp tool, set the mode to lighten, and opacity low (about 35%). Set the source for a spot right under the shadow and blend the shadow right out. Do this under both eyes.

Switch to the blur tool, set the mode to lighten, and blend out the few dark spots on her face.

Now there's just the bright spot on her temple. We're going to try something a little different here. If you look in the channels palette and look at each color channel individually you will see that the light spot is very obvious in the green and blue channels, but not in the red channel. To fix this we are going to darken that area only in the green and blue channels.

Select the Green and Blue channels by clicking on one, then shift-clicking on the other. Then click the eyeball next to the RGB thumbnail. This allows you to edit only in blue and green, while previewing the composite RGB image.

Use the burn tool set to highlights and a very low exposure (not more than 10) to paint over the light spot. Be very careful not to overdo it.

Be sure to click on the RGB channel to go back to editing all channels when you finish.

Lastly, use the clone stamp tool set to darken to remove that white fleck from her hair next to her left ear.

It may not seem like we've made all that much difference, but if you take a snapshot and compare it to the initial untouched snapshot, you will be surprised at the difference!

Next > Exercise Ten