Paint over any visible skin, including the neck, decolletage, arms, and hands. If you paint a portion of the image by accident, you can always select Erase and fix your mistakes. In most cases, I keep Auto Mask checked this will help navigate the borders while brushing and make sure you don't accidentally smooth the hair, eyes, or clothing. I set Feather to somewhere between 20 and 30 and set Flow and Density to 100.
![lightroom 4 skin retouching lightroom 4 skin retouching](https://www.photowhoa.com/2015/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/1-min.jpg)
For skin smoothing, I prefer to adjust the brush size for different parts of the face. Just make sure all sliders are set to "0," then bring Texture to -35 and Clarity to -15 as a starting point. I use Soften Skin (Lite), but if you're missing the brush for some reason, you can create your own. Depending on your version of Lightroom, you should find brush presets called Soften Skin and/or Soften Skin (Lite). Open the adjustment brush and click on the dropdown menu. Once I think I've healed everything I need to, I'll turn the tool overlay off, so I can make sure I don't have any weird clone sources making things look wonky. With the Spot Removal Tool, I keep the tool overlay set to always while I'm working, so I can see where I've been. For instance, Tina Fey famously wrote about her displeasure with retouchers who have removed her scar in images in the past. The goal here is to avoid applying your own sense of beauty over the preference of the model. If the image you're editing is for you or a third party, use your best judgment. If the model is also the client, leave anything permanent such as scars, moles, or birthmarks, unless you've been specifically asked to fix or remove them. Zoom in to 1:1 or larger, so you can see what you're doing.įor healing, pay attention to blemishes, enlarged pores, blackheads, bumps, etc. Make sure you're set to 100% opacity with a decent feather border (something in the 30-50 range will be fine). Ideally, the tool overlay will be just a few pixels larger on each side than the blemish itself. The tool size should be dictated by the size of the blemish you're healing. Open the Spot Removal Tool and set it to Heal. I generally take sharpening down to somewhere between 10 and 20 on the slider to avoid making more work for myself.
![lightroom 4 skin retouching lightroom 4 skin retouching](https://www.photowhoa.com/2015/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Before1.jpg)
Lightroom automatically applies some sharpening on import, and sharpening will amplify those blemishes and wrinkles I just mentioned. Focusing on just the sliders, bring the image to the look and style you want. I address the overall look before retouching, because certain presets will amplify blemishes, wrinkles, skin textures, etc., and I want to get all the things to fix out in the open now.ĭo pay careful attention to sharpening. Next, make any tweaks in the various panels (adjusting white balance, exposure, contrast, sharpness, adding a vignette, etc).
![lightroom 4 skin retouching lightroom 4 skin retouching](https://creativetacos.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Free-Retouching-Mobile-Desktop-Lightroom-Preset.jpg)
For this image, I chose something with a flatter, lower contrast look. Start by opening your raw image in Lightroom and applying any desired presets to get the basic look and feel you're going for. Here are five steps to quick and easy portrait retouching in Lightroom. Lightroom's Adjustment Brush and Spot Removal Tool have improved in leaps and bounds over the past few updates, opening the door to quicker, easier portrait retouching for photographers of all editing skill levels.