"Soft" Style Dreamy Child Portrait Edit in Photoshop | PiXimperfect

today we're gonna be talking about how to retouch photos of children the dreamy vibrant fairytale ish way and in the process we can learn little tips tricks and techniques that you can separately apply to your images and don't you have to worry because we're gonna break everything down to little simple doable easy steps and all you need is a little bit of excitement and a little bit of patience and that's all there is so without any further ado let's get started so here we on Photoshop and this photo was submitted by Katharina her work is full of drama fantasy emotions you gotta go ahead and check out her work right here alright so first of all as soon as you input the forum in Photoshop if it's a raw photo it will open up in Adobe Camera Raw if it doesn't you can always go ahead and apply the Camera Raw filter now inside of Camera Raw you can do little adjustments and I just increased the temperature and tint a little bit maybe it contrasts a little bit I already did it and the whites probably stay at zero blacks take it down and that's all that I did now once you have done those little adjustments just little adjustments click on open image not will open up as an image inside of Photoshop and once it does it gets really simple okay so the first step is if you want to have a black background you can do that as well so canvas background you can always go ahead and change the color right click in here and choose whatever color you want so the first step is getting the structure right now what do we mean by that well it's very simple think of it like creating a clay model so when you make a clay model you make the wireframe first so what is the wireframe it is the structure so things like removing the blemishes maybe removing the wrinkles softening the skin everything which is the structure do it first and then apply the colors and the filters and all that other stuff so first of all in this image if we zoom in have a look have a look at his lips I think he didn't want us for her to be taken anyway we need to take care of that so how do we do that liquify very simple go to filter and then select liquify we know we are in the background layer you must make a copy of it so how do we make a copy of it ctrl or command J you can also go ahead and convert this into a smart object if you want it to be non this truck but that's okay this is alright we can let it be destructive it kind of makes things a little slower it's a little heavier on your processor alright liquify now let's zoom in quite a bit and choose the forward warp to this is the forward warp to the shortcut which is W okay let's make this a little bigger how do we do that hold the alt or option the right mouse button and then drag it to the right to make it bigger okay to increase or decrease the pressure drag it up and down drag it up to decrease the pressure and drag it down to increase the pressure so there we are it's all ready let's zoom in quite a bit and let's make it a little smaller and nudge it slowly whatever you want to move make the brush off that size and then nudge it very slowly very slowly nudge it okay get it a little inside don't move it all at once do it very slowly here as well davia it's good to go what you can also do you can also increase the smile from Ian if you want if you're looking for something like that so select the face in this case we just have one face so it shows face hash one so you can increase the smile if you want to and liquify is completely your decision ask your client if he or she wants the liquify to be done whether it looks natural or not it's totally your artistic call ok so let's give it a little bit of smile and there we go it's pretty much good to go once you're satisfied with this hit OK and our image is ready now we need to remove the blemishes so create a new layer very simple to do also you can name this lip liquify to keep it organized alright let's name it create a new left click on the new layer button and select this to the healing brush to make sure all layers is selected and let's just zoom in and let's see if we have any blemishes okay so make the brush a little smaller let's sample it from here and just paint it over here make sure normal is selected and there we go that's all we wanted to remove okay there's some of these areas that we want to take care of ok there we go done now there's this mucous we need to remove all right so the MCUs is light so we can choose the blend mode darken and then just paint on that area so that it paints just on that bright shiny area ok that's pretty good you can also choose normal again and this edge is not really looking okay so you can just soften it out okay that looks fine have a look at the before and after so this is the before this is the after we removed some stuff and if you want to remove the lines under the eyes you can do that as well but do it in a separate layer because you might want to decrease the opacity of it okay so click on a new layer icon again make sure all less is selected and you can go ahead and remove these areas so let's take a sample from here and start painting do not remove all the lines it will look unnatural then ok that's ok from this side from that side probably this one a little bit okay there we go don't go overboard with this now once you have done it you can also go ahead and decrease the opacity to get it look more natural so keep the opacity somewhere around maybe 80 ish and that's fine now let us do a little bit of skin softening now you can also use frequency separation any technique that you like we're gonna use a quick technique right in here all you have to do hold ctrl alt shift E command option shift e this creates a new merged lab in other words this creates a merge layer of everything that you see right now in the canvas so ctrl alt shift E now change the blend mode from normal to vivid light and by the way you can also create an action for skin softening if you want to check out the video check out the video right in here and if you want the action you can check the same video and download the action for you as well alright convert that into vivid light and then invert the image how to do that press ctrl or command I now this looks strange but wait go to filter high by other and then high-pass and here's where it gets crucial okay so let's zoom in quite a bit and you need to find a radius where everything is smooth there every skin tone irregularities are softened out okay so if you keep the radius as at 0.1 we still see these patches and all the other stuff so we need to find a point for everything just merge this up and the skin tone evens out okay so for this image I think don't go too much just when everything evens out stop so 5 is not the number probably 8.5 or 9 let's stave it say eight point six is a good number to be at click OK once you're satisfied now after that go to filter blur and then Gaussian blur get the radius two all the way down to zero point one and then gradually increase it and just when you see the skin texture stop okay so you're beginning to see skin texture now once you satisfied with the value hit OK now this softens everything the whole image reaches want the softening in the skin so what do we do simple hold the alt or option and click on the mask button we're gonna hide it behind a mosque then you know what we do take the brush make sure the foreground color is white by pressing X to toggle between the foreground and the background and then decrease the brush size and then just paint in on the skin very simply okay and you can also create an action for this so you don't have to do it again and again check out the video that I recommended so there we go we are softening the skin do not go near the edges okay do not go near the edges it can get strange over there all right so there we go and this is a quick fix I have to tell you this is a quick method this is not as advanced as frequency separation so you need to be careful of that but this works in most of the images so you don't have to go ahead and apply frequency separation slowly and steadily and spend a lot of time if you don't have time this is a great way and most of the time I use it so yeah all right so that's softening is done you can also do the same softening in his arms I don't know what happened to my voice whoops see don't go near the edges it gets a little strange and that is the drawback of this method okay so so they bia it softened have a look at the before and after so this is the before this is the after you're really getting that moody look now if you think it's too much you can always go ahead and decrease the opacity of the same so let's just keep it at probably this is too much kind of you can keep it at 90 just to be good a little salient above this all right so now it looks good now we need to crop it out I think we should crop it out so press the C okay C for crop press C that's the shortcut for crop I can crop it out and you can choose front image as the original ratio and then make sure you just bring it down in the same ratio that looks good okay we're satisfied with the same now once you're satisfied hit enter but before you hit enter make sure delete cropped pixels is checked off content-aware is checked up for this image we don't need it because we are not rotating it but make sure delete cropped pixels is checked off because if you want to resize it later you won't be able to do that if this is checked on if this is checked on it will delete everything which is outside the crop you don't want that to happen hit enter and there you have it the cropped image now once that is done we have to sharpen it but we have to selectively sharpen it which means just sharpen some areas we don't want to sharpen the whole image because we want to retain that soft effect okay some areas like the eyes maybe the lips and probably the nose we will sharpen those areas so there are couple of ways of doing it you can use the high pass you can use smart sharpen lot of ways down of face I even have an action you can go ahead and check that out right here but simply you can apply smart sharpen in this one so press ctrl alt shift e command option shift e and that will create another merged layer and then what we can do go to filter sharpen and then smart sharpen you can also go ahead and convert this into a smart object but let us not make so many non-destructive layer so that it becomes slow Photoshop becomes a little slow then all right so filter sharpen smart sharpen now my technique is and this is my personal choice and this is what I do and this works for me all the time I increase the amount all the way to 500 okay all the way to 500 and then control it via opacity that's what I do so if that suits for you can do that as well and radius okay what does radius determine radius determines the thickness of the edge how thick is the edge is it one pixels is it five pixels and that's why when you increase the radius too much probably 19 something like that have a look at the preview it thinks the edges is 19.7 pixels wide and it adds that halo effect see the whole objective of sharpening the image in post is increasing the contrast around the edges if it thinks the edges are too thick it will increase the contrast and it will look a little strange so make sure you choose the right radius if it's too low it will just accentuate the noise okay so you have to find an area where the edges are nicely determined okay so for this image I think three is a good number to be yet and reduce noise leave it at ten and hit OK and there you go I know it's too much but you can always go ahead and decrease the amount and if you're not satisfied with those results you can try it lower amounts and you get the idea so here we have the sharpness has been applied but it has been applied all throughout the photo we wanted to remain in just certain areas so what we do hide it behind the mask as well hold the alter option click on the mask button take the brush make sure the foreground color is white zoom in and just paint in some areas make sure the opacity and flow is 100 so just paint on the edges of the eyes get it sharp at this point it looks strange but we're going to decrease the opacity okay that's looking good probably the nose like that and the lips maybe the edges if you want sharpness in those areas and probably the ear and as you can see it's very sharpened right now okay that looks good maybe the hands right in there make sure you sharpen just the subject just the features of the subject okay that looks good that looks interesting probably we think we should have used a lower radius but that's okay all right there we go and now once you're satisfied you can also sharpen the Hat but you don't want to take the attention from the face so make sure you don't do that okay so front of the Hat just the front and that's okay decrease the opacity of this one let's zoom in and determine which opacity would be great so I think for this one probably 45 would be a good number to be at and let's zoom out and have a look now as you can see it's been sharpened it's looking really really nice now before we move on to the next step try to have a complete look at the image and see whether there is a correction to be made for example in this image as we can see the shirt or whatever he's wearing I think it's a t-shirt it's very bright and it's taking in all the attention so we need to add a curves adjustment layer so click on the adjustment layer icon and choose curves now let's decrease the brightness of this one stick the curves a little down that's cool and take it a little down in the highlights that's okay alright now let's zoom in and just limited to this particular area okay so how do we do that it already comes with a mask so we cannot straightaway create a negative mask we have to make it negative how do we do that hold ctrl and then press I command I if it's a Mac and then take the brush foreground color white you know what to do paint on this shirt as simple as that okay just simply paint it and there you are ready with a darkened shirt now if you painted extra you know what to do press X to toggle between the foreground and the background and paint out those extra areas and there you go have a look at the before and after so before after before after see we have spilled over a little bit into his hand so we'll just paint that area with black that's okay that looks fine have a look at the before after again to see whether we have spilled or not before after that looks fine that looks interesting the area here is left remaining so he can just be in that area a little bit and that's good to go now this finishes step number one as you can see we have taken care of the structure have a look at the before and after so this is the after and this is the before this is the after you cannot see much of a difference but if we zoom in have a look so this is the after and this is the before after okay sets a starting point you can also group all these lists by holding the shift key selecting the first one and then selecting the last one just above layer 0 and press controller command G now we can name that structure okay that's cool so this makes us to the second exciting step and that is retouching the skin now you might be thinking we already soften the skin we remove the blemishes and stuff but here's the thing we haven't yet taken care of the skin tone and skin color and all that jazz so we need to take care of that how to do that it's also very simple look at the image think what you want for this image I want to increase Reds a little bit in the shadows because we want to make him a little cuter right so create a curves adjustment layer click on the adjustment layer icon and choose curves you want to increase reds in the shadows so we would choose reds and increase it in the dark areas always remember the horizontal axis it represents the brightness level on the left hand side we have the dark areas on the right hand side we have the bright area so you wanna increase reds in the shadows so we would simply increase it from here like that okay just like this a little bit and then mask in the skin press ctrl or command i selecting the mask press controller command i and then with the brush make sure the foreground color is white and then just simply paint on the skin and we can always go ahead and decrease the values if we want to so let's just do it quickly and make sure it don't paint on the eyes so paint on the eyes for now just vaguely paint on the skin and we can remove the eyes later from that okay so paint on the arms okay that's pretty okay let's take remove it from the eyes let's zoom in and press X to toggle between the foreground and the background and take it away from the eyes like that and that's pretty fine have a look at it before and after that is the before this is the after if you don't want this in this area see it's getting red so you can also paint out this area paint out some of these shadows if you don't want it alright that looks fine and I think it's too much we can also decrease the opacity if you want and we can also decrease this value from right in there so let's choose this value okay that's fine that looks fine now let's add a color to this how do we add a color we already did the tutorial on that simple create a solid color adjustment layer click on the adjustment layer icon and choose solid color and select any peachy skin tone color and we can always change it by the way because this is an adjustment layer okay so select anything like this and once you're satisfied hit OK and then change the blend mode of this one from normal to multiply and then mask in the skin we can use the same mask right in there so all we have to do hold it the alter option click on this one and drag it and paste it right in there replace layer mask yes but as you can see we didn't do a pretty good job in the previous masks so if we started with a good mask it can be applied in a lot of less so we need to take care of this we need to repair this so with the brush selected and just paint on the skin like that okay that looks good paint a little extra always and then remove it it's easier to work it that way okay so little a we has left right in there little area right in there left okay that's good now once you're satisfied with this change the color to black and then just remove the extra areas from the outside so there we go you can also go ahead and check out the mask if is anything is left so hold the alter option click on the mask see there are a couple of areas which are left so we can just paint those areas in black there we go like that and let's zoom out and have a look at some other areas are left so here are some areas which are left so make sure you always go ahead and paint in the left areas and hold the alt or option click on it again and that looks fine now all you have to do wait if we need to remove the eyes okay so just paint it black around the eyes and that's pretty much okay you don't have to be super accurate about this but that's fine now let's decrease the opacity of this one to somewhere around probably let's keep it at around 20 ish that's fine and then you can always go ahead and change the color and that's the best part about it so double click on this icon color icon and then probably you want to make it a little more reddish so we would choose hue edge and then increase a little more red into it and then saturation if you want to make it more saturated a little saturated brightness probably a little brightness okay now have a look at this before after makes a difference have a look at the difference it instantly adds mood to it so before after if you want a little more red you can just okay let's decrease the opacity to around 16 it's too much all right now you can also go ahead and add a color balance adjustment layer to add those Reds around the cheeks so click on the adjustment layer icon and choose color balance you can also do it through Camera Raw if you want to but we're gonna do it through color balance and increase revs right in there maybe it is more magenta tone and there we go press control a command-i and then take the brush make sure the foreground color is white and then zoom in and just BAM twice around the cheek make the brush a little bigger softer just BAM around the cheek once boom done on this side boom done now all we have to do remove the extra areas from in there so if you wanna see which areas have you painted in inside of a mask in an image all you have to do press the backslash key red other areas where the layer or the adjustment layer is not visible the original colored areas are the areas where it is visible so you can always go ahead and press X paint this area with black this was extra and there you go press the backward slash key again and there you have it have a look at the before and after before after that red thing it adds lot more cuteness to this guy okay so have a look at the before and after so this is the before this is the after it makes a ton of difference now it's time for us to move to the next step but before we do make a group of all of this tree how do we do that hold the shift key select the first one select the last one and then ctrl or command G and then name it skin and there we go now it's time for us to move to the third step which is also very exciting and that is retouching eyes hair or mouth if required and this is a big disclaimer only if required do it and only if retouching would improve it do it okay so in this image as we can see the eyes are a little brighter and it has a very nice color to it so we can brighten it up even more add some dimension to it so what we can do create a solid color adjustment layer click on the adjustment layer icon and choose solid color and fill it with 50% gray so we can type in red green and blue at 128 all of them at 128 or we can type in the hex code eight zero eight zero eight zero which is 50% gray or you can choose an 50% gray right from in here make sure the values are eight zero eight zero eight zero hit OK once you're satisfied and then choose color Dodge as a blend mode done as you can see the eyes have been brightened up but this also brightens up whole of the photo we don't want that to happen you know what to do right click on the mask press ctrl or command I take the brush and this time make sure the flow is at around 10% okay it's shouldn't be hundred make sure somewhere around probably eight that's fine okay now let's zoom in and have a look at the direction of light so light is coming from this direction ok this direction we need to paint in just in the opposite direction inside of the iris okay on the iris I guess doctors please help anybody studying medical this is the iris right okay so there we go that's fine okay make sure when you're brightening it the brightening doesn't happen in the edge of the iris it looks dumb it looks the dimension goes off okay so once you have done brightening probably we have right in this area also to add a little more shine to it okay once you have done it press X and make sure it's black now and just paint it away from the edge of the iris okay there we go have a look at the before and after so this is the before this is after sorry and this is the before after before after now if you think it's too much if you zoom out if you think it's too much you can also go ahead and decrease the opacity but I think this looks really wonderful we can save it at 70% and that's fine now if he had hair we would have retouched it and if it was a girl we would have loved to retouch the hair and also guy with long hair it would also do no gender bias right in there okay so you can check out this video right here on retouching hair okay I think there's a playlist okay now it's time for us to move to the next step and the next step really makes the image pop and that is taking care of the lights okay but before we do that make sure you group it in even if it's one leg controller come on G and name it eyes okay if you wanted to add a little more layers for the as you could have added inside of that and let's keep everything organized now step four taking care of lights create a curves adjustment layer and let's darken the background a little bit we want to make the subject pop so take it down like that okay that's wonderful that's looking nice and we want the subject out of this we don't want to darken the subject so what you can do you can just turn off this layer for a second and select this one the quick selection tool if you cannot see it a row right click in here and select the quick selection tool and then just simply make a selection of your subject let's have a look at the selection and let's refine it it's fine in here it's looking good right in there it's fine it's fine over there there's a little area left right in there so let's just zoom in and make the brush a little smaller and add that area that blue area there we go probably a little bit there and that's fine and this is fine this is working fine here it's fine and up and in at this point it's looking fine and that's okay you don't have to be super specific about this this is good this is not bad select these areas and then once you have done it just all you have to do turn this on select the mask and paint that area in black fill that area and black how to do it hold alt and press backspace get the shortcut s alt backspace option delete if you are using a Mac make sure black is the foreground color alt backspace and there you are but it's looking very strange right so we need to also brighten up some areas in the grass so take the brush make sure brush is bigger and softer and just paint this area of it black as well increase the flow boom probably a little bit of this area right in there have a look at the before and after so this is the before and this is the after you can also zoom in and have a look for that this has a little bit of discrepancies or not whether the edges are good or not okay there we go now it's too much of course this is too much so you're gonna click on this icon the adjustment layer icon and we're gonna increase the brightness a little bit this is too much okay that is good that is good I kind of love it now let's add a little bit of fog effect to the background create another curves adjustment layer click on the adjustment layer icon and choose curves and darken the shadows like that wow that looks wonderful doesn't it so we kind of loved it but we want to darken it even more let's come back to this curve and darken it even more now like that and decrease the fog it's too much okay that looks kind of cool have a look at the before and after so before after but I might have to decrease the opacity of this one or maybe decrease it from this side okay that looks cool and make this one a little less darker like that okay now that is cool now it's time for us to apply an overall darkness it's looking a little brighter so add another curves adjustment layer and this time make it a little just darker shadows like that I kind of love this one and probably make it a little brighter in the highlights like that you kind of love it but it's affecting the colors have a look at it it's affecting the colors of a skin so change the blend mode of this one to luminosity that way it won't affect the colors of the skin okay so we want to make it a little brighter like that that is cool and a little darker right in there and make a group of all of these three hold the ctrl or command or the shift and select the last one ctrl or command G and then name it probably lights and have a look at the before after before after and if you are satisfied with this that's okay but I think it's too dark again so I'll just brighten it up a little bit there we go like that and probably just squeeze it a little bit and there we go have a look at the before and after before after light makes it really pop out now let's move to the most important step and that is adding the colors so first of all let's go ahead and collapse this group and create a solid color adjustment layer click on the adjustment layer icon and choose solid color and choose let's use a green color probably this one and you can go always go ahead and change it and click OK and then change the blend mode to soft light how does that look overlay how does that look I don't like overlay let's move it to soft light and just paint out this subject ok just mask out the subject we don't want it to be affected on the subject just on the grass right so have a look at the before and after before after all the skin tone goes off we don't want it in the subject so we have to create a mask again we don't we already created a mask look at the lights we already have a mask so all you have to do hold the alter option click it and drag it over to this one replace layer mask yes my friend okay but we have to paint in some extra areas because that mask didn't contain these areas so we have to paint in those take the brush and just start painting in those areas with white so like that okay we might have painted a little bit extra in his shorts okay so let's zoom in let's see where we have painted extras here as you can see we can paint this area in black again yeah okay that's cool we can have a little bit of green there that was pretty cool okay let's zoom out and have a look now it's too green we have to brighten it up we have to decrease the saturation and all that stuff and we already said we can change whatever we want just double-click on the icon of the solid color adjustment layer and look at it what do you want to do you want to change the hue right so select the hue and let's change the hue make it a little more yellowish so that's fine now let's increase the brightness select the B and it's too bright that's fine this I find interesting saturation do you want it to be saturated do you want it will s saturate totally your call let's move to you again make it live more yellowish I like the green and once you're satisfied with this hit OK and there you go have a look at it before and after before after it really adds the color to it now at this point you can also go ahead and try overlay so let's try overlay hey that looks wonderful as well have a look at the before after let's make it a little more yellowish so double-click in here and if you want this kind of yellowish autumn effect you can do that as well but let's keep it green for this image totally depends upon your taste okay that's okay now if you want to increase the contrast of the color here's what you need to do add a curves adjustment layer and then shiro increase the contrast right and over there like that I kind of love it that's cool that's wonderful and then just copy the mask replace lame-ass kiss it this increases the contrast of this color okay that looks good now we have dark in the background we also want to darken this because this is getting too bright so we will go back to that lights okay so they'll go back to that lights and then let's see which one was the dark and later this one was the darker one so let's let the mask take the brush you might want to paint and white in some of these areas as well because it's getting too much brighter so you can choose the flow somewhere around 20 ish and just paint in this area with white getting too bright so you can always go ahead and control that okay there you go now let's come back to this one curves and you can control okay there we go just a little bit of it have a look before after if you think it's too much you can always go ahead and decrease the opacity of this thing okay there we go it's ready and we might want to just brighten up this particular area with white just okay it was looking a little bit synthetic alright so we are ready with this brighten up a little more probably here and brighten it up over here as well okay that's good let's darken this okay all right now here's the advantage of grouping everything up anytime you want to go back you can do that very easily okay the light was wrong let's go back to the lights and adjust that very simple to do let's come back to this color the color looks good everything looks good we can add one more extra thing you can also add a hue saturation if you want to so you can click on hue saturation and suppose let's click on this button and click on this green and then you can make it a little more this color little more awesome ish probably increase the saturation and then the lightness a little bit you can do that as well if you're looking for that kind of an effect work on it and there you go have a look at the before and after before after we can do something like this as bill if you're looking forward to do so but I don't quite quite like it have a look at it it kind of makes it a little more the effect is not good let's turn it off you don't want that to happen okay so if you won't you can do that try that as well but here's what we gonna do we're gonna add an overall saturation but if you simply just go ahead and increase the saturation for example let's reset that if we just simply increase the saturation it increases the saturation of everything it doesn't look natural so here's what we will do let's delete it and add a wine brands but why brands does is that it increases the color of the mid-tones just the mid-tones not the highlights not the shadows just the mid-tones so click on the adjustment layer and choose vibrance and let's increase the overall vibrance a little bit that looks good have a look at the before and after before after the subject has gone a little bit more vibrant so we don't want it on the subject so we will simply copy the mask hold the alt or option click on it and just drag it paste it right in there replace layer mask yes okay that's cool if you still wondering want to increase a little more saturation let's come to this one and increase it make sure it doesn't harm the image like that there you go now as we increase the saturation you see this is looking strange this flower it's just blowing off so we'll take the brush make sure we just paint that area in black just select the mask and then there you go it's done at this point if you want to add more punch to the color here's what you can do create an exposure adjustments layer click on the adjustment layer icon and choose exposure and increase the exposure just a little bit and then increase the gamma correction like that I love it have a look before after really does it you don't want to on the subject so simply copy the mask replace no more yes ok have a look before after you can also limited to particular areas just select the mask take the brush and just paint in black in the area that you don't want to begin so for example this area you don't want it to be in that area just increase the flow probably just in some areas okay it looks wonderful doesn't it so have a look at the before and after so this is the before this is the after really adds just brightens up this area looks good doesn't it now let's make a group of all of these by holding the shift-key selecting the last one in this group and pressed ctrl or command G have a look at the before and after so before after really adds that punch so name it color if you think it's too much you can decrease the overall opacity of the group so for this I think probably ninety is a good number to be at have a look at the overall before and after so this is the before this is the after and if you wanted that yellow thing because I really liked it you can just double click on it and add more yellow like that I think I like this one I think I like the yellow thing like okay okay there we go you have done it to clearly see the edges of this let's change the background of the canvas to again white so let's choose custom and that looks nice now let's move to the next step and the next step is dodging and burning what is dodging and burning quick recap dodging and burning is brightening and darkening particular areas of the image to add more dimension to it that's all there is if you want more explanation what it actually is check out the video right in there so anything which is protruding in the direction of light so in this as you can see me right now light is in that direction okay light light is coming from there so we will brighten everything which is protruding in the direction of light and everything which is away from the direction of light will darken those areas so in this image as you can see the light is coming from the right inside the right top so we will have to darken up these areas and probably if you want you can brighten up the bright areas but I don't think we'd require to do that because it's already very bright dodging and burning doesn't necessarily mean that you have to do both dodging and burning you can do just one of them so in this image I'm just gonna burn burning means darkening and dodging means frightening because the bright areas are already brighter okay so let's zoom in and create a curves adjustments lexicon the adjustment layer icon and choose curves and take it all the way down now this might sound very strange and this is something I do personally but you can do this as well take it all the way down make it totally black just like this and then select the mask press ctrl or command I take the brush make sure the foreground color is white make it smaller decrease the flow to 1% zoom in and simply darken the areas now at this point this is very dark so you might see the black and it is easy for you to identify what's happening so that's what I do it's it's easier for me to work like that so zoom in and light is coming from that direction with the dark in this direction it's too black it will get black but we'll reduce it don't worry about it but I have made it extreme because you can see what exactly is happening and that's what I personally do but if it doesn't suit you can directly choose a lower value but I like it I like to work this way you and if you want to draw straight lines you know what to do dab ones hold the shift key dab it on the other side just like that okay now once everything is done this doesn't look right I know select the curves icon okay and then curves adjustment layer icon and then just take the value to zero and then just gradually decrease it to the point where you think it's right I think this is a good value to be yet okay that's a good one before after have a look at zoom out and have a look at this so much of a dimension have a look at it before and after so this is the before this is the after if you think it's too much you can always go ahead and decrease the opacity properly I'll leave it at 70% that's good now have a look at the overall before and after so this is the before this is the after man that's the difference before after Wow once that is done we can move into the next step but before you do that not too quickly don't forget organization that is important okay control our command G even if it's one lay and name it dodging burnin and in this case it was just burning okay burnin and let's name it dodging and burning because if you want to add a dodging layer later you can add that as well just for organization purposes and burning there we go and now let's add one more step and the last step is adding external effects now this can be anything maybe adding a lightly probably adding a vignette effect and things like that so create a gradient layer click on the gradient and choose just double click on it on the left hand side choose white on the right hand side it has to be transparent so choose a preset with the left inside that the color and the right hand side transparent so in this we gonna choose white okay white hit OK and the right inside we can choose red something like this or yellowish red something like this I love it just keep it a little more okay that's cool okay in the middle also you can choose another color like yellow something like this probably something like this to the white to the Brighton side yellowish okay that's something you can do make it a little more yellow she can always go ahead and change these colors hit okay now hit okay from here and then change the style from linear to radio see this light ball all you have to do now you can move it the way you want to move it right in there and increase the scale you see the light effect isn't that wonderful so increase the scale to 50 to 40 depending upon the resolution of your image so you're gonna move it right in there that looks wonderful and once you're satisfied hit okay and then of course decrease the opacity of this one because this is obviously too much this is nice okay we might want to go ahead and double click on it and choose the color maybe the brighter one will choose a little brighter yellow that would be an apt color for this one that looks wonderful that looks nicer okay we can choose in the colors okay there we go you can make it even more brighter we can choose the hue and make it a little more brighter that way but I think this is fine okay a little more reddish okay hit okay once you're satisfied hit okay have a look before after before after you can always go ahead and move it if you want to and there we have it ready you can also add a vignette effect if you want so create a levels adjustment layer and then you know what to do take this ladder from the right to the left make it a lot darker with the brush make sure the mask is selected make the brush bigger and make it harder hold the alter option drag it down to make it hard and then just dab once okay just stab once with black make sure the whole ground color is black flow at 100% and damp once okay control the command T and then just shape the way you like it so I'm just gonna shape it light is coming from that direction so I'm gonna make it like that let's zoom out quite a bit I'm gonna right click and choose distort really give it a nice something like this that looks interesting okay now once you're satisfied with all this hit enter and then make sure the mask is selected just increase the feather to somewhere around where it looks good probably 500 and then decrease the opacity of this one that's good now let's zoom in and have a look at this so before after adds a little bit of it so it creases it quite a bit 66 70 percent that is fine now as a last touch as a finishing touch you can also add a faded effect so I think we need a little more darkness over here so as you can see we need a little more punch so we'll add a curves adjustment layer and add a little more punch like that just a little bit and use it the highlights just a tad bit this is just an added punch to the photo the overall photo now as you can see the photo really looks good at this point before after the punch now lastly I had an exposure and if you want to fade it you can also add a little bit of offset to like fade it a little bit but do it just a little bit okay so have a look before after so if you want that faded effect you can add that as well and we have our image ready I think I like it without it but it's on your turns but do not forget you have to group all of those layers organization is important okay so shift key select all of them control come on G you can name it effects or whatever you want now let's have a look at the before and after it's gonna be exciting so before after isn't this exciting so that's pretty much how you retouch photos of children in a dreamy vibrant fairytale ish way and I think it's a little more popular these days so just a quick little recap first of all and get the structure right and after you get the structure right you can take care of the skin you can take care of things like eyes and hair and hair tutorials right in there check in the description for other tutorials link tutorials and after you do that take care of the lights take care of the color take care of dodging and burning and top it off with an effect and that's all there is I hope this made sense to you did make sure to give us a like also don't forget to subscribe and not just subscribe you ring the bell so that you my friend don't miss a thing I would like to take this moment to thank all these nice people for making this episode possible and making fixing perfect free for everyone forever thank you so much guys I'll see you guys on the next one till then stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating [Music] you [Music] [Applause]

Channel: PiXimperfect

Views: 613,858

Rating: 4.9204488 out of 5

Keywords: baby photo effects, child photo editing, photoshop, adobe, retouching, portrait, outdoor, photography, piximperfect, soft edit, fairy tale editing

Id: mNPOjRkNAtE

Length: 47min 21sec (2841 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 17 2017